Passover:
Detailed Description

This painting seeks to portray the transcendent meaning of Passover based on visually and textually interweaving parallel and seemingly discordant themes from the multiple Torah, Haftorah and Hagadda sources read and studied throughout the week of Passover. The result is a message of creation, rebirth, redemption and resurrection guided by divine providence. The two major pictorial/textual themes from which all subthemes emanate are the splitting of the Red Sea (Exodus, 13), and the Valley of the Dry Bones (Ezekiel, 37). This fusion theme is based on the dual meaning of the Hebrew root word “bekah”. At the very top of the painting the sentence begins with the words “Vayivaku hamayim”, the water split (the Red Sea) and concludes with the words from Ezekiel “and it was filled with many dry bones”. Ezekiel discusses being placed in a “bekah”, a “valley”. The dual definition of “bekah” meaning “valley” or “splitting” is the textual and visual inspiration of fusing the “Exodus” and the “Valley of dry bones” stories. In the background of the painting we see the water walls of the split dead sea. Once split the valley of dry bones is exposed. In Ezekiel G-d brings the bones together, and resurrects them by breathing into them his divine breath, a coalescence of the four winds/ spirits, (arbah ruchot) from the four corners of the world (arba kanfot). The theme of “techiyat hamatim” (revival of the dead), the divine re-creation of man out of bones and spirit evoke the images of primordial genesis (creation- ex- nihilo) and also of the Holocaust. The lower portion of the painting portrays the dried dead skeletons and body parts spewed out from crematoria and mass graves which form a triangulated interwoven mass of corpses, which when strung together (bone to bone) recreates and resurrects the biological family unit; a man, a woman and child. The child is a symbol of renewal (‘ot’, inscribed between the infant’s legs). Within this context, the commandments of tefillin (phylacteries) and tzitzis (fringes on four cornered garments) as daily physical reminders of the miracle of the Exodus now take on a more profound meaning. The tefillin are wrapped around the man’s arm and head symbolizing the orthopedic binding together of his skull and bones, his daily physical resurrection from sleep. Sleep is considered by Maimonedes to be a partial death .The seven wraps around the arm symbolizes the act of creation (seven days), or its corollary, revival (re-crreation) of the dead. Written on tefillin of the arm are the words from Ezekiel “and the bones came nearer, bone on bone, and alas there were tendons and muscles, and I breathed into these corpses, and they lived”. The letters “Aleph” and “Sof” are written on the tefillin of the head, an abbreviation for “Ein Sof” , meaning “no end” , “infinity”, i.e. the kabbalistic name of G-d. The tzitzith, the fringes on a four cornered garment, which are supposed to be blue (Techelet), symbolize the spiritual resurrection of man by infusion of the four winds of G-d, the divine spark, the same Ruach Elokim (spirit of G-d) which was breathed into Adam, and the same spirit which can resurrect the dead. The names of the four winds portrayed in the painting are based on yet another Haftorah read on the last day of Passover from Isaiah 20. Isaiah describes the Messiah of a future Passover upon whom will rest four spirits; “Ruach hashem” (the spirit of good), “Ruach chocma and binah”, (the spirit of wisdom and understanding), “Ruach eitzah ugevura”, (the spirit of good consul and might), and “Ruach daas veyerat hashem”, (the spirit of knowledge and fear of G-d}. Clearly the number four takes on importance and in the Haggada is symbolized by the four questions, the four cups of wine, the four sons, and of course the four letters of G-d, the tetragrammaton. Four fish riding the waves of the split read Sea symbolize the theme of four in this painting. They need to wear Tefillin to be resuscitated while remaining suspended on dry land.

Emphasizing the medicinal recuperative nature of the reawakening of the dead on Passover is another quotation from Ezekiel, which is written vertically on the parted waters, on each side, “And I will place the spirit in you, and I will place you on your own soil, because I am your G-d, your physician,”

Another word, which ties in the themes of genesis, reawakening of the dead, and the Exodus, is “etzem” (“bone”). Adam described Eve as” etzem meyatzami”, “bone of my bones”. These words are painted on the recreated Eve’s forearm. One of the corpses (Joseph) on the left has the biblical quotation referring to Joseph’s bones written on his torso; “And it was when Pharaoh sent out the people of Israel, Moses took Joseph’s bones with him.” This refers to another biblical set of dry bones, Joseph’s, taken out of Egypt so that he may be resurrected properly upon his return to the Land of Israel in the end of time. Written on Joseph’s right arm is the biblical quotation “Vayal Yoseph min habor”, which when translated in it’s original context reads “and Joseph was removed from the pit”, referring to the Ishmaelaites elevating/removing him out of the pit which his brothers threw him into. However, within the context of this painting this sentence can also readily be translated as; and Joseph “rose” (“vayal”) from the pit, i.e. Joseph rose (was resurrected) from the grave (the pit). Inscribed on a skeletal limb immediately below recreated Eve’s leg is another quotation from Ezekiel, “And these bones represent all of the house of Israel”, symbolizing the universality of the reawakening of the Dead. The anatomical Genesis reference of “bone” elicits another anatomical reference from Genesis; vayitah zera, and he planted a seed (written on recreated Eve’s genitalia).

The crematoria painted on both left and right sides of the painting symbolize the thematic meshing of Holocaust imagery with Passover and Resurrection. The crematoria represent the ovens in which Jews were cremated and also the ovens in which Matzzahs are baked for Passover. Inscribed on the corpse falling out of the right sided crematoria is the complaint made by the Jews to Moses and to G-d in Exodus which just as easily could have been made by any Inquisition, pogrom or Holocaust victim”; Are there not enough graves in Egypt that you took us out to die in the desert?” Written in Yiddish and Hebrew on the upper doorway of this crematoria is a play on the Passover theme; “mayavdut leherut”, “from slavery to freedom”, which is ironically and chillingly similar to the Auschwitz greeting written in German “arbeit macht frei”, or translating this into a mixture of Hebrew and Yiddish “ mayarbet macht leherut”, “work grants freedom”. Within the burning embers of the right-sided crematoria are the words from another Passover Haftora (Samuel 22) in which David describes G-d’s attributes with the words “Smoke rose up to his nostrils”. Written atop the red roof boards of the left handed crematoria are words from the same source “and a cloud of smoke was under his feet”. The symbolism is that the smell and smoke of the crematoria, as did the sights and sounds of suffering of the Jews in Egypt, finally reached the feet and nostrils of G-d inducing him to say in Ezekiel “behold I am opening up your graves” which is inscribed on the door posts of the left sided crematoria. Written within the embers of the fire of this crematoria are the words “Fire, water and ovens of smoke”. This is another play on haggadic words using the Hebrew word Tanurot (ovens) referring to the crematoria instead of Timrots (billows of smoke) quoted in the Haggada.

The Passover imagery is completed with having all elements of the Seder plate symbolically represented. Resting on top of the right-sided crematoria is the paschal lamb. On his horns are the Hebrew words “Oopasach hashem al hapesach.” This can be literally read in one of two ways depending on different Hebraic punctuations; 1) And G-d passed over the doorway (pesach), or as the painting illustrates, 2) and the pesach (the Paschal Lamb) is on top of the door way. On the Eve of Passover the Israelites were instructed to mark their doorposts (mezzuzot) with the blood of the paschal lamb by dipping a hyssop into the blood and smearing it on their doorposts. Illustrated is the paschal lamb with his right hand dipping the Karpas (a vegetable like Hyssop) in a cup of Passover blood/wine, having smeared the doorposts with wine/blood. His left hand, which is being burned by the embers of the crematoria, as he is roasted for Passover, is holding the Afikoman, the saved piece of dessert Matzah, which is broken off during the Seder meal. The other half of the Matzah, dropped by the dying human being, as he takes his last breath falling out of the crematoria, represents the surviving remnant of Israel (shearit hapleyta). This Matzah falls into water. In Yiddish this is called “gebracht”(crumbled, and dipped in water). This is written under the feet of the red female corpse on the right. Using poetic alliteration, under that word is written another Yiddish word, “tsabrochen,” “broken”, representing the status of the Jewish people after the Holocaust. On the far side of the puddle into which the matzah falls, is another Yiddish word, “farblibben,” meaning abandoned. The egg of the seder plate (beytza) is written on the corpse’s testicle’s, falling out of the right-sided crematoria.. Written on the lower portion of this crematoria are the words “with hard work, using bricks and mortar “, which is a reference to the slave labor performed by the Jews in Egypt as well by the Jews in the Holocaust (Arbeit macht Frei).

The child is suckling on her mother’s right breast. Inscribed on this breast is the word “marror”, “bitter herbs” which is the bitter history relayed from parent to child. Not to imbibe in excess, the child is saying (inscribed on the child’s right forearm) the words from the Hagadda “dye dyanu”, “enough is enough”. To counteract the marror, the mother’s left breast is inscribed with the words, “chalav and dvash”, “milk and honey”, representing the sweet land of Israel, reinforcing Ezekiel’s prophecy, “and I will plant you on your own soil”.

Reaching out to the resurrected family on top of the pyramid are the hands of two skeletons. The one on the right says “zeroah netuya”, “the outstretched arm of G-d”, and the one on the left says “yad hazaka”, “the strong hand of G-d”. This is the means of deliverance from Egypt quoted in Exodus and recited in the Hagadda. The hand on the left is homage to G-d’s hand of creation touching and creating Adam in Michelangelo’s famous Sistine Chapel painting. This disconcerting image, of G-d’s deliverance portrayed by skeletal hands reflects the possibility of G-d’s deliverance despite impossibly weak and seemingly dead odds. The entire concept of crossing the dead sea, crossing over, can be seen as a metaphor of crossing over from one side to the next, from corporeal entrapment of the soul {slavery /life), to freedom, the freeing of the soul (death), and from death back to life to a spiritual reawakening, resurrection.

Also portrayed at the bottom of the Dead Sea/ Valley are images of desert cacti with blooming flowers. There can be no greater symbol of resurrection than a dried out cactus, which nevertheless, can blossom with beautiful very alive flowers. To further reinforce this concept, some of the corpses are painted with thorns, symbolizing that like the surrounding seemingly dead cacti they will shortly be reawakened.

For a complete understanding of this painting it would be helpful to understand the Hebrew and Yiddish words. Most people can not read these languages. Nevertheless, because of the vital importance of the precise words used, and the possibility of them being lost in translation, it was necessary to preserve the authenticity of the Bible, and its distinctively Jewish perspective by using the original Hebrew and Yiddish.