STERLING SILVER & OPAL CHAI PENDANT
CHAI - In Judaism, the Chai symbol consists of the letters of the Hebrew alphabet Het and Yod. In the Hebrew language, the word chai spelled by these two letters means "living", and is related to the word for "life", chaim, and also appears in the slogan am yisrael chai! ("The people of Israel lives!", referring to all Jews). There have been various mystical numerological beliefs about the fact that according to the system of gematria, the letters of chai add up to 18. For this reason, 18 is a lucky number in Judaism, and many Jews give gifts of money in multiples of 18 as a result.
HAMSA - An alternative Jewish name for Hamsa is the Hand of Miriam, in reference to Miriam, the sister of Moses and Aaron as well as the Hamesh Hand. It serves as an ancient talismanic way of averting and getting protection from the evil eye, or more generally of providing a "protecting hand" or "Hand of God".
