Monday, February 19, 2007

Terumah


This week brings one of the Torah portions which is made for Judaica Journal. In Terumah, G'd commands Moses to tell the Hebrews to bring gifts- and we are not talking about some soap with a pretty bow. We are talking about gold, silver, and copper; blue, purple, and crimson yarns, fine linen, goats' hair; tanned ram skins, dolphin skins, and acacia wood; oil for lighting, spices for the anointing oil and for the aromatic incense; lapis lazuli and other stones for setting, for the ephod and for the breastpiece. G'd proceeds to give instructions for the building the Ark of the Tabernacle and all of its furnishings.




There are several references to textile material in this parsha and so this week I will explore artists who work with cloth.

Moshe Monzon, comes from a family which has lived in Israel for genrations. Artistic talent runs through his bloodline. Moshe creates tapestries. Each tapestry is entirely hand-made of synthetic materials. The felt and color fast dyes in 300 colors,are all locally produced in Israel. Employing an exclusive collage/tissage technique, the artist places individual strips of felt atop one another, by hand, processing the tapestry with a special loom.

I think the piece below, would be at home in a living room or a synagogue.

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