Image Details

CC0 1.0; COURTESY OF BAYERISCHE STAATSBIBLIOTHEK

VANISHED VESSELS. An obscure Hebrew treatise called Massekhet Kelim (Treatise of the Vessels) claims the precious implements of Solomon’s Temple were not returned to Jerusalem but rather stayed in Babylonia. While its origins are unclear, the text was first printed in 1648 by the German kabbalist Naphtali ben Jacob Elhanan Bacharach in his famous book Sefer Emeq ha-Melekh (The King’s Valley; see title page here). A slightly different version of the treatise allegedly survived on two stone tablets that were partially published in 1959 but are now considered lost.