A seventeenth century BCE cuneiform tabelt was excavated from Tell Umar near the Tigris River near ancient Babylon on which is inscribed the oldest dated written record related to the art of glassmaking. Although the site was located in an area then under the control of the King of Ashur, the text was written by a priest of Marduk at Babylon. The Tell Umar tabelt was written in the Akkadian vernacular. This clay tablet (at the British Museum) bears the formulate fo ra glass frit and for glass. The word for glass, is zuka(k)-i. This is the earliest known appearance of a wrod which defines manufactured glass as a palpable substance distinct from all others. The word derives from the Akkadian zaku which means "be clear."
- The Glassmakers: An Odyssey of the Jews, by Samuel Kurinsky
(א) כלי זכוכית, פשוטיהן טהורין, ומקבליהן טמאים.נשברו, טהרו.חזר ועשה מהן כלים, מקבלין טמאה מכאן ולהבא.הטבלא והאסקוטלא של זכוכית, טהורין.אם יש להן לזבז, טמאים.שולי קערה ושולי אסקוטלא של זכוכית שהתקינן לתשמיש, טהורין.קרטסן או שפן בשופין, טמאין.
(1) Glass vessels--those that are flat are pure and those that have receptacles are susceptible. After they are broken they become clean. If he again made vessels of them they become susceptible to uncleanness from that point and onward. A glass tray or a flat dish is pure. If it has a rim it is susceptible. The concave bottom of a glass bowl or plate which he adapted for use is pure. If he polished it or scraped it with a file it becomes susceptible to uncleanness.
From HADRIAN AUGUSTUS TO SERVIANUS THE CONSUL: Greetings - The Jews in Alexandria are prosperous, rich and fruitful, and in it no one is idle. Some are blowers of glass, others make paper, all are at least weavers of linen or seem to belong to one craft or another; the lame have their occupations, the wounded have theirs, the blind have theirs, and not even those whose hands are crippled are idle.
- from Hadrian Augustus, in a vituperative critique of the Alexandrian Jews, having conquered the once Ptolemaic city...
Both the glassmakers of Judah and Alexandria, the major producers and exporters of glass and glassware of the Roman Imperial period have been identified by Roman emperors as being Jews. Augustus (27 BCE to 14 CE) was not happy with his tribute from that part of the world and most likely ordered Alexandrian artisans to brought to Rome to establish the art....7 million Jews throughout the empire some bring their art with them to all corners of the Roman Empire over time.
The Romans did more for the glassblower than just provide roads and ships; they created stable trade routes, appreciated and paid for the best artistry, provided the luxury market with what it wanted and the ordinary market with what it needed.
Phoebe Phillips, The Encyclopedia of Glass
It's a kal v'chomer - (if this/than for sure that! even the more so....) - If, with a glass vessel that is (merely) filled with the breath of human creator [with the advent of tube-based glassblowing technology] there is a way to fix them (make a repair), then even the more so with a human being into whom breath is infused by the Divine!
History of the Jews
According to a chronicle the most ancient Jews in the Rhine district are said to have been the descendants of the legionnaires who wook part in the destruction of the Temple. From the vast horde of Jewish prisoners, the Vangioni had chosen the most beautiful women, had brought them back to their stations on the shores of the Rhine and the Main...These children of Jewish and Germanic parents were brought up by their mothers in the Jewish faith, their fathers not troubling about them. It is these children who are said to have been the founders of the first Jewish communities between Worms and Mayence. It is certain that a Jewish congregation existed in the Roman colony, the city of Cologne, long before Christianity had been raised to power by Constantine.
- Heinrich Graetz, History of the Jews, vol. III, 1967
(כו) כלי זכוכית אפילו מכניסן לקיום ואפילו משתמש בהן בחמין אין צריכים שום הכשר שאינם בולעים ובשטיפה בעלמא סגי להו. הגה: ויש מחמירין ואומרים דכלי זכוכית אפילו הגעלה לא מהני להו וכן המנהג באשכנז ובמדינות אלו (סמ''ג ואגור). וכן כלי כסף שיש בתוכן התוך זכוכית שקורין גישמעלצ''ט אין להגעילו אבל מבחוץ אינו מזיק (תרומת הדשן סימן קל''ב):