The Oil Lamp of Uri and Uriah

For his birthday, Uri asks to be taken to the dig where his father, an archaeologist, works. Uri dreams of discovering treasure, but his father is a little skeptical. The two work together, side by side. The father digs, and Uri removes the dirt with a little brush. All of a sudden, Uri sees something peeking out of the ground. “Uri, you have found a treasure,” says the father. “You have found an ancient oil lamp from the time of Bar Kochba!” It was a special kind of oil lamp, decorated with an image of the menorah that stood in the Temple in Jerusalem. The father asks Uri to close his eyes, and he tells him the story of the oil lamp, and as if by magic Uri imagines that he is back in the times of the Bar Kochba revolt against the Roman Empire, almost two thousand years ago. Then, a boy by the name of Uriah lived in the house where Uri and his father were working. Uriah’s father was a potter who made oil lamps out of clay. One day, a messenger came from Bar Kochba and gave Uriah’s father a mold of the menorah. The father made lamps for all the village and the light that they gave out at night united the villagers, made them strong and gave them hope. “I saw it all,” says Uri when his father has finished telling the story, and he insists that he even met Bar Kochba, who had come mounted on a lion and had asked him to ride along with him all over the land.

“If you rode a lion thanks to the little lamp,” says his father with a smile, “you must really believe now that you found a treasure.”