Every week in synagogues around the world, a section of the Torah is read. The Torah is divided into 54 portions – called parshas.   And after each parsha, a selection from the prophets is also read, and these are called the Haftorahs.

The following paintings and drawings are responses not only to the text of the Torah and Haftorah, but also to the rabbinic commentary in Talmud and Mishna and to apocrypha and the mystical Zohar that have emerged over the centuries.

I created the first set of paintings and pencil caricatures from the Haftorah over a six year period. I was at the time working as a filmmaker. My biography is here on this site. And over the last five years using the iPad I have done four more sets of visual responses.

Rabbis write that there are multiple meanings for each word in Torah, starting with the literal, and moving toward the more subtle and esoteric. Hebrew, as a language itself, offers interweaving permutations as each letter has symbolic and even numerical values, all of which give rise to much interpretation of the text. These images are a variety of my improvisations.

In many of the paintings there are references to the Kabbalah and it’s imagery. Kabbalah is the spiritual path of Judaism. It provides meditative, mystical and practical guidance. It is a vast field of knowledge and experience. And in many of the following imagery there are reflections of Kabbalistic concepts including a basic one that has a visual component called the “Etz Chaim” – the tree of life, and it divides into 10 energy-like centers called Sephirot that are part of this tree. Each of these has colors associated with it.

Making images from these inspired words is a challenge. At one time because of the second commandment, which forbids making idols, image making was frowned upon, until the last two centuries when Jewish graphic artists began to express themselves.

I took on these projects as a personal assignment of doing a drawing for each week.  It has been engrossing and expansive and given me an opportunity to get closer to Torah.  But, I must admit these images are mostly surface renderings just touching the edges of the depth one could go and can go into the teachings. 

Each of the paintings and drawings is followed with my commentary often explaining what I have pictured and why.  In the search window on the top right you can type in the parsha and then see the various interpretations.

It is said that everyone should write a copy of the Torah during their live times.  These are making up my version.

I hope the images entertain, provoke and inspire you to further examinations and insights and encourage you to explore more of these remarkable writings.