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Moss writes "This work is a kind of physical, poetic and ritual embodiment of this notion of the love affair between God and the Jewish people. I began my career with the ambitious project of reviving the ancient art of the illuminated Ketubah...I knew I had to revive this magnificent art form." David Moss selected a poem by the 16th and 17th century poet Rabbi Israel Najara based on the Song of Songs.Texts in the inner border are based on the Shabbat, the micrographic stems and leaves deal with Zion and the outside border uses the wedding theme. -- Source of annotation: Marvin or Ruth Sackner.

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The Decoration of Medieval Manuscripts by Evelyn Cohen describes and illustrates Hebrew micrography. In "The Art of the Hebrew Book in the Twentieth Century, Leila Avrin describes the facsimile edition of David Moss' Haggadah, held by the Sackner Archive. The original was commissioned by Richard and Beatrice Levy. Also mentioned is Lynne Avadenka whose work is held by the Archive. -- Source of annotation: Marvin or Ruth Sackner.

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Moss writes "I chose to do one of these 'step psalms', Psalm 134, in the actual form of steps. The short psalm reads: A song of Ascent / Behold, Bless God...I originally designed the letterforms I used in this work for a Ketubah. It was one in which I wanted to use the step motif...I suppose any spiritual journey is a kind of gradual, lifelong, step-like movement - ideally upward and forward but, alas, all too often with many downward and backward regressions." -- Source of annotation: Marvin or Ruth Sackner.

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Moss writes, "Several years ago Iwas at a prant fair in Brooklyn and met a wonderful young artist named Chris Kline...I wondered what an alphabet book might be like using the rather eclectic set of symbols of the Paleo-Hebrew interpreted in Chris's brilliant style...I did the set of letters in black and white fleshed out somewhat into the third dimension. I told Chris what animal or object each letter originally was based on and let him do his magic. It took years to complete the book, but the result was amazing. Chris printed the whole book by hand in serigraphy in bright vibrant florescent colors. The whole is my attempt to explore, honor and memorialize in a very contemporary form this incrediibly simple but remarkably impactful invention - the Alphabet.' -- Source of annotation: Marvin or Ruth Sackner.

Scope and Contents Moss writes, "The early writing systems were based on abstracting physical images...In Asia with ideograms and Egypt with hieroglyphics and cuneiform in Mesopotamia. In all these now literate societies, educated classes of scribes, writers and readers, developed to utilize the immense new power of the written word...But an equally revolutionary step in writing accurred right here [in Israel]. Early traces of this revolution were discovered in caves in the Sinai from around 1500 BCE. Someone had the brilliant idea that instead of using symbols to physically represent objects or ideas, what if the symbol just represented the initial sound of the word it depicted. It meant that instead of requiring thousands of characters to record language in written form, it could be accomplished with about twenty to thirty simple symbols! And thus the Alphabet was born.This breakthrough meant that insted of requiring years of hightly specialized study for exclusive and powerful elements of a...

Scope and Contents The prayer etched on the glass as translated by David Moss reads: Lord of Peace!King to Whom all Peace belongs!Maker of Peace and Creator of All!Help and save us all that we may ever be worthyto hold firmly to the attribute of Peace.Let there be a great and truthful peace between each and every person,between every husband and every wife.May there be no strife, not even inner strife, among all humanity.For You are the Maker of peace even in the heavens where YouMiraculously unite opposites-fire and water-and create Peace between them.Draw forth a vast Peace upon us and upon the entire world,for You alone unite opposites, bring them togetherin peace, and in great love.May You bring us all together with one mind and with one heart todraw near to You and to Your teachings in truth.And may all humanity be joined into one fellowship to do Your willwith a complete and perfect heart.Lord of Peace!Bless us with Peace, and through Peace, may all blessing, salvation,and holiness flow...

Scope and Contents The prayer etched on the glass as translated by David Moss reads: Lord of Peace!King to Whom all Peace belongs!Maker of Peace and Creator of All!Help and save us all that we may ever be worthyto hold firmly to the attribute of Peace.Let there be a great and truthful peace between each and every person,between every husband and every wife.May there be no strife, not even inner strife, among all humanity.For You are the Maker of peace even in the heavens where YouMiraculously unite opposites-fire and water-and create Peace between them.Draw forth a vast Peace upon us and upon the entire world,for You alone unite opposites, bring them togetherin peace, and in great love.May You bring us all together with one mind and with one heart todraw near to You and to Your teachings in truth.And may all humanity be joined into one fellowship to do Your willwith a complete and perfect heart.Lord of Peace!Bless us with Peace, and through Peace, may all blessing, salvation,and holiness flow...

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Moss writes "The four children of the Passover Haggadah intrigue us every year...We now open the folder and we see these four children in a rather unconventional treatment...The unification of the folksy and the literate are embodied here. For each of these primitive looking four children is actually a Hebrew word. When turned on its side and opened, each one's title magically appears: Chacham - the Wise one; Rasha - the Wicked one; Tam the Simple one and SHYL - the one who dooes not know how to ask." -- Source of annotation: Marvin or Ruth Sackner.

Scope and Contents This is an original handmade collage that is produced in an unlimited edition. Moss comments: The Priestly Blessing is a natural continuation of my work Genesis 22: A Story Without Words, which tells the tale of the binding of Isaac. I created that originally as a forty-five foot mural for the Akivah-Yavneh Academy in Dallas and then produced it as an artist's book. In that work I began to explore the possibilities of a highly abstracted, bold, visual translation of complex, extended text. Its format was a lengthy scroll or accordion book that allowed the long story to build and literally unfold. In this present work I wanted the entire text to be viewed at once, as a single image. The text I chose was one of the best known and best loved verses in the entire Bible: the magnificent "Priestly Blessing" (Numbers 6:24-26). It begins with the charge to the priests, "An thus shall you-the kohanim, i.e. priests-bless the Children of Israel": May G-d bless you and protect you. May G-d...

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Moss writes,"The Mizvah of the Counting of the Omer is rather unique. It requires the mindful, unified counting of forty-nine days from the second day of Passover until Shavuot...For this piece, I wanted to create an Omer Calendar that would contain the entire set, would capture all the information needed for the three-part counting plus the Kabbalistic attributes for every day. As my artistic challenge, I sought to do this without using any Hebrew or Roman letters, or any numerals...thus you may proceed, day by day from one to forty-nine, ...This period helps make us aware of th passing of time, of the possibility of gradual but steady development and growth and can truly make us realize how much each day 'counts'." -- Source of annotation: Marvin or Ruth Sackner.

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Moss writes, "Six days a week I take a ten-minute bike ride through Jerusalem. I also bike through time, history, memories and feelings as I pedal from home to my studio. I made a little map of my studio." The text of the brochure by Moss describes his thoughts about maps in general and his own personal realities. -- Source of annotation: Marvin or Ruth Sackner.

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Moss writes, "I have long been taken by the notion of topographical maps [that] seek to translate the intimate features of a place into a graphic representation.The origins of this type of mapping are closely connected to the Land of Israel and Jerusalem. My Dream Map is an attempt to recapture some of the mystery and charm of these early maps." The image for this print is based on an original in the collection of Richard and Beatrice Levy. -- Source of annotation: Marvin or Ruth Sackner.

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Moss provides a poem caption for each of the stylized letters he created in this Hebrew alphabetical text. -- Source of annotation: Marvin or Ruth Sackner.

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The Hebrew calligraphy is the prayer said upon waking every morning, Modeh Ani - Thankful am I. David Moss writes, "Next to each work I created a small frame. I then inserted family photos into it...Each morning it helped me expand my awareness of and gratitude for the abundant mercy that had been showered upon me...The piece is meant to be framed with your own pictures." -- Source of annotation: Marvin or Ruth Sackner.

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This work was inspired by the Tzitzit, the ritual fringe prescribed in the fifteenth chapter of Numbers. David Moss writes that he wanted to capture the meaning and history of the Tzitzit "not only to display [its] symbolic pattern but to actually embody it...The background, garment and knotted parts of the Tzitzit were produced by serigraphy - the traditional silk-screen process used to obtain flat, even, opaque colors. That aprt is a fixed traditional art edition print. But I added by hand the free flowing strings that spout forth from these rigid, fixed knots. Every string in every print is unique, free and unconstrained.Is this a print or an original? Defined or free? Like the Tzizit it is the unification of both." -- Source of annotation: Marvin or Ruth Sackner.

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According to David Moss' explanation in the afterward of the accompanying book, the print was originally designed as a mural for the Akiba Academy in Dallas. The piece was a 45-foot canvas mural in three sections running down the entire central hall. Originally created as a collage using cut, colored papers it was scanned and refined to create the mural as well as the fine art giclee print. the work was inspired by a visit to the Arthur and Metta Jaffe Libraray at Florida Atlantic University. -- Source of annotation: Marvin or Ruth Sackner.

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Moss writes about the use of the custom of using written childbirth amulets exorcising the ancient feminist Lilit. This work is Moss' Hebrew typographic interpretation of his family's amulet. -- Source of annotation: Marvin or Ruth Sackner.

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David Moss writes, "Cause us to lie down in peace...The Talmud says that sleep is one-sixtieth of death and dreams are one-sixtieth of prophecy. It is not surprising, therefore, that as night falls we pray this beautiful prayer in the evening service for peaceful rest, for wisdom, for protection, for guarding, for compassion and life...This work brings together two very real objects from my life - a quilt and a bed - and celebrates that moment when night falls, when a smidgen of death and a touch of prophecy approach, and objects dreamily begin to recite their tales." -- Source of annotation: Marvin or Ruth Sackner.

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This collection of wedding documents reproduced from the original Ketubot designed adn drawn by David Moss are bound in three volumes. The first is titled Traditon: Ten Ketubot Inspired by the Illuminated Manuscript Tradition. The second volume is titled Transition: Portals of Passage: Ten Ketubot in the Form of Gates. The third volume is titled Transformation: Innovation: Ten Ketubot in Non-Traditional Styles. -- Source of annotation: Marvin or Ruth Sackner.

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This book was a gift from Arthur Jaffe in honor of the Sackners' 50th wedding anniversary. The hard cover book duplicates with illustrations and explanations the Ketubot (Jewish wedding contracts) created by David Moss from 1971 to the present. The portfolio contains prints of the Seven Blessings recited at a Jewish wedding ceremony. Love Letters was reviewed in the July 2005 issue of Letter Arts Review. -- Source of annotation: Marvin or Ruth Sackner.