Runes might perhaps be cooler, but _this_ represents my culture.

[lethargic_man]

At my company's hack week in Cologne last summer, I saw someone wearing a T-shirt with runes on it. Cool, I thought, and briefly considered the possibility of wearing one myself before concluding it would not be reflective of my culture: none of my ancestors were rune-carving Germanics fifteen hundred years ago.

This led to a contemplation of what the equivalent would be for me. The Palaeo-Hebrew alphabet,^* I concluded, and posted about it on Facebook, concluding "I can feel a T-shirt coming on."

* The alphabet the Jews used before the Babylonian exile, where they picked up the Assyrian one they still use today.

Several months down the line, here's the result:

The script is that of the late First Temple period. I prefer that of the turn of the millennium (which you can see below, assuming it renders correctly), but I was less confident of being able to write in authentic Hebrew of that period: by the late First Temple period, a few centuries later, the language had evolved into its Biblical form. I chose to represent the text on a parchment manuscript, as this was more representative of the time than inscriptions (and even the inscriptions of the period moved away from angular forms to the more curved ones of handwriting).

I also wanted contemporary artwork to go with it, but it turns out there's just about none from that period. In the end, I went with two bullae (clay seal impressions) from the personal seals of King Hezekiah, featuring, syncretically, a winged sun with ankhs. The lower seals I'll come to below.

For the text I wanted something connecting myself, as a Jew today, with the culture of that period, and came up with the following, which I wrote into as close to Biblical Hebrew as I could get:^*

𐤅𐤉𐤄𐤉 𐤁𐤉𐤌𐤉 𐤁𐤍𐤉𐤌𐤉𐤍 𐤋𐤁𐤉𐤕 𐤀𐤁𐤅𐤕 𐤃𐤉𐤔‎𐤓𐤀𐤋𐤉 𐤔‎𐤄𐤏𐤋𐤉𐤁𐤍𐤅 𐤀𐤅𐤉𐤁𐤅 𐤁𐤁𐤉𐤕 𐤄𐤍𐤁𐤇𐤓𐤉𐤌 𐤁𐤏𐤁𐤅𐤓 𐤀𐤁𐤅𐤕𐤉𐤅 𐤄𐤉𐤄𐤅𐤃𐤉𐤌 𐤅𐤉𐤏𐤍 𐤉𐤄𐤅𐤃𐤉 𐤀𐤍𐤊𐤉 𐤅𐤉𐤄𐤉 𐤁𐤄𐤉𐤅𐤕 𐤀𐤁𐤅𐤕 𐤄𐤀𐤃𐤅𐤍 𐤄𐤊𐤁𐤅𐤃 𐤌𐤀𐤅𐤃 𐤔‎𐤄𐤌 𐤐𐤓𐤀𐤉𐤌 𐤀𐤊𐤆𐤓𐤉𐤌 𐤁𐤀𐤉 𐤋𐤀 𐤉𐤃𐤅𐤏 𐤄𐤉𐤅 𐤀𐤁𐤅𐤕𐤉 𐤊𐤄𐤍𐤉𐤌 𐤁𐤁𐤉𐤕 𐤄𐤌𐤒𐤃𐤔‎ 𐤀𐤔‎𐤓 𐤋𐤔‎𐤋𐤌𐤄׃ 𐤊𐤄 𐤀𐤌𐤓 𐤅𐤊𐤄 𐤄𐤉𐤅 𐤂𐤌 𐤀𐤁𐤅𐤕𐤉׃

𐤆𐤊𐤓 𐤉𐤌𐤅𐤕 𐤏𐤅𐤋𐤌 𐤁𐤉𐤍𐤅 𐤔‎𐤍𐤅𐤕 𐤃𐤓 𐤅𐤃𐤓 𐤔‎𐤀𐤋 𐤀𐤁𐤉𐤊 𐤅𐤉𐤂𐤃𐤊 𐤆𐤒𐤍𐤉𐤊 𐤅𐤉𐤀𐤌𐤓𐤅 𐤋𐤊׃

* The content demanded a couple of non-Biblical roots; I also chose to go for the post-Biblical word for the Temple rather than בית ה׳ so as to avoid having the Tetragrammaton on my garment. For a similar reason to this last, I chose, after discussion with my rabbi, to make the garment a sweatshirt rather than a T-shirt so I could remove it before entering the toilet, which would not be appropriate given the Toraitic quotation on it.

If there are any mistakes in my Hebrew, the chances of anyone noticing would, realistically, have been zero if I hadn't chosen to post this transliteration and translation here:

It came to pass in the days of Benjamin of the ancestral house Disraeli that his enemy* insulted him in the House of Commons on account of his Jewish ancestors. He replied, "Yes, I am a Jew, and while the ancestors of the right honourable gentleman were brutal savages in an unknown island, mine were priests in the temple of Solomon."† Thus he spoke, and so was it also with my ancestors.

ויהי בימי בנימין לבית אבות דישראלי שהעליבנו אויבו בבית הנבחרים בעבור אבותיו היהודים ויען יהודי אנכי, ויהי בהיות אבות האדון הכבוד מאוד שהם פראים אכזרים באי לא ידוע, היו אבותי כהנים בבית המקדש אשר לשלמה׃ כה אמר, וכה היו גם אבותי׃

* Daniel O'Connell, in whose defence it may be noted that he does not seem to have been an antisemite in general.

† Which has got to be one of the best put-downs of all time. I hesitated a bit about using a text that was basically a response to antisemitism, but the huge surge in antisemitism since the outbreak of the Simchat Torah War decided me on the issue.

The two lower seals show depiction of hands administering the Priestly benediction (Numbers 6:22–27), as represented on the tombstones of kohanim (the inherited Jewish priestly caste). Those that know me know that being able to continue this tradition, which has passed down through three millennia of my family to me, is important to me, and since my own shul does not carry it out, I make sure to attend one which does on at least one day of yomtovim.

Around the outside is a text from Deut. 32:7, which I found appropriate to my message:

Remember the days of old; consider the years of many generations. Ask your father, and he will show you; your elders, and they will impart it to you.

זְכֹר יְמוֹת עוֹלָם בִּינוּ שְׁנוֹת דֹּר־וָדֹר; שְׁאַל אָבִיךָ וְיַגֵּדְךָ זְקֵנֶיךָ וְיֹאמְרוּ לָךְ׃

The back of the sweatshirt reads (in German) "Runes might perhaps be cooler, but this represents my culture."

Now roll on my next T-shirt, for which I already have the idea...