Bible Stories
600,000
animation video 3 minutesWe read in the Bible, Exodus 12, 37-38:
לז: וַיִּסְעוּ בְנֵי-יִשְׂרָאֵל מֵרַעְמְסֵס, סֻכֹּתָה, כְּשֵׁשׁ-מֵאוֹת אֶלֶף רַגְלִי הַגְּבָרִים, לְבַד מִטָּף.
37. And the children of Israel journeyed from Rameses to Succoth, about six hundred thousand men on foot, beside children.
לח: וְגַם-עֵרֶב רַב, עָלָה אִתָּם, וְצֹאן וּבָקָר, מִקְנֶה כָּבֵד מְאֹד.
38. And a mixed multitude went up also with them; and flocks, and herds, even very much cattle.
I have taken the number 600,000 as my title, as mentioned here in verse 37, although it is clear that this refers only to the men, and Rashi (Rabbi Shlomo Yitzachi, the renowned Bible commentator from the Middle Ages) on this verse, explains that it refers to men aged 20 and older. That means that altogether, including the women, children and the “mixed multitude” (which Rashi describes as nations of proselytes) of the next verse, the number leaving Egypt was probably closer to 2.5 million people, and in addition many sheep and cattle.
Imagining this great multitude setting out from Egypt together, I have created here an animation video of masses of people, interspersed with many sheep and cattle, all seen from above and all moving determinedly in the same direction, passing through a canyon in the Sinai desert, on their way to freedom at last.
Achsa
Joshua 15: 19 “…Give me a present…of springs of water…”
Tamar
Genesis 38: 12-26 “…Tamar covered herself with a veil …and sat near the entrance to Enaim…Judah said…she is more righteous than I…”
Ruth and Boaz
Ruth 3: 8-10 “… ‘I am your handmaid, for you are a redeeming kinsman’…”
Esther pleads for her people
Esther 7:3 “…’let my life be granted me as my wish, and my people as my request…'”
Rachel entrusts Leah
Babylonian Talmud, Baba Batra 123a …Rachel entrusted Leah with Jacob’s identification marks…
Rachel
Genesis 32: 34 “Now Rachel had taken the idols and put them in the camel cushion, and sat on them…”
Zipporah
Exodus 4:25 “So Zipporah took a flint and cut off her son’s foreskin…”
Sarah
Genesis 21: 12 “…whatever Sarah tells you, do as she says…”
Mrs. Manoach and her husband
Judges 13, 23 “But his wife said unto him: ‘If the Lord wanted to kill us, He would not have received a burnt-offering and a meal-offering from us, neither would He have shown us all these things, nor would we have been told such matters at this time.'”
The Shunammite woman
II Kings 4:37
Hannah and her seven sons
II Maccabees, chapter 7
Hannnah brings Samuel to Ely
I Samuel 1, 20-28 “…’For this boy I prayed…In turn I lend him to the Lord’…and they bowed low there…”
Rizpah
II Samuel 21, 8-10 9 “…the Gibeonites… hanged them … all seven together…And Rizpah the daughter of Aya took sackcloth, and spread it on the rock, from the beginning of harvest until the rain fell from heaven; and she suffered neither the birds of the air to rest on them by day, nor the beasts of the field by night.”
Rahab
Judges 2: 18-19 “…’You shall tie this length of scarlet thread from the window…'”
Deborah with Barak
Judgeas 4: 8-9 “But Barak said to her, ‘If you will go with me, then I will go…’ And she answered, ‘Very well, I will go with you…'”
Yael kills Sisera
Judges 4: 21-22 “Then Yael…took a tent-pin…”
The wife of On, son of Peleth
Babylonian Talmud, Sanhedrin 109b “On, the son of Peleth, was saved by his wife…She gave him wine to drink…Then she sat by the entrance and loosened her hair…”
Avigail before David
I Samuel 25: 23-28 “…Prostrate at his feet, she pleaded “Let the blame be mine…Here is the gift which your maidservant has brought…'”
Creating Adam & Eve: A Midrashic Interpretation
animation video 11 minutes 21 secondsThe creation of Man takes us back to the distant past. Paleontologists, pre-historians and all the world’s ethnic groups and religions have theories on how Man first came into being.
Here I focus on the Biblical renderings of Creation.
There are two versions of the Creation of Man in the Bible: Genesis 1: 27, and Genesis 2: 7, 2: 21-22. Additionally, there are numerous Midrashim -traditional rabbinic interpretive literature- explaining and expanding on the Biblical descriptions.
In this work, I have chosen to illustrate several Midrashim which relate to the Creation of Man and Woman. Some of these conflict with the Biblical version. An example is the story of Lilith, Adam’s first wife according to some Midrashim. Others refer to contradictory renderings of the actual formation of Adam and of Eve, and to the progression of developments between instilling the soul versus producing the body.
I have modelled ceramic figurines and using stop motion animation, have told the stories of the Biblical creation of humankind, together with enrichments and alternatives offered by selected Midrashim.
Cain & Abel: A Midrashic Interpretation
animation video 11 minutesCain and Abel is an animation video based on selected midrashim. Midrashim are Rabbinic literature which expounds on stories in the Bible. Often the midrash will offer a different, maybe contradictory, interpretation or insight to the Biblical text.
I have chosen the format of animation for a series of videos based on midrashic interpretations of familiar Biblical stories. I built the figurines out of different coloured clays, and used other props. The medium is simple, basic, and even child-like, but the subject is deep and serious.