marina goldshteyn: March 2010

When I was in Isreal over winter break in December, we traveled to the holy city of Tzfat. We went into a "gallery of mystical art" or Kabbalahistic art done by this crazy amazing hippie man names Avraham Loewenthal (aka Robert from Detroit). After hearing his story and his "enlightenment" through Kabbalah and Judaism in general we were able to purchase any of his artwork for an incredible price. As I looked through all the serigraphs, I came across this Tree of Life and remembered Avraham talking about the Tree of Life and how each symbol, color, and position represents our spiritual and physical reality. After reading what each column, symbol, color, and word represented I knew this print was meant to be with me. I am not incredibly religious and don't feel I will be in the near future, but I always think it is important to connect our physical world with our minds and to not go through life blind. Its second nature to me to look into someone and really see who they are; this probably comes from the lack of focus I have on myself because I am so fascinated by the things, people, and colors around me. Having all those things connect, like in the image of the Tree, regardless of your relationship with your G-d, is what encompasses the way I want to live my life in the spiritual world.

So to really explain what the symbols and colors mean here is a brief synopsis (seriously its pretty interesting):

The Tree of Life
The Tree of Life, also called the 10 Sefirot, are 10 aspects of our inner self, which is described in the the Kabbala as the connection between our spiritual and physical reality. One way of experiencing The Tree of Life is as 10 levels of love. The lowest level representing a love only for oneself, and every level going up representing deeper and deeper experiences of love for all creation. The Tree of Life is divided into 3 columns. The right side is associated with giving, the left side is associated with receiving, and the center column is associated with harmony and onesness. Each of the 10 Sefirot contains within themselves all 10 of the Sefirot. The Kabbalah discusses in great detail the inner workings of these 10 aspects of consciousness and the way in which they describe the interfacing of our spiritual and physical reality. The inner mappings of the 10 Sefirot describe how the infinite unconditional love at the root of all creation becomes manifest in our present experience, and describes our spiritual work towards experiencing our Divine source in the realization of unconditional love and oneness. The 10 Sefirot and one of many ways of translating their meaning and associated state of consciousness is:

Keter- Purpose of Creation
Chochoma- Experience of Oneness
Bina- State of Unconditional Love
Chesed- Loving kindness
Gevurah- Humility
Tiferet- Harmony
Netzach- Eternity
Hod- Thankfullness
Yesod- Unity
Malchut- Central point in the heart

Tzfat Gallery of Mystical Art