a thing

[hatam_soferet]

Click image to see bigger.

My piece for Torah Stitch by Stitch, the cross-stitch Torah, illuminated in good manuscript style.

Six hares, representing the six hundred thousand Jews, meander through the wilderness. They are frequently distracted, even destructive, but on the whole they progress towards the Promised Land. In their midst is the Law, represented by an elephant. Paradoxically, God protects God's people while threatening retribution; the flowing ribbon border which appears to protect and surround the text also forms into a ravenous beast, the consuming wrath promised in the text.

For the symbolisms of Jews as hares, the Law as elephant, and the dragon-serpent in Jewish tradition, see Marc Michael Epstein's book Dreams of Subversion in Medieval Jewish Art and Literature.

Comments

[liv]

Wow. Wow, that is really amazing, not that I'm surprised you made something amazing, but I completely love the hares and the elephant and the DRAGON.

[hatam_soferet]

Thank you, badger. ELEPHANT!

[liv]

I was just having a conversation with someone and I couldn't remember Yeshivish for, duh, obviously! Can you help?

[hatam_soferet]

פשיטא

[withagreatlove]

Mamish!

[rymenhild]

This is lovely! (I have that book and should look up the symbolism.) Did you design the art?

[hatam_soferet]

I did. I can turn out this stuff by the yard when it's paints, but it was beastly difficult to think in cross-stitch, surprisingly so.

[jillt]

That is totally awesome. I had no idea you could do embroidery.

[withagreatlove]

With the risk of immortalising myself on DW as 'stupid', but I have no idea how to do cross-stitch! You actually told me about this project (or was it liv?) and I'd be interested in participating were it not by the fact that I'm a bit intimidated ;)

[hatam_soferet]

Cross-stitch is super easy--the cloth comes with holes in it already, and you just go in and out making crosses. You get a chart that shows you exactly where to make the crosses, it's a bit like building lego from instructions, did you ever do that? And considerably easier than instructions from Ikea.