“Layers of light” torah case

2007

COLLABORATION WITH DOROTHY ROSS

Torah is light. Torah’s words are eternal. And so the Torah itself is an eternal light.

The layers surrounding the scroll progressively dematerialize to wrap it in radiance (Psalm 104:2). The klaf is partially seen through an embroidered scrim layer on which the atzei hayyim, having transformed into olive trees, direct us visually upward to the amber glass drops and outward to the seven lavishly beaded posts.

This structure illustrates Zechariah’s dream (shown in the lower right image) that at the end of the Babylonian exile the lights of the Temple’s menorah would be rekindled with oil oozing from two olive trees into a seven-spouted vessel.

The top stratum, the physical neir tamid (eternal light) consists of points of light sparkling continuously through the drops around the the crown.  They symbolize that each Pintele Yid is illuminated is illuminated by both Torah Orah and God’s spirit.

The Eternal Light can be powered by a small built-in solar panel or recharged electrically. This portable ark is for sale; Torah scroll is excluded.