Image of the Week: Aleph
© D. Yael Bernhard
The letter aleph ( א ) is the first letter of the Hebrew aleph-bet (alphabet). Though it's not the first image in my new Jewish Eye calendar, it seems like a natural way to introduce it. I did this painting a year ago in response to an illuminating post titled "Behold the Aleph!" written by Rabbi Jonathan Kligler of the Woodstock Jewish Congregation. On a hot summer day, I happened to be sitting by a lake with a sketchbook in my lap, when suddenly my phone made a sound and his thought-provoking post appeared. At the end of his missive, he invited the reader to meditate on the aleph and let the imagination soar – so with my pencil already in hand, I worked up a sketch. The painting followed the next day, slipping out almost effortlessly.
The mysterious aleph has no sound of its own, but accepts whatever vowel is assigned to it. This intrinsic silence is thought to be a receptacle of divine energy – as RJK put it, "the voice of God . . . the silent sound that precedes spoken language and animates all of Creation." The aleph is an interlocutor between heaven and earth, symbolized by its diagonal shaft shaped like a letter vav, which is associated with connection – joining above and below two Hebrew yuds, represented here as human hands – for the word for "hand" in Hebrew starts with the letter yud and is pronounced simply yad. The architecture of the aleph is one of harmony, a "doorway to higher awareness."
Large, decorative letters known as majuscules abounded in medieval Jewish manuscripts, often embellished with figures, vines, or animals. I love these fanciful creations of people, nature, and letters. Unconstrained by size and scale, a letter can become a house. Indeed, the aleph truly is a form of visual architecture, and a building block of language and communication.
The central shaft of my Aleph is painted in metallic gold paint, which reflects light beautifully on the original canvas. This refers to Yerushalayim shel zahav – Jerusalem of Gold, the mythic, heavenly counterpart to the ancient, earthly city that is thought to rest on the naval of the world. Extending below the aleph are roots, and growing above it are flowering vines.
Every letter of the Hebrew aleph-bet is endowed with special meaning and a numerical value – the subject of many fascinating books. Of course, I would love to do a painting of each of the twenty-two letters of the aleph-bet as a colorful majuscule. This modest 9"x12" canvas was a good start, and landed in the month of March in my calendar.
The Jewish Eye 5782/2022 Calendar of Art is available in my webstore and on Amazon. You can view the entire calendar here. Buy two or more calendars from my webstore, and I'll send you a free Shana Tova (Happy New Year in Hebrew) card. If you buy it on Amazon, please consider writing a review.
You can also order a poster of Aleph here.
Warm summer wishes to all –
D Yael Bernhard
http://dyaelbernhard.com
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