What does this piece of jewelry say?

Question

A classmate showed me a pendant that she recently acquired. It was described to her as representing some sort of blessing for marriage. None of the people who looked at it could figure out what the text might mean; speculation included unknown abbreviations or that this might have (abbreviations of) specific people's names. (Though it appears to be cast or molded, not engraved.)

Here are photos of the front and back. What (if anything) does it say/mean?

side 1

side 2

I was torn between making the images large enough to be clearly visible and small enough to not be burdensome. I will not object if somebody wants to shrink them; I'm not the best person to judge whether an image is legible, I'm afraid, so I went big on the theory that shrinking is easier. — Monica Cellio, Jun 19 '14 at 02:39
Just found this: http://deadseaclub.ecrater.com/p/14891437/kabbalah-shin-alef-hey-pendant The obverse says "cosmic match." The three letters on the reverse are apparently some sort of kabbalistic thing of which I'm unaware. There's a lot on the Internet associating this trio with finding one's soul mate, in many cases sounding uncomfortably like a magic charm. I have no idea to what degree any of it is based on actual Judaism. — Isaac Moses, Jun 19 '14 at 02:41
One word is זיווג like the word זוג "pair". זיווג is a pairing such as that of two spouses. — Double AA, Jun 19 '14 at 02:45
@MonicaCellio Doubling the vav is a modern Hebrew orthographic convention to indicate a consonant. — Double AA, Jun 19 '14 at 02:52
Related amulets/talismans listed for sale here, here, and here. — Fred, Jun 19 '14 at 03:03

score 7 · Answer 1 · answered Jun 19 '14 at 02:45

7

It means "cosmic match" and does not have any religious meaning (as the word "cosmic," as it is transliterated there, does not originate in hebrew).

answered Jun 19 '14 at 02:45

Y e z

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Oh I see Isaac beat me to it in the comments. – Y e z Jun 19 '14 at 02:46
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I'd've answered, but I can't verify that my answer would have anything to do with Judaism. – Isaac Moses Jun 19 '14 at 02:47
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I didn't even try sounding it out to test for transliterated English, oops. (I just tried to parse it as Hebrew, and failed.) Any idea about the three letters on the other side? – Monica Cellio Jun 19 '14 at 02:49
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@MonicaCellio Lots of stuff out there. It all looks kinda ... out there. – Isaac Moses Jun 19 '14 at 02:59
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@MonicaCellio, seems to stand for שובנו אלקי הסליחות. Still not sure if that has any real meaning beyond salesmanship by amulet makers. If I had to guess ... – Yishai Jun 19 '14 at 03:26
@MonicaCellio I tried to parse it as Hebrew too. The closest I got was "Splintery match" with an elongated yud.
Yishai, I don't know what it means but I often see it on the oversized amulets often hung over the amud in synagogues.
– Yitzchak Jun 19 '14 at 16:25

score 7 · Answer 2 · edited Jun 19 '14 at 15:44

7

The 3 letters on the back are one of G-d's 72 names derived from Shemot 14:19-21. See here.

You can find websites online that connect each of the 72 names to different things, but I have no idea if that is authentic Kabbala or new-age mumbo jumbo.

This was discussed somewhere else on this site, but I can't find it right now.

edited Jun 19 '14 at 15:44

msh210

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answered Jun 19 '14 at 06:25

Menachem

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Yeyasher kochacha for providing an accessible, authoritative source for that which can be sourced and carefully parsing between that and the aspect you're unsure of. – Isaac Moses Jun 19 '14 at 15:13
See Rashi to Talmud sukkah 45A for a mention of the 72 names as well: http://rayanotyaakov.files.wordpress.com/2013/10/5765-sukkot-1.pdf – Menachem Jun 19 '14 at 18:36

What does this piece of jewelry say?

2 Answers2