Urim and Thummim
... sacred name of the God of Israel; Tetragrammaton. It’s possible that this name was inscribed on the stones or possibly just written on a piece of parchment that was kept with the stones. The true mystery is that we still don’t know exactly what Urim and Thummim were. The most common assumption is that they were two stones, one black, one white, used to answer simple yes and no questions. Another theory is that these stones were actually crystals that could glow to answer questions. The words Urim and Thummim literally mean “Lights and Perfection”. But did these items exist at all? This is another point of contention among scholars and it has a lot to do with translation. Not just about what the words mean, either. A simple “the” is what caused this controversy. The question is, do Urim and Thummim refer to the stones themselves, or do they actually refer to the action of casting lots? We may never know the answer, especially now that fanatics of ancient legends have had their say. Rabbi Geoffrey W. Dennis claims that the mystery surrounding Urim and Thummim is being tampered with by contemporary society, citing the creator of the Mormon religion as an example; “Joseph Smith claimed to have used the Urim and Thummim to read the ‘Reformed Egyptian’ language of the golden book given to him by the angel Moroni.” Rabbi Dennis goes on to expel the notion that Smith may have been privy to the mystery of these articles of divination. But Smith wasn’t the only one that brought Urim and Thummim into the modern era. They appeared in Masonic teachings as well as in an ancient Masonic legend involving the temple of Solomon. The stones are also mentioned in incredible detail in Paulo Coelho’s book, The Alchemist. And although they weren’t named specifically, Urim and Thummim were alluded to in the popular television program Lost. So basically we know that Urim and Thummim were more important than your average marbles, but that’s about it. Whatever they were and however they were used, we know that in times of gr...