According to rabbinical sources, the ''kallal'' was a small stone

urn An urn is a vase, often with a cover, with a typically narrowed neck above a rounded body and a footed pedestal. Describing a vessel as an "urn", as opposed to a vase or other terms, generally reflects its use rather than any particular shape ...

kept in the

Tabernacle According to the Hebrew Bible, the tabernacle (), also known as the Tent of the Congregation (, also Tent of Meeting), was the portable earthly dwelling of God used by the Israelites from the Exodus until the conquest of Canaan. Moses was instru ...

and later in the Jewish temple in Jerusalem which contained the ashes of a

red heifer The red heifer () was a reddish brown Cattle, cow sacrificed by Temple priests as a ritual purification, purification ritual in biblical times. Ritual in the Torah The red heifer offering is described in Book of Numbers, Numbers 19. The Tora ...

. The Hebrew Bible does not mention any urn in the Numbers 19 account. ''Kallal'' is the

Aramaic Aramaic (; ) is a Northwest Semitic language that originated in the ancient region of Syria and quickly spread to Mesopotamia, the southern Levant, Sinai, southeastern Anatolia, and Eastern Arabia, where it has been continually written a ...

word for a stone vessel or pitcher. Alternatively, ''kallal'' is also used for large jars for washing.

Mishnah

The ''kalal'' is mentioned specifically in the

Mishnah The Mishnah or the Mishna (; , from the verb ''šānā'', "to study and review", also "secondary") is the first written collection of the Jewish oral traditions that are known as the Oral Torah. Having been collected in the 3rd century CE, it is ...

(

Parah Parah () is the name of a treatise in the Mishnah and the Tosefta, included in the order Tohorot. The Pentateuchal law ( Num. ) decrees that a red heifer, "wherein is no blemish, and upon which never came yoke," shall be burned and her ashes mix ...

3:3,

Eduyot Tractate Eduyot (Hebrew: עדויות, lit. "testimonies") is the seventh tractate in the order Nezikin of the Mishnah. When, after the destruction of the Temple, it became necessary, through the removal of R. Gamaliel II from the office of patri ...

7:5), Hebrew Rabbinic writings describe vessels hidden under the direction of

Jeremiah Jeremiah ( – ), also called Jeremias, was one of the major prophets of the Hebrew Bible. According to Jewish tradition, Jeremiah authored the Book of Jeremiah, book that bears his name, the Books of Kings, and the Book of Lamentations, with t ...

seven years prior to the destruction of

Solomon's Temple Solomon's Temple, also known as the First Temple (), was a biblical Temple in Jerusalem believed to have existed between the 10th and 6th centuries Common Era, BCE. Its description is largely based on narratives in the Hebrew Bible, in which it ...

, because the dangers of

Babylon Babylon ( ) was an ancient city located on the lower Euphrates river in southern Mesopotamia, within modern-day Hillah, Iraq, about south of modern-day Baghdad. Babylon functioned as the main cultural and political centre of the Akkadian-s ...

ian conquest were imminent. The vessels that were hidden included the

Ark of the Covenant The Ark of the Covenant, also known as the Ark of the Testimony or the Ark of God, was a religious storage chest and relic held to be the most sacred object by the Israelites. Religious tradition describes it as a wooden storage chest decorat ...

and the Tabernacle fittings, the stone tablets of Moses, the altar (with cherubim) for the daily and seasonal sacrifices, the menorah (candelabra), the ''kallal'' and numerous vessels of the priests.

Dead Sea Scrolls

Mainstream scholarship does not recognise any mention of the ''kallal'' vessels in the

Dead Sea Scrolls The Dead Sea Scrolls, also called the Qumran Caves Scrolls, are a set of List of Hebrew Bible manuscripts, ancient Jewish manuscripts from the Second Temple period (516 BCE – 70 CE). They were discovered over a period of ten years, between ...

. However Vendyl Jones of the Vendyl Jones Research Institute interpreted the

Copper Scroll The Copper Scroll ( 3Q15) is one of the Dead Sea Scrolls found in Cave 3 near Khirbet Qumran, but differs significantly from the others. Whereas the other scrolls are written on parchment or papyrus, this scroll is written on metal: copper mixed ...

in the Archaeological Museum of Jordan to contain mention of sixty-four lost objects buried in the "Cave of the Column" mentioned in the

, including a ''kallal'' buried behind a pillar, which would be a reference to the ''kallal'' of ashes in the Mishnah.''Ready to rebuild: the imminent plan to rebuild the last days Temple'' Thomas Ice, Randall Price - 1992 "The Missing Urn - About a decade ago, Vendyl Jones, a onetime Baptist minister ... Jones has been digging in what he believes is the "Cave of the Column" mentioned in the Copper Scroll. Jones died without finding such an urn, and his findings and readings of the Copper Scroll have not been accepted.

References

{{reflist Tabernacle and Temples in Jerusalem Jewish mysticism Jewish ritual objects Urns