Visual Midrash is an art form that experiments with the interaction between the visual and the written record of the Jewish Historical experience. What happens when biblical text and/or interpretation techniques merge with contemporary visuals or photographs?
What spiritual richness is accessible for us, created in the “Tzelem” or image of the creator, through “Tzelum” or Photography? “Tzelem” and “Tzelum” are related in Hebrew.
My focus as a Rabbi in retirement has been on the visual, learning about the thousands of photographs on my laptop, and on the skills required to develop a web presence for my learning and interest in sharing the practice of Visual Midrash.
Here is but one example – “Missing the Mark”
The photo, captured on a visit to a horse farm outside Buenos Aires, shows a Caballero, a horseman, practicing a traditional Argentinian sport, attempting to place a stick into the target, a hanging circle, while at full gallop. I called the image “missing the mark.”
To me, the image suggests the collaboration of body and soul. The horse is the body, the horseman is the soul. Successfully hitting the mark requires both body and soul acting as one. As a Jewish source relates: “The body is a tool given by God for sacred work and should be treated with care, respect, and protection. The soul is the seat of all feelings and desires, both physical and spiritual. “
While dramatic enough on its own merits, the photograph of the horseman yields spiritual meaning when the traditional Jewish notion of “Cheyt” or Sin is brought to bear.
Chyet“ חֵטְא” is a significant part of the Jewish liturgy for the high holidays, Rosh Hashannah and Yom Kippur. During worship on these days congregants recite a litany of sins “Al Cheyt”/For the Sins” including “for the sin which we have committed in our speech.
Imagine for a moment the concentric circle target of the archery range.
The goal of the archer is to hit the target with her arrow, ideally in the very center circle of the target. Not hitting the target is often described as missing the mark. And that expression ‘missing the mark’ is the traditional Jewish notion of Chyet.
Looking at the picture of the competitive horseman, it appears that he committed the sin of missing the mark, missing placing the pencil like object in the circle. Thus if we were to place this image on the prayer book page of the “Al Cheyt”/For the Sins” there would be added meaning. Or more simply, we could add a caption/title:
Al Cheyt/For the Sins