Shabbat Lamp with Star (Judenstern) from Germany

The star-shaped lamp, called Judenstern ("Star of the Jews") in German, is a suspended oil lamp whose reservoir in the form of a star with radiating points bears several spouts and wicks. It was lit each Shabbat eve in Ashkenazi households, then raised and lowered by means of a rack-and-pinion rod allowing adjustment of its height. Cast or hammered in brass, sometimes in silver, it is one of the most characteristic types of domestic ritual lighting in the Ashkenazi world, attested from the Middle Ages to modern times. Its form echoes that of suspended Shabbat lamps from other regions, such as the Judeo-Persian star lamp.