Berit Engen WEFT and D'RASH – A Thousand Jewish Tapestries



THE TORAH (III)
 Dos and Don’ts in T’chelet and Crimson

        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.


- (12/12 tapestries, series complete)
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