Tombstone (Worms, Rhineland)

1076/7

Photo of a severly weathered rectangular gravestone standing upright in a cemetery, with five lines of delineated Hebrew inscription on the top half.
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The gravestone of Jacob ha-baḥur (“the unmarried” or “young man”), once considered the oldest tombstone in the Jewish cemetery of Worms, Germany, dates to 1076/7. The text asks that Jacob rest with God but offers little descriptive information. The epithet ha-baḥur may have been given for one of several possible reasons. He may have died young (other medieval figures are described on their tombstones as zaken, “old”). There may have been another, older Jacob, in his family. Or he may have, unusually, died a bachelor. This epithet was used for other medieval figures as well.

Credits

Dietrich Krieger / Wikimedia, “Jüdischer Friedhof Worms-4277.” Licensed under (CC BY-SA 3.0).

Published in: The Posen Library of Jewish Culture and Civilization, vol. 3: Encountering Christianity and Islam.

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