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Although it commemorates an occurrence for a people, still, as individuals, we must ourselves come to our own personal relationship with the One who causes the mountain to shake and smoke, but is also that still small voice within. Thus, one set of footprints winds its way to the stone tablets. The footprints themselves are made entirely of the yud-hey-vav-hey letters of the name of G-d, because even though each of us must comes uniquely and alone, the steps are always taken in the name of G-d. The bottom triangle of the Star of David is made of the above Torah texts, and only Torah texts because when we come to G-d we are standing, barefoot (uncovered) as Moses did when he had his encounter with the burning bush. When we personally encounter G-d, we are on Holy (set apart from the mundane) ground. The footprints are created using the colors of Humankind (Adam), which are the colors of the earth itself, from the lightest sand to the darkest loam, lightest beige, yellow, brown/red, and browns. Even though we must come as individuals, Jews and all humans are the colors of the earth itself.

This is the only painting in the ongoing Trees of Life series, which contains the sub-group of Diaspora Festivals (Jewish holidays and major events in the Diaspora) where the source(s) of light are unseen, because here the light comes both from within and from the position of the viewer. The Tree of Life here is a tree in spring, much like the trees in the USA and Europe at the time that Shavout occurs. Likewise the colors of the Star of David are those of the flowers of spring in the Western Diaspora, the lilacs, the tulips, the pansies, jonquils, daffodils, etc.

The Tree here has 10 major branches, just as there are Ten Commandments, which reach up towards the sky - but, there are two other major branches that stem from two of the ten, thus evoking the idea of the twelve tribes, the Hebrew people who took the commandments with them throughout the world. Continuing this idea the tablets fit against/in the Tree trunk, alluding to the sense that the tablets are a part of the tree. Scripturally, since Torah is life, and the Ten Commandments are a basis of all the laws, then the Ten Commandments (which appear twice in the Torah) can be thought to also be "life" - meaning leading to the fullness of life. To choose the Ten Commandments, the covenant, to conduct oneself according to G-d's instruction(s) or laws is to choose life.

In the Diaspora the entire Book of Ruth is read during the festival of Shavout. Ruth is the daughter-in-law of Naomi, who followed her back to Israel. Ruth becomes a part of the Jewish people, marrying her late husband's cousin Boaz and becoming an ancestor of Kings David and Solomon.

A transparent, cloudy essence (created using the words of the Torah portions) wafts through the painting, between the viewer and the "scene" of the tree. It leads us into the painting as the Shekinah cloud led the Hebrew tribes through the desert to Mount Sinai. As an artist I use the cloud to help move our eyes, our vision, around the painting because that indwelling "still small voice" leads me to the Torah, to the Way of G-d (the Law, the Ten Commandments) and helps me find my path.

The orange painted around the side of the Shavout Diaspora painting's canvas stretcher continues the theme of this series of light broken into the spectrum. In this case the orange takes its red component from the Pesach (Passover) festival, which proceeds while the yellow component leads us to Rosh Hashanah, the next major festival on the calendar. The Rosh Hashanah Diaspora painting has yellow of the sides of the canvas. Symbolically, this stands for the Light of G-d given to us through the holidays. The cycle continues.

As we move through the year we learn and grow, striving to become closer to our Lord, to walk towards and yet with G-d, until we both reach and become first fruits, the giving of the Torah. To the extent that we acknowledge, in our hearts and actions and lives, that we are in the image of G-d and we walk in that image, then to that extent, perhaps we bring Torah wherever we go.

Judy Rey Wasserman
May 2004