48: Creative Quarantine
In order to make space for creation during the intense third lockdown during winter at the beginning of 2021, Kol Haot invited 48 artists to work in quarantine, for two days each, in this beautiful Jerusalem studio.
The artists came from widely varied locations, backgrounds and mediums. What connected them was a list from Pirkei Avot in the Mishna - the 48 ways to acquire Torah. These items are varied, allowing each artist to embark on a quick but meaningful journey that connected this teaching to their work, their lives, and these strange new circumstances.
Each artist was inspired by their "kinyan”, their item from the list, differently. But everyone shared a deep need for this moment of creation, leading to an array of work that brought us out of the cold (and snowy) isolation into a spring of color, art and inspiration.
What follows are the 48 artworks produced during these three months of artist isolations, along with their connection to the "kinyanim" or ways to acquire Torah.
The artwork is in a variety of media, presented here digitally. All photos by Yaal Herman.
Pirkei Avot 6:6 - Greater is learning Torah than the priesthood and than royalty, for royalty is acquired by 30 stages, and the priesthood by 24, but the Torah by 48 things.
- By study
- Attentive listening
- Proper speech
- By an understanding heart
- By fear
- By awe
- By humility
- By joy
- By purity
- By attending to the sages
- By critical give and take with friends
- By fine argumentation with disciples
- By clear thinking
- By study of Scripture
- By study of mishnah
- By a minimum of trade
- By a minimum of preoccupation with worldly matters
- By a minimum of pleasure
- By a minimum of sleep
- By a minimum of chatter
- By a minimum of laughter
- By long-suffering
- By a good heart
- By faith in the sages
- By acceptance of suffering
- One who recognizes their place
- Who rejoices in their portion
- Who makes a fence about their words
- Who takes no credit for themself
- Who is loved
- Who loves God
- Who loves creatures
- Who loves righteous ways
- Who loves uprightness
- Who loves reproof
- Who keeps themselves far from honors
- Who does not let their heart become swelled on account of their learning
- Who does not delight in teaching
- Who shares in the bearing of a burden with their colleague
- Who judges with the scales weighted with favor
- Who leads them on to truth
- Who leads them on to peace
- Who composes their heart at study
- Who asks and answers, listens and adds
- Who learns in order to teach and learns in order to do
- Who makes their teacher wiser
- Who is exact in what they have learned
- And who says a thing in the name of they who said it.
1: By Study בתלמוד
Meryl Salpeter
It was hard to ground myself in any one aspect of learning and to really make something of it. But when I sat down in the studio, I realized that what inspired me was the experience in its entirety; being able to sit down and engage fully with your own self through the words of Tanach and Talmud.
Multidisciplinary artist Savyon was inspired by 4: By An Understanding Heart בבינת הלב to create a 70 page text in Hebrew that progresses visually on the page in a unique way.
"The kinyan that I worked on was 'the wisdom of the heart.' The wisdom of the heart is what everything is made of, especially artistic creations."
5: By Fear באימה
Devorah Roytenberg Charash wove a Talit using the klaf and leather straps from Tefillin as the traditional stripes. The installation is hung from the ceiling forming a wedding canopy that incorporates the words of the “Shma” overhead. Devorah states, “ When one stands under the wedding canopy one steps into a new stage in one’s life, one that connects us to our history and traditions and fills us with awe. Thus, this installation links us to the awe manifested in the words of our Torah.”
8: With Joy בשמחה - Avigail Fried
In preparing for this project I reviewed various sources found in Jewish liturgy and heritage relating to "Simcha" – happiness, joy. Psalms 100 implores us to "Worship God with happiness." R. Nachman, teaches that "It's a great commandment to be happy," and more. In art (mainly through paintings) I tried to discover if indeed one can express joy via art. Is it possible to convey an emotion such as happiness through art and thereby determine if there is such a thing as a "happy painting?"
9: With Purity בטהרה
Chani Goodman Winkler
10
10: By Attending To The Sages בשימוש חכמים - Judith Anis
It is told of two workers who were bringing water to their masters every day. One worker had a new bucket, and the other had an old and cracked one. Each day they would walk the same way from the well to their masters’ houses. One would arrive with all the water he had drawn, and the other with his bucket only half full. He felt bad and apologized to his master, who took him to the road and asked him what he sees. The worker said, “Flowers and weeds on the side that I was walking on.” His employer answered with a question: “If I fix your bucket, will we continue to enjoy the flowers on the side of the road?”
11. By critical give and take with friends בדיקדוק חברים
Agustin Jais
The videoclip is the result of a "dikduk b'chavrutah" with artist Orly Noa Rabinyan, as suggested by the text of the Mishnah, where we explored the musical, poetical and political teachings of the text in relation to a personal moment: the nights at the Mercaz Klitah, after a day of being educated in a religious Zionist framework, when everything was quiet and the voice of the Muezzin coming from East Jerusalem could be heard.
The song is a mashup of layers: Orly's recitation of the Mishnah, the Adhan sung by Yusuf Islam, members of my family attempting to read the Pirkei Avot, and the base of a famous Argentine hip-hop track. Plus a silent MC: the phrase-by-phrase translation of the Mishnah into a poem that reflects on the experience at the Mercaz Klita (Immigrant Absorption Center).
The imperative of dikduk chaverim becomes a quest for cross-pollination, a chavrutah with non-equal others.
After going through the full exhibit, visitors reached a curtained-off area. Curator Eli Kaplan Wildmann had recreated the desk that our 48 artists had sat at during their Creative Quarantine.
Art supplies were on the table, along with four blank canvasses containing the four kinyanim that hadn't been created by any of the artists.
Visitors were invited to add to the creation while having their own isolated moment.
13. With Clarity בישוב דעת
Linda Lieff Altabef created a series titled Clarity based on her kinyan. The universal symbol of clarity is the circle. Nature is itself circular. A marriage consists of three circles: the feminine, the masculine, and the divine. This union brings holiness into the world.
Linda designed a pattern of three circles in both positive and negative space as a linocut print with a limited color palette of black and white. As she printed her circular images in repetition, the rhythm of her printing method became a kind of meditation.
18. With A Minimum Of Pleasure במיעוט תענוג
Miryam Adler
Pleasure is giving oneself fully to the material, preferring it over the spirit and soul. Consumerist culture creates a sense of lack, of need, that can never be fulfilled because it becomes a loud cycle of need for more and more. In opposition to this noise, I wanted to create the silence of looking. The pools of light on the floor and the walls, as they changed throughout the day in their barely perceptible dance, became my “here and now” during the quarantine project. The focused look and the attempt to find the light’s appearance and disappearance was my blessed and welcome disconnection from the noise of the internet, the sponsored content, the stores - I remembered that we actually need very little. And that little will actually bring us insight.
Video Work Below - Length 1:02:23
19. With A Minimum Of Sleep במיעוט שינה
Tamar Meir
21. With A Minimum Of Laughter במיעוט שחוק
Shlomit Naim Naor
At the beginning of the pandemic the artist learned that she had breast cancer. Learning about cancer through the lens of this project allowed her to bring some humor to the corona-cancer experience, and to illustrate the period of finding out about the diagnosis.
Her written piece in Hebrew finds a parallel between each of the 48 "kinyanim" and an element of the experience of a battle with breast cancer. The drawings below are inspired by students she was teaching at the time, who were obsessed with superheroes. The artist drew her own vision of herself as a superhero, "Chad-Shad" - OneBreast.
23. With A Good Heart בלב טוב - Judith Yehudit Appleton
The artist worked in drawing in a way that brought her back to elementary school, where she had enjoyed education with a good heart. This is how she acquired the Torah - Hebrew, Jewish Studies, and art. This quarantine project allowed her an associative journey back to those days. Very few of her acquaintances enjoyed their studies, and many lost their passion for creation due to harsh criticism.
24. By Faith In The Sages באמונת חכמים
Talya Peri
The two works complete each other, with one inspired by decorative frames that include images of revered rabbi’s graves but showing the frame as empty. Next to it we see a tzadik, a righteous person, drawn with the same reflective paint that can be found in the empty frame.
This artwork contains DNA strands made up of Hebrew and Arabic calligraphy. We all carry our legacy within us, encoded in our DNA.
As a Syrian Jew I feel that these two languages are both an integral part of who I am. Like a tapestry viewed up close, our lives each have a thread of meaning but as we're living through them, it can be hard to see the full picture. Through understanding our histories, we can better understand ourselves.
27. Who rejoices in their portion - השמח בחלקו
Eran Levy
28. Who makes a fence about their words - העושה סיג לדבריו
Danielle Weil
This spoken word piece was written during Kol Haot's Creative Quarantine project and performed at the Incubator Theater's Poetry Slam.
Video: Rotem Feldner
Courtesy of Poetry Slam Israel
29. Who takes no credit for themself - אינו מחזיק טובה לעצמו
Matan Cohen
In this comic, the great rabbi openly admits to the kind person on the street - "You are the true righteous one".
Neta Pulvermacher's movement piece and installation explore Number 31, Who Loves God - אוהב את המקום
33. Who loves righteous ways - אוהב את הצדקות - Matt Berkowitz
34. Who Loves Uprightness - אוהב את המישרים
Eliana Bayer-Gamulka
"A line is a dot that went for a walk" -Paul Klee
In reacting to this kinyan, I went for a walk among lines and surfaces. In the drawings I created during the quarantine, different surfaces emerged - flat areas, lines, and openings into new worlds.
These all came together into this book, which can be opened to create a single long line or can be kept closed. In looking at the different pages, the viewer will go for a walk themselves, and will look at loving uprightness.
This series of seven drawings are illustrations for Omer cards, which we began counting right after the quarantine project, on Pessach, with the reading of “The Prophecy of the Dry Bones”. The images progress in parallel to the process of prophetic rebuke - repentance, return to Israel, working the land, and finally, bringing the first fruits to the Temple on Shavuot. Prophecies of admonition, and with these cards, the counting of the Omer itself, lead to growth and new life.
36. Who keeps themselves far from honors - מתרחק מן הכבוד
Dana Naim Hafouta
38. Who doesn't delight in teaching - ואינו שמח בהוראה
Mor Gal
'Who does not delight in teaching' was the artist's feeling throughout the past year. She is an art teacher, and had been teaching on zoom since the beginning of the year without any physical contact with her students, unable to dive deep into the creative process with them, and without knowing them well enough. "In the beginning, I was creative and I saw it as a challenge, but as time went on the lack of human connection with the students changed my teaching to technical and tired. The act of teaching had turned into a dry, lifeless desert."
39. Who shares in the bearing of a burden with their colleague - נושא בעול עם חברו
Heddy Breuer Abramowitz
44. Who asks and answers, listens and adds - שואל ומשיב שומע ומוסיף
Leroy Bar-Natan
The image of the horse sculpture at Ice Square in Ramla, with their stern expressions, is engraved in the artist’s mind - because his grandmother lives there to this day, his father played there before there were horses, and the artist would play among the rusty metal sculpture, and the unfinished artwork is waiting for the next generation to bring its own questions and search for answers.
45. Who learns in order to teach and learns in order to do - הלומד על מנת ללמד והלומד על מנת לעשות
Yelena Kvetny
They who learn to teach - this idea is presented with a circular image, full of symmetry and reflection, that allows for learning and growth but may be closed to external influences and inspiration.
Who learns in order to do - here we see an infinite horizon, lines radiating outwards that remind us of the experience and wisdom of the character in the painting, as he walks and learns.
This kinyan expresses a spiral balance, a mutual back and forth, between the teacher and the student. These pieces show the new space created by that relationship, with the Torah expanding and growing. In both pieces there is a mountain, inspired by the Rujm el-Hiri, located near the artist’s home - a mountain that reveals treasures to those digging and exploring. Just like archeological treasures, whose value increases throughout the generations, the teachings of a rabbi increase in value as they are passed on.
47. Who is exact in what they have learned - המכון את שמועתו
Yuval Zehavi
Translation Of Video Text
It’s a place where one really has to spend a few days
in order to understand its significance.
And it requires a lot of preparation in advance
for acquiring as much knowledge as possible.
And then when you arrive,
and you see it in your own eyes,
it hits you.
When tourists come visit Temple Mount, there’s an element of climbing.
In fact, it doesn’t look like a mountain, but it is,
and you need to climb it.
And for many people not only is it a matter of physical climbing,
but it is also a spiritual elevation to a higher place.
It just depends on who climbs it.
For example, the Christian tourist who would arrive
would climb up the mountain, pass the wooden bridge, enter,
and because she is a tourist she would probably be offered
some kind of garment to cover her legs or shoulders.
The Christian tourist would tour around all places that are mentioned in The New Testament.
Where Jesus was as a child; where he turned tables; or rebelled against the Priests.
You can actually walk around with The New Testament in your hand,
read the stories and point to where they occurred according to the tradition.
And the Orthodox Jewish tourist would do a whole different tour,
that is based on a 2,000-years-old evolution of Jewish laws,
and the decrees of these days’ Rabbis.
In The Temple there were restricted areas which were allowed only for the Priests and the High Priest.
And the specific location of The Temple is still uncertain,
therefore one might not know where the common man is allowed to go or get near to.
So there are Rabbis that forbid visiting the mountain altogether,
others forbid climbing up to the higher part,
where The Dome of the Rock is,
yet allow visiting only the lower part where Al-Aqsa Mosque is.
They allow coming near the higher area but only from the northern side.
In that case, it requires encircling the mountain and getting closer only through the northern area.
And even that is based on a Jewish rule the was used by Priests when The Temple still existed.
Regarding the Muslims who visit the mountain,
on the one hand, there is the Muslim girl who studies in a school here,
that her everyday life is here.
There is a school for girls in the western area of the mountain.
On the other hand, there is the Muslim tourist,
who comes from Turkey or from any other Muslim country
or from within the state of Israel or the land of Israel,
and his experience would be very different
because he is allowed to go into the mosque or into The Dome of the Rock
and pray.
And there is a fourth experience,
an unreligious one,
an unspiritual one,
of the secular tourists,
which in this kind of tour,
the conversation would probably be about the archaeology and the architecture of The Temple Mount,
or about the political and security implications caused by this delicate situation.
48. Who says a thing in the name of they who said it האומר דבר בשם אומרו
Hadara Rachel Steinberg
Credits:
Yaal Herman