The Seventh Day by Henry Bismuth

Hebrew is a sacred language. Its letters are not only tools of communication but carry as well a precise diagram cyphering the principle of Creation. The letters comprising this alphabet reveal secrets that were preserved and guarded through the ages. They are divine instruments given to man to help him bring the invisible level with its respective attributes to the visible level.

The physical representation – the glyph or pictogram – of each letter has evolved over centuries. For example, the “Aleph” was represented by the head of an ox; the “Guimel,” by a camel; and the “Noun,” by a fish, which later became a snake. The adaptation of each pictogram(s) was in successive steps according to the evolution of mankind with each change in form being a modification of the prior one. While the energy of the letter remained constant, the pictogram adjusted to what was suitable for the time. Thus, the shape of the letters we know today – and the ones I use in my painting – are only a few centuries old.

My intention in THE SEVENTH DAY was to create a painting, as I am frequently doing, using multiple imagery. Each of my three images is the chosen symbol for the Hebrew letters – “Shin,” “Beit,” and “Tav” – composing the Hebrew word, “SHaBaT.” “Shin,” represented by a tooth, is, also, the fire of the universe, the sacred fire. It is here the fire in my fireplace. “Beit” represents a house. It is the periphery of the circle in which each of us is the center. So, by extention, it is the universe itself. . . as well as the birdhouse across the street from my home. “Tav” is a cross, an X. It is the cross that delimits in a given year the four seasons. It is the four elements, the four cardinal points. It is, also, the crossbars of my stretcher.

“SHaBaT” is a specific moment. It is an opportunity that was given to man to become one with his creator. Looking at everything around us with different eyes, with a spiritual prospective, makes us, enables us to see its beauty and its connectivity. To convey this, I wanted this painting to be like a rebus. I gave to it a very personal, playful and a very human connotation without diminishing the sacred sense of what “SHaBaT” stands for.