Table of Contents, modified for website usage. The painting titles are indented.
Visions of Torah
An Artist’s Reflections On The Torah
As A Source Of Insight Into Our Lives
The First Week .................................................................. 4
First Day ............................................. 5
Fourth Day ......................................... 7
Garden in Eden ................................. 9
Time And Love ................................................................ 10
One Flesh ......................................... 11
First Exploration ...............................................................12
Noah ...................................................15
Second Exploration .........................................................16
Tower of Babel .................................17
Lech Lecha .........................................19
Abraham The Negotiator ............................................... 20
Lot’s Wife .......................................... 22
Rebecca and Isaac ............................ 24
A Second Famine ............................................................ 25
Stars Like Seeds ............................ 27
Why The Ladder? ........................................................... 28
Jacob’s Ladder ................................ 29
Off To Egypt ................................................................. 30
Joseph’s Dream ............................... 31
Joseph’s Brothers In Egypt .......... 33
Times Change .................................................................. 34
Burning Bush ................................... 35
Exodus .............................................. 37
And The Women Danced .............. 39
The Commandments ....................................................... 40
Sinai Trembled ................................ 41
Seventh Day .................................... 43
A Sabbath For The Land ............ 45
Crossing The Wilderness .............................................. 46
Priestly Blessing .............................. 47
Scouts Return ................................. 49
Shelach Lecha ................................. 51
Tents of Jacob ................................ 53
The Time Drew Near ..................................................... 54
Moses On Nebo ............................. 56
Seeing The Promised Land ........................................... 57
Generation to Generation .............. 58
About the Author and Artist ....................................... 59
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Time And Love After the seven days of creation, the creation story is told again, only this time it is set in Eden, and features Adam and Eve. Why two creation stories? Describing the creation of the universe in only one way would be very difficult, when there are so many different ways to view, perceive and understand it. The second story puts the focus on us, and provides our world with the beautiful land of Eden, a lush garden, and Adam and Eve. It must have been wonderful! In the garden in Eden, time and love emerge as forces in our universe. Time, as we leave our parents. Love, as husband and wife cling to each other as "one flesh."
A man leaves
his father and his mother,
and clings to his wife,
and they become one flesh.
Genesis 2: 24
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The people took their many languages,
spread out and populated the earth.
In the City of Ur, a descendant of Noah was born,
exactly twelve generations after Noah.
His name was Abram,
and he lived in a land where people worshiped idols.
The City of Ur’s ancient idols now reside in museums.
Today’s idols have taken the form of movie stars,
athletes,
political leaders,
investment accounts,
fancy cars and so on.
Abram felt God commanding him
to leave the land of idol worshiping and
go to a land that would be shown to him,
the land of Canaan, which we now call Israel.
Unfortunately, there was a catch.
Abram’s descendants would be
strangers in a strange land
afflicted and enslaved for four hundred years
before going out into freedom.
This was only one of the many times
that freedom came after long hardship and struggle.
Abraham The Negotiator
When Abram was ninety-nine years old, he received a new name,
Abraham, because he was becoming an
Av Hamon Goyim, Father of a Multitude of Nations.
And his wife Sarai became Sarah, meaning princess,
because she was a princess, a very spiritual princess.
Sarah and Abraham laughed
when they learned that they would have a child,
for Abraham was ninety-nine, and Sarah was ninety.
This is why their child was called Isaac, meaning he laughs.
Among his many other great attributes,
Abraham was an amazing negotiator.
He could even negotiate with God!
God intended to destroy the cities of Sodom and Gomorrah
because they were so filled with evil and sin. Abraham pleaded,
Will you really sweep away the innocent along with the guilty?
Perhaps there are fifty innocent within the city . . .
Heaven forbid you to do a thing like this,
to deal death to the innocent along with the guilty . . .
Genesis 18: 23-25
Abraham identified the immorality of killing innocent people,
and argued that it was an unacceptable result of a
punishment intended only for the guilty. And Abraham told God Heaven forbid God from doing this. Amazing! If you ever need an example to explain the meaning of "chutzpah," try this one. Sodom and Gomorrah were wicked to the extreme. Finding fifty innocents seemed questionable. Abraham kept up the negotiations. Forty-five, forty, thirty, twenty – at each request, God relented. Even if just ten innocent souls were found, Sodom and Gomorrah would be saved. Abraham stopped at ten. Fairness in negotiation – you need to know when to stop. And yet we are left to wonder: What if he had tried to save the city for the sake of one innocent? Despite Abraham’s brilliant negotiation, eventually Sodom and Gomorrah were destroyed. Abraham’s nephew Lot was urged to leave and to save others from the destruction. Some innocents were not destroyed, as they were warned,
Flee for your life. Do not gaze behind you, do not stand still anywhere in the plain, to the hill-country escape, lest you be swept away. Genesis 19:17
Brimstone and fire rained down upon Sodom and Gomorrah. Lot’s wife stopped and looked back, and she became a pillar of salt. Remember Lot’s wife. Pay attention to warnings, those that are clear and obvious, as well as those that are subtle, coming from signs, from loved ones, from nature, from a still, small voice inside you. Don’t become a pillar of salt.