The siblings of Genesis provide quite some material for a holy text. This first book of the Torah is full of familiar and familial dramas; three of the storytelling tapestries take place in Exodus. The siblings’ relationships are woven in few and simple shapes. I have tried to portray the brothers’ and sisters’ emotions through body language, especially the positions and movements of their hands. Hands can show temper, personality, and attitude. Unlike manmade tools, they are always available to connect or push away.

 

        The 613 commandments derived from the Torah give instructions for how to live our lives as individuals and as an organized community. I chose to make these tapestries colorful and lively, celebrating the idea that a regulated foundation – a constitution – is necessary for a society to exist and thrive.
 
God as an imagined shape appears only in the first tapestry. In the eight tapestries to follow, we glimpse God through His mitzvot. The negative commandments are woven with humans in the color of crimson, and the positive commandments in blue, or t’khelet.
 
Both colors are mentioned in the Torah and commanded to be used in decorating the Tabernacle, but this unique blue is no longer in use. It takes a mountain of a special mussel which lives only in a special place in the Mediterranean Sea to produce just a few ounces. I guess that in regards to living by Jewish law, there is actually such a thing as a limited dedication.