When confronted with an object of artistic merit we are often unaware of all its precedents within the chain of artistic tradition, the techniques used in its design, and the meanings of which it only carries hints. Often, too, the object suggests varied and even contradictory interpretations. Sometimes it refers back to a distant legend which, in the course of time, has crystallized into a myth and given rise to an artistic tradition of its own. The legend and myth are thus sustained from place to place, from country to country and from one historical period to another.
Over the generations, Jewish ritual objects often reflected the experiences of their owners. Along with them they disappeared, and reappeared. They were influenced by their environment and the period in which they lived. They would borrow whatever they could from their surroundings, integrating alien elements into their own spirit by joining it to forms and functions appropriate to the Jewish tradition.
The power of ritual objects and the borrowings it inspired, points to their uniqueness. A ritual object is not simply an archaeological discovery, that can be copied for re-usage; nor is it a piece of folklore, or merely an aesthetic object. It is also not simply an object for anthropological research. Though we may not use it every day, it is still integral to our Jewish life style and needs.
A wide range of ritual objects exist, from the functional to the decorative. Their aesthetic value runs the gamut from cheap mass-produced items to precious artistic creations, and between the kitsch and the sublime. Ritual objects juxtapose faith and art; they are simultaneously ritual items and artistic expressions, a source for divine fear and creative inspiration.
In spite of all the many changes that have occurred to it and in it, the Jewish tradition has always required that the individual have a tangible expression of his religious faith and needs in the shape of these particular objects. Moreover, in order the better to fulfil this need, tradition encouraged artistic expression to be invested in the production of such objects. In this regard, Judaism took into consideration the cultural environment in which the Jewish people flourished at particular historical periods, and utilized these circumstances for its own purposes.
With the changes that took place in the character of ritual holy objects, there were also changes in the approach towards their design. Halacha (Jewish religious law) does not dictate specific details as to how particular objects ought to be designed; to do so would be to link them to an ideal function of their material, shape and even numerical principles in their construction. This would invest the objects with an obvious and conscious quasi-magical quality, which halacha tries to limit and even to avoid altogether. There are some basic laws and principles that are to be maintained in the design of ritual objects but halacha is open to novelty of design and technical innovation. In the Jewish tradition, ritual objects do not have an independent existence, but are rather tools by which to transmit the message and meaning of the mitzvot (divine commandments).
It is the aesthetic attributes of ritual objects, that make them collectors items. They are also expressions of a renewed national artistic identity. An aesthetic response is integral to Judaism and is well expressed in the term hiddur mitzva ("beautifying the commandment").
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Izzika Gaon, blown-glass set for Havdalah (ceremony marking the end of Sabbath), 1997
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Noga Ashkenazi, Menorah, (candelabrum) for the festival of Hanukah, 1996
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Sari Yishak Srulovitch, Hanukah Menora, 1989
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Israel Dahan and Benny Bronstein, case for holding etrog (citron) for the festival of Sukkot, 1998
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Vered Tamari-Catz, mezuzot, (containers for the scroll of the law placed within the doorpost of a Jewish home), 1992
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Zelig Segal,
"the Crown of the Law",
placed on the top of a Torah scroll, 1996
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Yaakov Greenvurcel, container for the scroll of Esther, and a rattle - both used during the festival of Purim, 1980
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We can see the design of ritual objects as a dialectic between novelty and originality as well as in varied aspects of the well-established tradition of making relicas and the reincarnations this went through over time. In design traditions we can find traces of motifs from a wide range of cultures from different epochs. We can thus delineate the development of artistic trends and styles that inspired the ritual objects and identify the origins of graphic approaches in their treatment.
It was with this approach in mind that the material was assembled for an exhibition entitled: "Continuity and Change: 92 years of Judaica at Bezalel." The exhibit was shown in May 1998, in the Jerusalem International Convention Centre, and was organized by the Bezalel Academy of Arts and Design in cooperation with the Jerusalem Municipality. It illustrated the unique nature of the design of ritual objects, in which is expressed both the content and concept that accompany the fulfillment of the religious commandment with which it is associated. The exhibit is being shown at the Eretz-Israel Museum in Tel Aviv from July 1998. From November 1998, it will be transferred to the historical building of the Bezalel Academy of Arts in Jerusalem, and will eventually travel abroad.
Retrospectively, the exhibit, which covers approximately one hundred years of creating Judaica at Bezalel, demonstrates how central the Academys teachers and students are and have been, in this area of artistic activity.
Using the approach that Judaica is an area which both preserves tradition and seeks novel ways of expressing it, the exhibition displays original works by major artists, all of them Bezalel teachers and students of different periods.
The display emphasizes the language of design that deals, on the one hand, with the functional requirements of the works, and on the other, with how each piece is unique and distinct as a ritual object in itself. In this way one can see the continuity of the principle that is integral to the very essence of creativity in Jewish thought: the contradiction, the dispute, and the polarities that emerge from the freedom of creativity that halacha allows for.
Two didactic projects that demonstrate the way recent students at the Academy cope with their subject, were also part of the exhibition.The first was the setting up of a Study Centre in Bezalels Department of Industrial Design. The subject to be examined was that of the concept of havdala (lit. "division"). The idea was to bring together the world of the Beit Midrash (study hall for Jewish texts) with that of design, so as to analyze possibilities for cross-fertilization between the inspirational material of Jewish culture and artistic creativity.
Havdala refers primarily to a divine act that defines reality in the act of creation. Later on, it was applied to a specific ritual that takes place at the end of the Sabbath. The idea of havdala is the transition from the experience of holiness the Sabbath day and the experience of the secular days of the week. This short ritual involves the senses of taste, sight, touch, smell and hearing. Through them, it distinguishes and creates borders, preparing people for the departure from the sanctity of the Sabbath day and embarking upon the demands and complexity of the secular week.
Studying at the Centre is carried out in groups of two persons or more, reading source texts from the Jewish tradition, and discussing the relevant concepts within Judaism: the creation of the world, the Sabbath and the "hidden light," Paradise, holiness and secularity, the Sabbath soul, and so on.
The project led to the presentation of "personal midrash" (interpretation), by the mainly secular students, on the concepts of havdala, between the sacred and the profane, as they relate to the students own lives. It was not an attempt to encompass the subject within closed, fixed values, but rather a wish to suggest various visual possibilities, which deal with the unclear borders of Jewish culture. The idea was that tackling these concepts is a key to creativity, discovery and novelty.
The second concept studied was: "The Menorah (candelabrum): from Ritual Object to Symbol." This was a workshop in the Department of Ceramic and Glass Design. The concept of holding a workshop that combined the reading of a text and transforming it into visual expression included the study of a selection of great literary works, among them extracts from Maimonides, Kafka, Cassirer, and Agnon, and translating them into a visual message.
In addition, discussions focused on the freedom and openness that halacha affords the artist within its framework and the status of the ritual object in Judaism. The menorah was thus viewed as a visual and value-laden image, which points to the mutual relationship between tradition and novelty. In addition, the individual personality of the student designer brought an extra dimension to the work, which revealed itself on different levels and in different ways.
Dov Bernard Hercenberg, a contemporary philosopher, in his work "Art and Judaism" aptly defines the relationship of Judaism to the artist and his work, as the mutual relationship of God as a creator and Mankind as a creator, and between creation and human art:
"For the Jewish people there is no ideal which is not for the sake of man, and there is no great work which stands on its own. In the Jewish world the artist is not a deity upon whom the focus is centered, but rather, an individual standing within the "Shadow of God."*
Translated by Mordechai Beck
* In Hebrew, Betzel-El ("in the shadow of God"), hence "Bezalel" who was the designer and artisan of the Tabernacle of the Law (see Exodus 31), from which derived the name of the Bezalel Academy of Arts and Design, founded in Jerusalem in 1906 (ed.)