I wyruszył Jakub z Beer Szewy... project description
„Jacob left Beer-Sheva, and set out for Haran".
„Jacob left Beer-Sheva, and set out for Haran".
This is the verse from the Book of Genesis (28:10). Great medieval sage, Rashi Shlomo Itzhaki commented on it: “When a righteous man leaves a place, he leaves an emptiness. As long as he inhabits the place he creates its glory, splendour and beauty. When he is gone all the glory, splendour and beauty are gone with him.”
The purpose of the exhibition is to show the emptiness left by great tzadiks who left their little Polish cites which were the centers of Hassidic life for many generations.
The title of the exhibition is also a reference to a less distant story. In written Hebrew which has no vowels the word Beer Sheva could be also read as “Warszawa” (the word Warsaw in Polish pronunciation). Biblical Jacob can be identified with Jacob Perlov, a tzadik from Minsk Mazowiecki. During the First World War he took up residence in Warsaw. His successors who survived the Holocoust went (rose up) from Warszawa-Beer Sheva to Israel and USA.
Rabbi Jacob Perlov was closely related to Abraham Joshua Heschel, XXth century jewish philosopher and thinker. He was writing about “sanctuaries hidden in the realm of the spirit”. Minsk Mazowiecki, Gora Kalwaria, Otwock and Parysow are the cities whose “glory, splendour and beauty” left them long time ago. All it is left is the “sanctuary”. It is hidden in memory, preserved in scholar books written by local tzadiks. “Our generation possesses the key to the “sanctuary” and if we lost it – as Heschel wrote – we will have to hide from ourselves.”
Authors, Anna Ciałowicz and Sylwia Strębska looking for the locations of non existing today tzadik courts were gathering information using memory books, archival materials and direct relations from witnesses. 40 exhibited photographs show what is situated now in those places. They were taken in October 2008 and May 2009. During this time the landscape of Minsk Mazowiecki was radically changed. The old wooden houses which defined the character of the city disappeared. The photographs show the process of the destruction.
4 Waves - 4 Views - project blog
Schenken 2.0 - project blog
4 Waves - 4 Views - project blog
Schenken 2.0 - project blog
