Atonement

this evening begins Yom Kippur, a day of atonement. Amends or reparation made for an injury or wrong. It is the most solemn of all holidays. While I'm not Jewish, I think the concept of setting aside a 24 hour period to fast, make amends, and pray is just not that bad of an idea..

Leviticus 23:27 decrees it a day of rest. So, from sunset tonight til sunset tomorrow night. Rest. Fast. Pray. Make atonement.

כז אַךְ בֶּעָשׂוֹר לַחֹדֶשׁ הַשְּׁבִיעִי הַזֶּה יוֹם הַכִּפֻּרִים הוּא, מִקְרָא-קֹדֶשׁ יִהְיֶה לָכֶם, וְעִנִּיתֶם, אֶת-נַפְשֹׁתֵיכֶם; וְהִקְרַבְתֶּם אִשֶּׁה, לַיהוָה.

I finally got my mac to where I can copy and paste Hebrew. I have a workbook and am learning to print the Hebrew characters. Which got me to wondering......I have over 1500 fonts on my laptop. That means I can print each letter of the alphabet approximately 1500 ways.

So even though I am learning to write Hebrew from a workbook......can I alter the letters, design a "font", make them look different for the purposes of art?

Guess what! I think I can! I took this, which is the word "chai" which means "life". I have always thought I could see a polar bear in this word. Do you see it?


So, I sketched the symbols on watercolor paper and then sketched a polar bear around it. And then added color:

I even did a second one and really skewed the images a bit as I wanted the bear to be shorter and longer and the head tilted down.....

And take another look. One is the negative of the other. Pretty cool!

So I'm thinking this could be a good way to teach myself the characters of the Hebrew language.....to sketch them and see what other design they look like. I'm figuring this can pretty much take up the rest of my life....but oh! what a great learning experience!!!

If you want to read more about today's holiday, I like antipas.net It really makes you think!!!