Understanding the Value of Provenance

by Tammy Paynter, Washington DC (2006 Seminar)

Historical provenance

In the museum world, where I worked for many years we used the word “provenance” in reference to objects in the collection. In this context the word means “background information or point of origin.” Those of you who watch Antiques Roadshow understand that an object with provenance is often more valuable than an object without.

For example, one of the items in the Smithsonian collections is a 19th century men’s top-hat. Without provenance this hat is an example of 19th century men’s formal wear but has no great monetary value or interest to most people. With provenance, we know that this hat, this particular hat and no other was worn by President Lincoln on the night of his assassination.

There are other uses of the word provenance. In the Princeton WorldNet dictionary it is defined as a noun meaning: where something originated or was nurtured in its early existence; such as the birthplace of civilization.

When Rabbi Lehman asked Joyce and me to speak to the congregation about The Melton Program and our Summer Israel Graduate Seminar, Joyce, who is immensely modest about her own abilities and intelligence, immediately understood that what we ought to share with you was related to the enduring triangle of Jews, God and Israel and the Melton message that in order to explore these connections Jews have to study, think, remember — and struggle with our history. Or, put another way, in order to live “Jewishly” in the modern world — we need to know our provenance — we need to understand where we originated and where we were nurtured in our early existence. We need to know about the birthplace of our civilization. We need to understand our history in Israel. Without provenance, Palestine is just a hot, mostly dry and sandy spit of land. Without provenance, we would be hard put to refute the charge of European colonialism. Without provenance, Uganda would have done just as well as a place to escape anti-Semitism, perhaps better. Without provenance, the hat is just a hat.

On the other hand, with provenance, we know that Israel is the Jewish homeland. With provenance, we know that our roots in the land go back millennia. With provenance we are “indigenous” people. With provenance we know that the land of Israel birthed the Jews, and it is not mere geography — it is, to quote our Melton educator, a theography, a magic land, the Rock of our Foundation.

During the latter half of our Israel seminar we were sent out in small groups to talk with “the man or woman” on the street and to ask them a number of questions mostly about how they felt about Israel. At one point during the exercise I engaged in conversation with some Modern Orthodox young women at a bus stop. One of them related a midrash to me. She said that God watches over the entire world. But outside Israel, God’s angels do the heavy lifting. In Israel, and only in Israel, God is directly present. In Israel, there is no separation between God, Jews and Land. For her, to be a Jew in Israel was to be in a Holy land — a theography.

Our time in Israel was spent in many places and in each place we studied, explored and struggled:

• In Jerusalem, the implications inherent in the physical location of the city of Jerusalem halfway between the Temple Mount and the Valley of Gehenom. Halfway between heaven and hell.

• At the Dead Sea, the apocalyptic messianic beliefs of the people of Qumran and the paths those beliefs took in Judaism and Christianity.

• In Tel Aviv, the vision of the founding fathers and mothers of Tel Aviv and the uniquely Jewish memorial at Kirkar Rabin, where the name of the murderer is obliterated and the name of the martyr honored.

• In Jerusalem again – encounters with Jews of all stripes, the wonderful experience of a Jerusalem Sabbath.

• In Caesarea, how did Jews come to terms with survival and real Jewish growth under non-Jewish rule, in non-Jewish cities?

• In Tsafat, Jewish “rational” mysticism and Judaism without Jerusalem.

• In the Golan Heights and the Galilee, where did Jews live between the fall of Jerusalem and today? And where in Palestine do Jews belong today?

• In Efrat and the Territories, questions of land for peace?

In conclusion, consider a single pebble. Without provenance, it’s a rock. I’m sure that there are geologists among us who could tell us a lot by looking at it. I cannot. But I can tell you that on the last day of our seminar, during a visit to Mt. Herzl and the National Military Cemetery our teacher picked up a bunch of pebbles and gave each of us one of them. After we had our rocks, he told us to take them as symbols of our connection to Israel so that we would have a piece to take with us and an object to help us remember. I am not a sentimental person and I considered quietly dropping it. For some reason, I hung on and carried it in my bag all the way home. Without provenance, it’s just extra weight in my luggage. With provenance it’s magic. It’s a part of Jerusalem. It’s a part of Israel. It’s a piece of theography, a piece of the Jewish Homeland.