THE TREE OF LIFE (ETZ HJAIM in Hebrew)

"And the LORD God formed man of the dust of the ground, and breathed into his nostrils the breath of life; and man became a living soul. And the LORD God planted a garden eastward in Eden; and there he put the man whom he had formed. And out of the ground made the LORD God to grow every tree that is pleasant to the sight, and good for food; the tree of life also in the midst of the garden, and the tree of knowledge of good and evil. And a river went out of Eden to water the garden; and from thence it was parted, and became into four heads." (Genesis 2:8-10).


SHABBAT

God created the world in six days and rested in the seventh.
The Shabbat is the essence and the spirit of Judaism and the only festivity mentioned in the Ten Commandments.
The first time is mentioned is in the verses of Bereshit (Genesis II-1-3) where the words that we translated from Exodus XX and include the blessing of the wine, the Kiddush, with which we bless Saturdays. The Shabbat is no only the concept of a day of rest that every man needs in the week, but tries to elevate man to a noble life where there is no preoccupation for sustenance in the daily fight for living that worries the six days of the week. It is tradition that in the Shabbat to prepare a special table and celebrate with the family.
In my compositions, said table takes the form of other objects like the silhouette of a violin, an instrument of noble woods and strummed cords, of melancholic voices similar to human's that so identifies with our culture.
Next to the table-violin may appear other elements and symbols that are part of our millenary tradition and daily living like the cup for Kiddush, wine, candles and Seder.


GOLDEN JERUSALEM

"If I forget thee, O Jerusalem, let my right hand forget her cunning. If I do not remember thee, let my tongue cleave to the roof of my mouth; if I prefer not Jerusalem above my chief joy." (Psalms 137:5-6).
For the Jewish people, the city is holy by itself. Chosen by God and promised to David, Jerusalem is the center of spiritual and national existence and of Jewish continuity. During it almost 3,000 year existence, since King David and the building of the First Temple by his son Solomon, Jerusalem was the praying and Jewish devotion.
Jerusalem is the golden city, is a holy city. To this precious city, mythical, full of magic and sound many songs were written since its origins. In my compositions the silhouette of a violin circling a city in a unique embrace may appear, remembering its musicality, our history.


AARON HAKODESH

Aaron Hakodesh is Hebrew for "Sacred Ark".
When Moses brought the tables of the law for his people, was necessary to protect them and built an ark richly adorned with noble woods, gold and figures. The tables could not remain in the open. Thus a tabernacle in modular form was constructed to be able to travel for a long period through the desert.
King David brought the Ark to Jerusalem and gave the sacred character to the city. Later Solomon built the Temple to house the Sacred Ark.
In every synagogue there is an Aaron Hakodesh, a sacred ark oriented to Jerusalem.
In my paintings I express all those remembrances and experiences of my childhood, of the visits to those old synagogues of the old city of the "Goes" neiborghood in Montevideo, called the Jewish neiborghood, found by our grandparents recently arrived from Europe in the decade of the 20's.
In them, I use different textures in the same work, specially a Hebrew newspaper, that more than an interesting texture it represents the daily struggle of our people, our history, an self-portrait.

Bernard Korzeniak
Oct, 2004