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Creation is a fire. At its center, "tohu v' vohu," the raw material of creation, the letters from which the Torah is written, expands upward and radiates outward. Aron is shown, open for worship with stained glass inserts in steel frame. Exterior doors are open, revealing ten gold-leafed bands on their inner sides. Hebrew, in gold letters on soffit:
"Behold how good and how pleasant it is for family to dwell together in unity." |
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Redemption is water, a splitting sea, which reveals a pomegranate tree with eighteen pomegrates, an image of the ten spherot in front of it. Two mountains beckon in the background. One is Sinai. The other is Mount Hermon. In the sky, above, the stars spell the name "yud, hey, vav, hey." A band around the tree says "lav." This Tree of Life is actually a "Tree of Courage." The background is made up of abstract lines which carry across into the sidepanels, whose simplicity and translusence, creates a more open feeling and more contemplative view. |
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At the mountain, the giving of the Ten Commandments. An image of the actual Mt. Sinai is emblazoned with the Ten commnadments and looks like a pair of tablets. A fire, perhaps, the same fire, from the creation, erupts, like a volcano, from the summit. In the flames, are spelled the word, "Henaynee." Arounds the flame, the text of the "Shema" Day becomes night, the moon shows itself, in all thirteen of its phases. Black fire on white fire radiates, like thunder. Musical notes fly through the air, lightening crackles and below the border, the fires of the tribes of Israel spell the word for spirit, "Ruach" |
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| The view to the west, from the sanctuary, faces the sky and mountain and is the preferred direction for looking out to the exterior. In our composition, dark rocks are bunched up together. It is a narrow place through which to pass, a pass, whose word is "dignity." Beyond, a mountain. This certainly is Mt. Hermon. The highest point in the land of Israel, whose snow cap has been mistaken for dew by the Psalmists. The name "David," is written in stars and, if you look closely, it also appears in the snows of Mt. Hermon. Below, is written the inscription from Psalm 133. |
Above, are the four sections of the design for the David Alan Shapiro Memorial Synagogue Center. View the artists' conceptions of the sanctuary with the stained glass windows.
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