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...

Scope and Contents

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.

Scope and Contents This print is taken from a suite of seven prints. Moss comments: A technique I developed for the pots I painted was to create a style of lettering which employed little geometrical islands filled with pueblo-style designs to form the negative spaces between Hebrew letters. In this print "East meets West" literally as the four Hebrew letters, Mem, Zayin, Resh, and Chet, appear in the white spaces between these islands and spell out the Hebrew word Mizrach which means "east". The Mizrach plaque is a traditional Jewish object that was placed on the eastern wall of the synagogue or home to indicate the direction of prayer towards Jerusalem. These plaques would often take the form of intricate calligraphic works employing micrography or papercuts, and became a virtuoso object of Jewish folk art. Often each of the four letters are associated with the first letters of the phrase: Mitzad Zeh Ruach Chaim, meaning, "From this direction comes the spirit of life." -- Source of annotation:...

Scope and Contents This print is taken from a suite of seven prints. Moss comments: "Soon after I began painting on pottery in this style, I developed a Hebrew alphabet based on the way in which pueblo artists divide and fill space. In this piece I have written out Psalm 117, which seemed especially appropriate for this work of merging Hebraic ideas with a particular, very regional, non-Jewish artistic style. Let every nation praise God! Let every people exalt Him! For His graciousness towards us has been abundant, And the truthfulness of His universal message is eternal. Written by a poet of a tiny people in a remote corner of the Middle East, it is remarkable how clear the vision of the universality of this message was. That our Psalms continue to be sung daily in a thousand different languages in every corner of the globe bears witness to the power of this message. It seemed appropriate to write out this psalm in the language in which it was written and right in the place in which it was written,...

Scope and Contents This print is taken from a suite of seven prints. Moss comments: "This piece incorporates the fourth verse of Psalm 105 with the Hebrew lettering formed by the negative (light) spaces left between the dark geometric patterns: Seek the Lord and His strength; Yearn for His presence constantly. The acts of seeking and yearning both imply a constant, never-ending, lifelong process. The Midrash Tanchumah quotes this verse and states: "Sometimes He appears; sometimes He does not. Sometimes He hears; sometimes He does not. Sometimes He answers; sometimes He does not-sometimes He is close; sometimes He is not." The circular form in which I have made this piece reflects this fundamental truth of the religious life. The verse reads over and over again just as the acts of seeking and yearning never end. Each Hebrew personal name has a Biblical verse associated with it. This is a verse that incorporates the name itself or begins and ends with the same letters as the name. Many people add this...

Scope and Contents David Moss Introduction in book accompanying prints: "Among the many Hebrew letter forms which have now largely become defunct, there is a group of strange alphabets which were used exclusively for Kabbalah Maasit-practical Kabbalah, i.e. magic. These bear no apparent relationship to the common Hebrew letters. They were known by various names: angelic alphabets, characters, seals. They appear on ancient Greek magic papyri and on Aramaic incantation bowls; they continued to be used for centuries on amulets and were, until quite recent times, even written on mezuzot. When I chanced upon the first publication of The Midrash on The Alphabet of Metatron, these strange letters were not unfamiliar to me. I recognized in them the characteristic forms of all of these magical alphabets: simple, straight and curved lines always ending with tiny circles. I had seen such letters in Sefer Raziel-probably the most popular book of Jewish magic. But the discovery of this charming midrash based...