We can see an oval shaped dish. On the dish, we can see a boy lying down on an altar with a man about to strike him. We can also see an angel and a donkey.

Look closely, what can you see?

This object is a dish which was most likely used in the ceremony of Pidyon Ha’ben (the Redemption of the First Born). A pidyon haben, or “redemption of the [firstborn] son,” is a ceremony wherein the father of a firstborn male redeems his son by giving five silver coins to a kohen(a priestly descendent of Aaron), thirty days after the baby’s birth.

The dish is decorated with the biblical story of the Sacrifice of Isaac. God tells Abraham that he must sacrifice his son Isaac to God. The image captures the moment when the messenger of God stops Abraham from killing his son.

Can you see the ram in the right hand corner of object? This ram will be sacrificed instead of Isaac.

Look at the border of the plate, it is decorated with the signs of the Zodiac.

We might wonder who the two men depicted on the far left of the plate are? We might also wonder what material the plate is made of?

What do you wonder?

Object Number: C 1999.2.41

Name: Silver Gilt Pidyon ha’ben dish

Materials: silver gilt

Date: 1837

Artist/Maker (if known):

Size (cm): height: 30 cm, width: 22.5 cm, depth: 6 cm

The Story: 

Isaac is the son of Abraham and Sarah, and later is the father of Jacob. His name means: ‘He who laughs,’ referring to the story when three angels visited Abraham and Sarah and told them that they would have a child. Sarah laughed since she was past the age of childbearing. However, God showed them that his promises always come true and one year later Sarah gave birth to Isaac. Abraham was a hundred years old, when Isaac was born.

The Binding of Isaac, also known as Akedah or Aqedah, is the story where God tells Abraham to offer his son as sacrifice. Abraham built a sacrificial altar on mount Moriah and bound Isaac to it, ready to be sacrificed. However, at the last minute a messenger of God stops Abraham from killing his son. When Abraham looked up, he saw a ram provided by God to sacrifice instead of his son.  This story demonstrates Abraham’s loyalty to God that he was willing to sacrifice his son to show his faith. Only after Abraham proved he was faithful to God, did God stop him from killing his son and offered a ram in his place.

When Isaac was 40 years old he married a woman named Rebekah. Rebekah could not give birth to children, so Isaac prayed to God and she finally conceived. Rebekah gave birth to twin boys, Jacob and Esau. Isaac was 60 years old when his children were born. When Isaac was older he went blind. He sent his favourite and oldest son, Esau to go hunting to receive his blessing. While Esau was away hunting, Jacob, took his mother’s advice and tricked his blind father into thinking he was Esau.  So Jacob ended up getting the blessing. Isaac died at the age of 180 and was buried by his two sons in Hebron.