Scope and Contents

David Moss writes, "The ideas and intention and direction are fundamental Jewish notions. As direction is essential in reaching a physical destination, intention is needed to reach practical and spiritual goals. The Hebrew word kavanah brings together the ideas of direction, intention and concentration. Through kavanah we manage to stay directed and reach our desstiny in spite of life's many twists and turns. Aphysical expression of this idea is the traditional Jewish plaque known as the "Mizrach." Mizrach means 'East', and is derived from the root of 'shining', as in the shining forth of the rising, morning sun.The origin of this folk art piece was the custom of praying towards Jerusalem, which in most of the Jewish world meant facing east. Upon entering a room in which a Mizrach was hung, one would be immediately oriented for the direction of prayer." -- Source of annotation: Marvin or Ruth Sackner.

Scope and Contents

David Moss writes, "The ideas and intention and direction are fundamental Jewish notions. As direction is essential in reaching a physical destination, intention is needed to reach practical and spiritual goals. The Hebrew word kavanah brings together the ideas of direction, intention and concentration. Through kavanah we manage to stay directed and reach our desstiny in spite of life's many twists and turns. Aphysical expression of this idea is the traditional Jewish plaque known as the "Mizrach." Mizrach means 'East', and is derived from the root of 'shining', as in the shining forth of the rising, morning sun.The origin of this folk art piece was the custom of praying towards Jerusalem, which in most of the Jewish world meant facing east. Upon entering a room in which a Mizrach was hung, one would be immediately oriented for the direction of prayer." -- 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:...

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Moss writes,"There is something magical about mosaics...there seems to be some innate fascination with the idea that many tiny individual color segments can be blended by the eye and the mind into a continuous image...I realized I could do micro painted mosaics with the broad strokes [of a turkey feather quill pen] making the miniscule squares of color." The quote is from psalms 119 " I rejoiced when they said to me: Let us go up to the house of the Lord." -- Source of annotation: Marvin or Ruth Sackner.

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David Moss writes in the brochure that "this work was inspired by the blue gates and doors of Zefat...an unspoken metaphor hovers over this ancient custom of painting entrances blue in Zefat...the text of this little book is the well-known verse of Psalms 118:19: "Open for me the gates of righteousness; I shall enter them and I shall praise God." The abstsract Hebrew letters of this verse are uniquely designed by Moss to fit into the four gate-like papercuts. -- Source of annotation: Marvin or Ruth Sackner.

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This piece is a metaphor for charitable giving. -- Source of annotation: Marvin or Ruth Sackner.

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The images for the picture poems are abstract and the captions are in Hebrew. David Moss writes, "I believe that one of the most fundamental concepts of Judaism is balance - balance between the physical and the spiritual, between time and space, between strictness and leniency, between justice and compassion, between heritage and destiny...This little book is an attempt to give this notion of biblical parallelism a visual interpretation." -- Source of annotation: Marvin or Ruth Sackner.

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...

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Moss writes,"Psalm 119 is a long, brilliant ode, praise, and paean to Torah itself...This work of art was my attempt to create a version of psalm 119 that highlights its intimate connection with the Hebrew alphabet, reflects its length and structure and relates to its prime theme of Torah.. ..I drew out an alphabet and wrote as much of the text as I could for each letter in micrography, outlining the letter itself...I continued the text by filling in the borders around the letters and around the whole text." -- Source of annotation: Marvin or Ruth Sackner.

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The main elements of this work were the phrase I place God before me always." (Psalm 16:6) and the 67th Psalm written out in the form of a Menorah .Many other quotes and verses were often added, ferquently with kabbalistic significance.The Shiviti served as a kind of mandala or concentration piece. It became a very popular calligraphic folk art piece especially in the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries." -- Source of annotation: Marvin or Ruth Sackner.

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...

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The Moss Haggadah was commissioned by Beatrice and Richard Levy. The Sackner Archive also holds the deluxe, limited edition of the Moss Haggadah. This hard cover edition is also known as the deluxe copy. -- Source of annotation: Marvin or Ruth Sackner.

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Moss describes his quest to create a model institution to learn about and experience Judaism. This print is a visual representation of six questions that envision the model for this project: What is behind me? What surrounds me? What is within me? What is above me? Whom do I face? What is ahead of me?"Moss has also created a three dimensional model as a structure for a future project. -- Source of annotation: Marvin or Ruth Sackner.

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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.

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David Moss writes, "The use of watermarks in papers goes back to the thirteenth century in Italy. A watermark is created by attaching a wire design to the screen used for handmade paper. The paper is slightly thinner where the wire sits so that when the completed sheet is held up to the light, the image is visible." The text for this print is a personal prayer to be recited by women when they light the Shabbat candles.The style of lettering is known as the Veiber-Teich font and the image is a typical Eastern European candelabra. -- Source of annotation: Marvin or Ruth Sackner.