בס”ד
By Rabbi Moshe Goodman, Kollel Ohr Shlomo, Hebron
Painting by: Baruch Nachshon z”l
This parsha Ekev carries several portions that discuss the prohibition on idolatry and the Torah’s “war” against it. This painting highlights the word “od” in the context of saying that there is “no other [“od”] God [than Hashem].” The dominance of the yin and yang symbol at the bottom right is clear here. We see this symbol with two yods, usually found in Jewish texts to connote the Name of Hashem. In Hasidic texts there is mention of these two yods also connoting two ”yidden” (similarly pronounced similar to the letter yod), i.e two Jews, through whom the Holy Presence and Name rests when living together in peace and harmony. On a Kabbalistic reference there is also mention of how the Name Havaya, associated with the “masculine” Providence, begins with a yod, and the Name Adonay, associated with the “feminine” Providence, ends with a yod, and these two Names are meant to be constantly united in thought, to awaken spiritual “peace” in all the spiritual worlds. It seems that R’ Nachshon deliberately used this symbol, taken from Chinese culture, usually seen as very distant to Judaism, to show that, on the contrary, even in Chinese culture we can find how the Godly message and idea can be found as in Judaism as one idea, showing how indeed God is One, and there is no other – the primary theme of this painting. Recently I was told that an expert on Chinese medicine and Rabbi Arush found 4300 correlations between Chinese medicine and Judaism. The yin and yang principle in Chinese philosophy is indeed very close to Judaism’s approach of “masculine and feminine energies/types of Providence” in reality. It also follows that from the Hasidic approach a primary way of building love and peace between Jews is to find how the different souls who may even seem opposites to each other actually complement each other and provide for a synthesis of spiritual energy stemming from the One God, Whose Name is actually “Shalom -Peace,” according to our sources.
As quite usual in R Nachshon’s paintings, we find the theme of the number seven: seven branches of “angelic leaves with flames”, seven pomegranates, and seven dancing Hasidim. It seems that these “complement” each other, for the angelic flames represent the spiritual soul which is likened to a flame in Scripture, the pomegranates represent the natural world and its fruition, and the Hasidim represent, especially those holding pomegranates, the unity between the spiritual and natural embodied by the human.
Hebron means unity and is also the place our People find harmony and peace through our common roots -the Patriarchs – and also through the roots of all mankind – the First Adam