Videos
Kasher, Kasher, Kasher
7mins. 55secs.
The practice of Mikveh is a private, even secret, side of married life for observant Jewish women, marking the turning point in the monthly cycle between being Nidah (spiritually unclean), and as such forbidden to her husband, and being spiritually clean again, and consequently available for sexual relations once more.
In my video I show a woman getting ready to use the Mikveh (Ritual Bath) by peeling off the layers of her outside self: her wig, jewellery, make-up, clothes; removing nail varnish, washing her whole body and hair, and brushing her teeth so that she ends up completely scrubbed from head to toe, without any embellishments whatsoever. It is in this state of physical purity that she must immerse herself three times in the waters of the Ritual Bath under the supervision of a qualified attendant, recite the Blessing, and when she emerges she is then spiritually clean too and deemed fit to renew intimate relationships with her husband after her monthly period.
Following this small, intensely personal and intimate ceremony between the Mikveh lady and the woman using the Mikveh, the woman puts back all the layers which she had removed: creams and make-up, clothes and jewellery and appears exactly the same afterwards as she had at the beginning.
My video asks: What has transpired? What change has occurred?
Letter to R, Moshe Ben Maimon from his brother David
Letter to R, Moshe Ben Maimon from his brother David
A translation into English of the last letter of David Ben-Maimon to his brother the Rambam. Shortly afterwards, David’s ship sunk at sea and he drowned. This sent the Rambam into a deep depression.
Sheitels
Sheitels
7minutes 53 seconds
This is a 3-part video, exploring different aspects of wigs as hair-covering for orthodox Jewish women.
Sitting Shiva
Sitting Shiva
2 minutes 18 seconds
‘Sitting shiva’ is the long-established Jewish practice of sitting in mourning, wearing a symbolically torn garment, following the burial of a first degree relative, for the period of a week (shiva is the Hebrew for 7). Family and friends visit, often bringing food, to comfort the bereaved and talk about his or her life. It can be a very tiring, confusing, yet satisfying experience.
This short video captures the mood of sitting shiva, with streams of overlapping visitors addressing the mourner.
Where did the Temples stand?
Where did the Temples stand?
וְעָשׂוּ לִי מִקְדָּשׁ וְשָׁכַנְתִּי בְּתוֹכָם. Exodus 25:8
And let them make Me a sanctuary, that I may dwell among them.
According to the Bible, in ancient times our people asked for a King and for a House in which to serve God, in accordance with this quotation, and others.
The First Temple was built by Solomon early in 10th century BCE (BC) and destroyed by the Babylonians in 586 BCE; Ezra and Nehemia started building the Second House of God late in the 5th century BCE, it was re-built by Herod the Great in the late 1st century BCE, and destroyed by the Romans in 70 CE (AD).
Both the First and Second Temple stood on what is today called the Temple Mount, in Jerusalem, Israel.
Only the Western retaining wall of Herod’s rebuilt Second Temple survives today (Wailing Wall or Western Wall).
The Temples were considered God’s Home, a place for people to come and pray, bring sacrifices, attend to one’s spirit. They were central to Jewish life for over 1000 years. It is true that we can meet God anywhere, but His House was considered His special address.
The Dome of the Rock was first built on the Temple Mount in the late 7th century CE, precluding the rebuilding of the Jewish Home for God on the site. This has caused a lot of national and international tension and dissension, but the status quo stalemate is holding meanwhile.
Interestingly, there are 4 schools of thought regarding the size, position, depth and angle of the Temples on the Temple Mount.
My work here is an imagining of the second Temple as rebuilt by Herod, in one of the suggested historical locations.
As a Jew and a Jerusalemite I ask: Will it ever be rebuilt? Or must God remain homeless, and the Temple remain a residual national memory and prayer?
One Man's Journey
This is my father’s story. He escaped Europe on the Kindertransport as a
teenager in 1939, but his mother expired at Rivesaltes and his father
was gassed at Auschwitz. Slowly and painfully my father rebuilt his life in
England- with a profession and family. Taking early retirement, he made
aliya and moved to Jerusalem, Israel, where we see him with children,
grandchildren and great-grandchildren, in front of the Knesset
(Parliament).
This work encapsulates his fractured journey and layered identity, so
characteristic of the histories of a fast-declining group within our people,
and reflected in the weltanschauung of Israel as a whole.
Cain and Abel: A Midrashic Interpretation
Cain 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 stop-motion 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.
Creating Adam and Eve
The 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 actualformation 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.
Ruth Wieder Magan of Theatre Company Jerusalem has kindly given me
permission to use her music.
Exodus 600,000
We read in the Bible, Exodus 12, 37-38:
37 And the children of Israel journeyed from Rameses to Succoth, about six hundred thousand men on foot, beside children.
38 And a mixed multitude went up with them; and flocks and herds and many 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 on this verse
Rashi (Rabbi Shlomo Yitzachi, the renowned Bible commentator from
the Middle Ages) explains that it refers to men aged 20 and older, of
army age. 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.
Since the video is on a loop, these enormous numbers can be reached
in a few minutes. This video was featured in the Tel Aviv Biennale of
Crafts and Design at Eretz Yisrael Museum, in 2020, projected onto an
ancient anthropoid sarcophagus
Mishnah - Counting the Shekels
Here I focus on Exodus 38: 24-29. I am fascinated by the accumulation
of the gold (87,730 shekels worth), silver (301,775 shekels worth) and
brass (212,400 shekels worth) for the Mishkan, and by the census of
males aged 20 + (603,550 men), as determined annually by collection of
a beka or half-shekel per head.