Do not make yourself a carved form or static image of
that which is in the heaven above or on the earth below or in the water beneath
the earth. (Deuteronomy 5:8)
The second of the Ten Commandments, not exclusively addressed to artists, asks us not to transform living processes into inert forms.
YHVH is a verb, not a noun.
It combines the words for was, is and will be, linking past and present
to redemptive future.
Do not freeze the process of creation and historical process
into fixed images that limit our experience of an infinite God.
A blog is an ideal Torah art form, a log of a living process
in a networked world, rather than still life entombed in a golden frame.
Sunday, 7 Av: Our
youngest grandchild, Avraham Matityahu, is playing in our living room. He is named for Mel's father and uncle.
Monday, 8 Av: Mel was
at Ariel University to send papers documenting his life to Archives of American
Art at the Smithsonian in Washington.
Tuesday, 9 Av: We
mourn the destruction of the temples in Jerusalem resulting from the lack of
love for each other despite differences.
Our family bar mitzvah: Black hatted Lubavich Hasidim dance
with Belz Hasidim with fur striemels and religious Zionists with knitted
kipot.
Wednesday, 10 Av: Every year, we light a memorial candle
honoring Mel's father, Avraham ben Mordecai, who passed away on the 10th of Av.
He always made people happy.
In his death, he extended the day of national mourning rather than
disrupt the flow of mourners' lives.
Thursday, 11 Av: It's
our granddaughter Tali's 18th birthday.
She's a counselor at Camp Ramah and will be serving in the IDF in the fall.
Friday, 12 Av: Don't
make a carved form or static image. The Jewish thing to do is make art to
eat. We made a banana cake for
Shabbat.
Miriam measured out the ingredients while Mel mashed the
bananas. Our art is a tasty version of
Internet images of the surface of Mars.
