Samantha Goldman

Columns of Smoke, in Clouds of Myrrh and Frankincense (Song of Songs 3:6)

This work is part of a series in which I use digital drawing and cutting processes to emulate the tradition of Jewish Papercutting, a disappearing art form dating back hundreds of years. The content is drawn from Song of Songs, a biblical love poem estimated to be composed from around the 10th-2nd century BCE. Having recognized many of the motifs in Jewish symbolism and Folk art from my Jewish upbringing having its roots in this poem, my work acts to reinvigorate the historical, motifs and embedding them with modern re-interpretations. The act of my reinterpretation of these symbols is in keeping with the structure of Jewish Scholarly discourse: a non-binary way of thinking that has historically valued multiple perspectives, inviting and documenting an ongoing conversation which acts to determine the practices, meanings and values within the religion. This series will be installed in an ongoing exhibit at the Baycrest home for Geriatric Care until December 2022.

““Rashi (a prominent French Jewish Scholar who lived around the year 1000 CE) sees the verse as a response of the Israelites who wandered the desert, directed by a pillar of cloud during the day and a pillar of fire at night.” (Kravitz 37) To me, this image, and the verse it is from, could be linked to the saying from the didactic Jewish Ethical Literature book, Pirkei Avot (Ethics of our Fathers) that says, “Everyone should have a mentor and a friend… Someone they can look up to and a companion at their side.” I interpreted the directional guidance that G-d anecdotally gave the Jewish people as a prompt to seek guidance and mentorship from a teacher, Rabbi, or parental figure.”