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632 Beer, Benjamin Beer, Berthold

may

represent the year (1503) in which the legend Zunz believed that there was no connection between the figure and the legZunz's end that Benjamin was interested in View. astrology, and that believing he had discovered the date of the coming of the Messiah, he engraved it on the medal. L. Loewe, in " Memoir on the Lamlein Medal ("Numismatic Chronicle," 1857, vol. xix.), goes still further. He expresses the opinion that Benjamin was an adherent of the pseudo-Messiah Asher Liim-

was

written.



lein,

who

632

THE JEWISH ENCYCLOPEDIA

lived at that time,

and that the words 'pK

are an abbreviation of 'DIT HliT fbvyb X'X Asher Lamlein, the Roman Jew "). The first eight of the eighteen letters with which the legend concludes he believed to be the initials of Job xix. 25 (A. v.) Dip -toy by rnnxi ti "6x1:1 tivt which is thus rendered by Loewe " I knew it, my Redeemer 'Dl") ("

11

1

'm



been paid to the reverse of the medal, which serves It bears to explain both the legend and the head. the same head as the obverse, with the exception that in the former the head is turned to the left and has no laurel wreath, while rays diverge from the

The features are represented indistinctly in top. order to picture the darkness out of which light is beginning to dawn. Benjamin, who probably was an artist, symbolized by this medal Judaism, past,

and

present,

future.

The following

are interpretations of the legend,

according to Zunz, Loewe, Geiger, and the present writer

Zunz



praised be all

By the decree of the divine Disposer, He by the mercy of the Eternal, whilst

"

!

judgment ceases and the image

hold

Thy

light at the time

perishes, I be-

when redemption

take place, and I reflect on the providence of

will

my

The Lamlein Medal. (From "Zeit. der Beutachen Morgenl.-Gesellschaft.")

on earth will confirm it. " The other are abbreviations of ^0^3 rQTD "H"" ''E'JJD

O Romans, guard their trace Thus I shall waiting for Thy deliverance, O God, al-

]iveth ; the last

God.

letters

rejoice,

dvi ti bvb r6nni rat? lti:j; nnsTOD vot? 'i p " The work of my hand, the writing of Benjamin, the son of R. Shabbethai of the Anavim family. Praise and glory I render to the living and everlasting

God

!

According to Geiger, the figure represents Benjamin himself, and the legend expresses his belief in the immortality of the soul.

Loewe and

to

the

As

eighteen letters, Geiger ex-

Geiger on plains the first eight as Loewe did, and the Medal, in the remainder he finds the initials of Job xiv. 13, 'JJDVn ^lKBO jrp 'O "Oh, 'rami pin 6 ireri ibn aits' iy

wrm

keep me secret until thy that thou wouldest wrath be past, that thou wouldest appoint me a set " time, and remember me But this interpretation also is forced, and it is impossible that Benjamin should have represented his own head with a laurel wreath. No attention has !

!

mighty Ordainer and Forgiver."

Loewe

the decree of Him who is the blessed be He By His eternal will. When all justice ceased and consideration failed, I beheld the length of that period reaching the appointed end of exile [and no redemption had yet taken place] but, reflecting on the ways of Providence as by Eli Romi, [I perceived] that he caused the spiritual traces of them yet to remain, and I rejoiced, I fully hope, in the redemption, O eternal, omnipotent God, who art great and forgiving! " Ij.

Guide



"

By

[of the Universe]

,

!



Geiger: "By the decree of the Guide, who is is, above the mutability of of the Eternal even when the

above volition (that changing resolutions)



process of the divestiture of forms ceases (the change of forms which are withdrawn from matter through airooTeprioLg, in order to make place for others), I saw a fixed term for the time (the temporal) when the