This sculpture gives an outlook of the jewish people, as an androgynous character, with a body made of both male and female section, to represent the men and the women that compose it . This people rooted in its own holy texts is known as the « people of the book » . That is why I carved , on the base of the statue , one of the main extract that establish its identity : the pact of alliance between God and Abraham . In the jewish religion , the woman is of prime importance ; keeper of the household and of the children’s education .
She can either be benificial or maleficient ; that is why there is a prayer in the cabale, of protection against lilith, that symbolically represents the dark side of the woman . This text was reproduced in the shape of an amulet in the sculpture . This character wears a special headdress, on which there is a cabochon carved of the letter « aleph ». In the symbolical meanings of hebraic letters, the aleph means the spiritual light . It was for me the way to say that the people is guided by spirituality . Y H V H (adonaï) once told Abraham, after Lot had parted from him : « Look around from where you are, to the north and south, to the east and west.All the land that you see I will give to you and your offspring[a] forever. I will make your offspring like the dust of the earth, so that if anyone could count the dust, then your offspring could be counted. Go, walk through the length and breadth of the land, for I am giving it to you. » ( Genesis XIII, 14, 15, 16, 17 )
- Transcription by André Chouraqui
« Look up at the sky and count the stars ; if indeed you can count them ! » He said : « So shall your offspring be . » (genesis XV,5)
-Transcription by André Chouraqui
AMULET
cabalistic text of protection
«In the name (a hidden name) of God , may the one who wears this amulet be protected from demons, spirits, from Lilith and from all of the maleficient things. SELAH AMEN »
