Book of the People
The Jewish people are known as The People of the Book. The Book is the Holy Torah, and from the time it was given to the Jews, the People have been engaged in studying its meaning. The sages teach that if, Heaven forbid, a moment occurred where there was no Jew anywhere in the world learning words of Torah, the world would cease to exist.
Moses descended from Mt. Sinai with the two Tablets on which were etched the Ten Commandments. The Rabbis teach that actually, the words were carved with fire and no matter which side of the Tablets you gazed at, you could read the words. When Moses discovered the people were worshipping the golden calf in his absence, he smashed the first set of Tablets, but the letters of the Torah flew back to Heaven.
Before the Second Temple in Jerusalem was destroyed and the Jewish People utterly conquered and driven from their capital, the Roman emperor Hadrian martyred ten rabbis. The murders were cruel and grotesque by all standards. Rabbi Haninah ben Teradion was wrapped in a Torah scroll and burned alive. Damp wool was packed into his chest to ensure he would not die quickly. While he was burning he cried out to his disciples that he could see the letters of the sacred Torah flying up to Heaven.
A rabbi once asked why so many indigenous cultures were decimated when Europeans came and conquered the “New World.” Why could not these native peoples, like the Jews, survive intact without a country? It is true that the Land of Israel is the nation of the Jewish People, and Jerusalem is the Jewish capital. However, the Holy Torah is the true homeland. Torah is the landscape upon and in which the Jewish people live. Because of devotion to and study of Torah, the Jews have survived in the Diaspora for over two thousand years as an intact people, in spite of the horrors of the countless persecutions, Inquisition, and Holocaust. Without the homeland that is the Torah, the Jewish People would have ceased to exist as a recognizable and distinct people millennium ago.
The sages teach that every letter of Torah is infused with significance and that there are 70 facets to Torah – like a brilliant diamond, each facet reveals a new Truth and draws the Jew closer to G-d.
Rabbi Dov Ber, the Maggid of Mezritch, writes: “It is known in Kabbalistic literature that the letters of the Aleph-Beis (Hebrew alphabet) were created first of all. Thereafter, by use of the letters, the Holy One, Blessed is He, created all the worlds.”
These ideas and concepts are the subject of this photographic project. Those who read Hebrew may have to look beyond language to find the meaning in these images.
Moses descended from Mt. Sinai with the two Tablets on which were etched the Ten Commandments. The Rabbis teach that actually, the words were carved with fire and no matter which side of the Tablets you gazed at, you could read the words. When Moses discovered the people were worshipping the golden calf in his absence, he smashed the first set of Tablets, but the letters of the Torah flew back to Heaven.
Before the Second Temple in Jerusalem was destroyed and the Jewish People utterly conquered and driven from their capital, the Roman emperor Hadrian martyred ten rabbis. The murders were cruel and grotesque by all standards. Rabbi Haninah ben Teradion was wrapped in a Torah scroll and burned alive. Damp wool was packed into his chest to ensure he would not die quickly. While he was burning he cried out to his disciples that he could see the letters of the sacred Torah flying up to Heaven.
A rabbi once asked why so many indigenous cultures were decimated when Europeans came and conquered the “New World.” Why could not these native peoples, like the Jews, survive intact without a country? It is true that the Land of Israel is the nation of the Jewish People, and Jerusalem is the Jewish capital. However, the Holy Torah is the true homeland. Torah is the landscape upon and in which the Jewish people live. Because of devotion to and study of Torah, the Jews have survived in the Diaspora for over two thousand years as an intact people, in spite of the horrors of the countless persecutions, Inquisition, and Holocaust. Without the homeland that is the Torah, the Jewish People would have ceased to exist as a recognizable and distinct people millennium ago.
The sages teach that every letter of Torah is infused with significance and that there are 70 facets to Torah – like a brilliant diamond, each facet reveals a new Truth and draws the Jew closer to G-d.
Rabbi Dov Ber, the Maggid of Mezritch, writes: “It is known in Kabbalistic literature that the letters of the Aleph-Beis (Hebrew alphabet) were created first of all. Thereafter, by use of the letters, the Holy One, Blessed is He, created all the worlds.”
These ideas and concepts are the subject of this photographic project. Those who read Hebrew may have to look beyond language to find the meaning in these images.
