Woman Is a Tree of the Field
I’m a visual artist whose life and work is deeply grounded in TorahThe Five Books of Moses, and the foundation of all of Jewish life and lore. The Torah is considered the heart and soul of the Jewish people, and study of the Torah is a high mitzvah. The Torah itself a scroll that is hand lettered on parchment, elaborately dressed and decorated, and stored in a decorative ark. It is chanted aloud on Mondays, Thursdays, and Shabbat, according to a yearly cycle. Sometimes "Torah" is used as a colloquial term for Jewish learning and narrative in general. and hasidut. One of my rituals is creating visual midrashim, especially those that add a needed female voice to our often male oriented tradition. Years back, studying Pirkei AvotLit. Ethics of the Fathers A tractate of the Mishna filled with pithy sayings of rabbinic sages. (Wisdom of the Fathers), I recognized that women also had wisdom to add. I created a body-shaped textile work from whose breasts flow the words of women who’ve been like mothers in my life. The piece is called Pirkei ImahotLit. Mothers The foremothers, or matriarchs: Sarah, Rebecca, Rachel and Leah., Wisdom of the Mothers.
For the past several years my new work has been inspired by trees: the torah as a tree of life, the mystical KabbalahThe tradition of Jewish mystical interpretation of sacred texts. The foundational kabbalistic text is the Zohar. tree of sefirot(pl of sefirah) In Kabbalah, the 10 “attributes” – channels of Divine energy – via which God interacts with creation., the mother tree discovered by scientist Suzanne Simard. Of course, כי האדם עץ השדה, has played over and over in my mind. I know this is often translated as “a person is a tree of the field” but, in fact, the subject of the sentence is clearly masculine: adamAdam is the first human being created by God. Symbolizes: Creation, humankind., man. So, respectfully, I used my art once again to add the feminine. Here’s my work entitled: Woman Is a Tree of the Field.
Susan Kaplow is a NYC-based artist deeply inspired by Jewish tradition. A long-time member of the Visual Artists Beit MidrashA rabbinic method of interpreting text, often through the telling of stories. led by artist Tobi Kahn, her work has been shown at the Heller Museum of HUC, Jewish Museum in Berlin and the Bernard Museum of Temple Emanuel as well as both Ceres and the Riverfront Gallery. Her work is currently featured in the Jewish Museum in Amsterdam, Holland.
