Holy Days ark curtain & table cover

2014

COMMISSIONED FOR BETH ISRAEL CONGREGATION • OWEN SOUND ONTARIO

The “Song of Moses” (Deuteronomy 32) is in parasha Ha’azinu which is read on Shabbat Shuva, the Shabbat between Rosh Hashana and Yom Kippur.

Moses, at the end of his life, ascends Mt Nebo to look into the Promised Land, which he will not be allowed to enter. The poem warns, instructs and gives hope as the Israelites prepare for life independent from their leader. Moses assures the people of God’s ongoing love and care; and at the same time insists that their success in body and spirit will depend on their own actions and faith.

On the table runner are verses 1 and 3: “Give ear, O Heavens, let me speak;/ Let the earth hear the words I utter. . ./ For the name of the Lord I proclaim;/ Give glory to our God!”

The commission is given by a father on the occasion of his son’s Bar Mitzvah. And so on the parochet is verse 7: “Remember the days of old,/ Consider the years of ages past;/ Ask your father, he will inform you,/ Your elders, they will tell you.”

The shofar is a powerful agent of communication during the Holy Days. Its physical form – a helix – expresses the building blocks of life. This fundamental growth paradigm is reflected in the abstracted expanding coils on the parochet and table runner.