Kabbalah and Art

Background:
Kabbalah is the various teachings dealing with Jewish mysticism, its prime source being the Sefer HaZohar, the Book of Splendor, based on the teachings of Rabbi Shimon Bar Yochoi, who lived in the First Century. The common translation of the word Kabbalah is "receiving", implying that the teachings were originally and are still best transmitted from master to disciple. Another interesting meaning from the same Hebrew root word is to "find parallels" or analogues
between the dimensions of space, time and soul.
Kabbalah and Art may seem to be contradictory, because of Judaism's long iconoclastic tradition, the only art tolerated being the artisanship of ritual objects, such as candelabra and spice boxes. However, the text of Zohar, is very stimulating visually, always enjoining the reader "to come and see" (as opposed to the Talmud, which states "it was heard") and can help the artist who studies it seriously to attain an expansive conciousness for creating inspired work.
Kabbalah, Art and Healing


In the dialogue relating to healing, art and Judaism, it is helpful to have the perspective that “illness”, particularly the whole range of mental disorders, even normal tension, is the result of a “constricted” consciousness, which is called in the Kabbalah - Mitzrayim-Egypt, connected to words in Hebrew meaning straits and limitation. The responsibility of the healer is to help deliver his patient from his mental Egypt to achieve a new and expansive vision of his life. The constricted mundane consciousness is often described in the Kabbalah as the Elo-him mode, a world ruled only by natural & rational laws. Expansive consciousness is the Yod-Hay-Vav-Hay (pronounced Ado-nai) mode, which implies the past, present and future together and is the essence of the Jewish religious faith.

The above approach, certainly in the areas of the rejuvenation of prayer and holiday observance & verbal oriented meditation, is commonly practiced in many synagogues and havurot. Our innovation is its implementation in the visual arts aligned to Judaism.

There is a saying: “you are what you eat”.  We would change it to: “you are what you hang up on your walls”. Certainly, the quality and direction of a person’s daily visual stimuli must have an influence on his/her mood and can be a springboard to profound spiritual meditation. We would argue that in the Judaic tradition, usually thought of as essentially iconoclastic, according to the misinterpretation of the percept, not to make a “graven image”, there are many areas which are especially appropriate to visual meditation and a source of inspiration for the Jewish artist.

1. The Sacred Letters or the Hebrew letters according to the scribal style that appears in the Torah scroll.

2. Meditations and Imaginings on the Jewish Star , the Tree of Life diagram of the sephirot and visions of the Third Temple and Future Jerusalem .

3. Images of the Marriage Paradigm , suggesting through abstract forms and archetypes the intimate relationship between a man and his wife, the most potent kabbalistic metaphor for spiritual connection.

4. In general, abstract art, or more precisely “gestalt” art, can be become a strong stimulant to meditation, since it invites the active participation of the viewer with the endless possibility of seeing “new things”, thus eliciting expansive consciousness.

5. The use of the Golden Section (Fibonacci series), Cubes and Supercubes, Spiral Helixes and Fractals, all of which are hinted at in Jewish philosophy and in particular the Kabbalah.


Since “seeing is believing” we invite you to test our “thesis” by viewing samples of our work at our web site. Just follow the menus:

Links to other sites on Kabbalah:

The Gal Einai Home Page

Kabbalah Index

Ascent of Safed

Kol Serach
 
 

 
 

For more information, please inquire:

Email address: vision@art.net


Telephone contact in USA: 1-718-312-8354

Telephone in Israel: 972-2-5618303 Tel/Fax: 972-2-5611411

Mailing address: POB 7143, Jerusalem Israel 91071

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