We have come to the end. It is shattering and it is hopeful. On Simchat Torah we read the very last verses of the book of Deuteronomy. The people wail and mourn over the death of Moses and remember “that which Moses did before the eyes of all Israel.” To those words the great medieval rabbi Rashi writes his final Torah commentary: That which Moses did before the eyes of all refers to his smashing the first set of Tablets at Mount Sinai, an act which God approved: “Power to you for having done that.”
The destruction of the first set of Tablets, which had been inscribed by God, led to the second set, inscribed not by God but by Moses. The shattering of a work by the Perfect Presence opened up the opportunity for human responsibility and creativity. To end our wanderings and fulfill settlement of divine promise requires human initiative and moral responsibility. We embrace and celebrate the hope released by the shattering.
We have come to the beginning. It is shattering and it is hopeful. On Simchat Torah we read the very opening verses of the book of Genesis. It describes the fracturing of Totality into elemental parts: light, darkness, sea, land, vegetation, animals, humans. The opening language itself unsettles meaning. The first word, “b’reishit,” is a linguistic confusion. Its form is all wrong. So disturbing is it that it provokes from Rashi as his first commentary in Torah the exasperation: This verse cries out, “Expound me!” We embrace and celebrate the invitation from the shards of this opening to not merely receive truth but to construct it.
Zemer Peled is an Israeli artist. Born in kibbutz Yizre’el in northern Israel, she received her undergraduate degree from Bezalel Academy of Art and Design in Jerusalem and her Masters from the Royal College of Art in London. Through her sculptural and installation work, Peled explores a specific experience of nature. She creates forms that are nostalgic for and reminiscent of shattered, dense landscapes, both real and imagined.
Pictured here is her work in porcelain and clay, Bunch of Shards. Much of her work deals with destruction and creation, and the ongoing cycle of that dynamic. “Process is crucial to my sculptural ideas,” Peled says. “They are consistent with the Kabbalah concepts of Shevirah(breaking) and Tikkun (mending) that can also be considered as renewal. I make, then break, then make again. Chaos, destruction, and decay are an intense and necessary creative process for me to create each of my sculptures.”
There are shatterings which only destroy. And there are shatterings which give birth to new possibilities. The story is told: When God saw that Moses had smashed the Tablets, God said: “You have done well to smash them. Now you will birth a Torah that will extend wider than the sea.”
We have come to an end, and we have come to a beginning. It is shattering and it is hopeful.
