[MEDAL] BENJAMIN BEN ELIJAH BEER HA-ROFEC An old copy of a medal discovered in Lyon in 1656 and kept in the medal cabinet at the National Library. Bronze. Diamètre : 16,5 cm This is a copy of a mysterious medal . This medal is the oldest Hebrew medal discovered to date. It has a Hebrew text on the obverse and a Latin text on the reverse. It has given rise to many hypotheses over the centuries. Menestrier in 1696 in his history of Lyon, supposes that this medal represents King Louis the debonair and that the text in Hebrew expresses the gratitude of the Jews. But this hypothesis has been refuted since the 19th century by Jewish scholars who point out that the Hebrew text of the medal contains the name of Benjamin, son of Rabbi Eliahu Beer Ha-Roffé, in acrostic form. Some of these scholars maintain that it could be the portrait of Benjamin, others believe that Benjamin belonged to a messianic sect and that the text contains references to the false messiah Asher Lämlein. Bibliographie : Jewish Encyclopedia, Volume 2, p. 632 . Keywords : judaica, jewish, jewish, rabbis, jewish, torah, hebrew, hebraica, judaism, synagogue, zionism, pessah, pesach, haggada, haggadah, passover, menora, menorah, hannuka, hannuca, hannucca, hannuccah, torah, juden, israelite, israelite, israel, antisemitism, antisemitism, dreyfus, meguila, sepharad, sefarad, ketubah