Thanks to its use in Isaiah 56:5, the Hebrew word yad, literally “hand,” has acquired the additional meaning of “memorial.” It is thus fitting that, after her husband’s untimely death 30 years ago, Clay Barr decided to memorialize him by starting a collection of Jewish ritual items that too are known as yads. Menachem Wecker explains:
Barr, who is in her early eighties, has gifted a minimum of 150 Torah yads, or hand-shaped pointers, to the Fralin Museum of Art at the University of Virginia in Charlottesville. Torah pointers enable the reader (ba’al kri’ah) to follow along in the scroll without touching the parchment, which is religiously anathema.
For centuries, yads were made of silver and adorned with baroque embellishments. Barr’s collection includes pointers that date back some 325 years. She owns one with a ruby ring dated around 1700; an Italian pointer likely made in the 17th or 18th century; a 1789 German wood yad with three movable spheres; and an 18th-century Dutch silver one.
In addition to assembling antiques, Barr has also recruited artists to make custom items for the collection:
Her father worked in the concrete business, so Barr commissioned the Israeli designer Marit Meisler to create a cast concrete yad in 2011. Barr’s grandson made a Torah pointer out of a toilet-paper roll and a chopstick, which “has caused a sensation,” she told JNS. And she recently received a yad she commissioned out of Lego.
Read more on JNS: https://www.jns.org/judaica-collector-gives-some-pointers-to-the-university-of-virginia/