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Carpentras - Synagogue

City: Carpentras is a municipality in the Department of Vaucluse. It is situated in the South France, at the foot of Mount Ventoux. By the 5th century the city had already been granted permission to hold a market. This place, held by a Celtic tribe, was a trading place for cereals, goats and sheep, as well as animal skins. Carpentras was regularly used as the seat of popes who, stayed in France whilst exiled (1309-1378). Also Carpentras was an important centre for French Jews. Today 29,601 inhabitants (2010) live here.

Building: The oldest synagogue in France and one of the oldest of Europe is found here, the building goes back to 1367.

Object: On the curtain are pictured two tablets inscribed with the Ten Commandments. At first sight it looks like the Divine Name in the shape of the Tetragrammaton appears, but on closer inspection we find that it in fact 'Ha Shame' is written and that means 'The Name'. This is a reference to the name of God, but not God's Name itself.

 

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1*: Photo: Wikimedia Commons (©Konradm) / Licenses: GNU Free Documentation License and Creative Commons Attribution-Share Alike 3.0 Unported
2*: Photo: Wikimedia Commons (©Konradm) / Licenses: GNU Free Documentatione and Creative Commons Attribution-Share Alike 3.0 Unported

 

 

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