Sunday, February 13, 2011

Human Shape of the Holy Land


Human Shape of the Holy Land
Human Shape of the Holy Land


God had created man in his shape.

in his spiritual life man tries to get closer to god's virtues.

At the same time, Man's body proportions are according to the Golden Ratio, the Divine Proportions.


How can the Holy Land combine this?

What is the reason for the longings to the Land of Israel in all Monotheistic cultures, longings that find their expression as a strong physical and emotional experience in religious hymns throughout history.

The connection in this hymns between the geography and the celestial is much stronger then in a simple metaphor.


The answer is amazing:

The Land of Israel has a Shape Similar to that of the Human Body


It is a physical reality with a particular relief, which engraves and raises the spirit.


The correlation between the Land of Israel and the human body is accurate.

The landscape can almost serve for anatomy lessons.

The figure includes:
The land between the Jordan River and the Mediterranean Sea as faceת
The Negev Plateau as neck.
Sinai Peninsula as the torso.


It is a commentary of the Bible, Judaism and the borders of Israel.

The map is a message of social Humanism, global progress and personal freedom.


In the process of creating the map, the landscape was examined with photographs and maps, in relation to the human anatomy and other figures.

The level of correlation is much higher then that in other anthropomorphic maps.

It is a correlation which calls for a scientific examination.


The idea of the correlation human body and the geography of Israel was developed according to the principle that there is continuous dialogue between mankind and landscape, as a dynamic sublimation process, and as an image in practice.


Saturday, February 12, 2011

Our Living Legacy - The Survivors’ Declaration


Our Living Legacy

The Age of Holocaust Survivors is drawing to a close. Before long no one will be left to say, "I was there, I saw, I remember what happened." All that will be left will be books of literature and research, pictures and films, and multitudinous testimony. This will be a new era. The dark inheritance of the Shoah that was so indelibly stamped on the survivors' souls and hearts will become a sacred mission imposed upon humanity.



In the spring of 1945 the great thunder of World War Two was silenced. In the eerie stillness that followed, we, the last vestiges of European Jewry emerged from the camps, the forests, and the death marches. We were ragged, bitter and orphaned, without friend or relative, without a home. We were secretly wondering in our hearts if after the Ghettos, transports, and Auschwitz we would still be capable of rekindling a spark of life within us? Could we ever work again? Love again? Would we dare begin a family again?

No, we didn’t turn into wild animals, hungering only for vengeance. This is a testament to the principles we possess as a people imbued with enduring faith in both man and Providence. We chose life. We chose to rebuild our lives, to fight for the establishment of the State of Israel, and we chose to contribute to society in Israel and in a host of other countries.

The majority of the Holocaust survivors came to Israel - the Jewish State. This was, for them, an existential imperative arising from the Holocaust. The foundations of the State of Israel were built not only on the memory of six million of our people who were murdered, but with the historical lessons of the Shoah in mind, namely that a Holocaust will never happen again. Since then, we have chosen to contend with the most resounding and perplexing issues relating to the Shoah: Why and for what purpose was the horror perpetrated? Why did the Germans single out the Jew as a danger to all humanity who must be exterminated? How is it possible that amongst the German nation, a people of such apparent intellect and modern culture who produced great artists, thinkers and teachers of ethics, murderers could arise who fashioned and operated this unprecedented killing machine?

The survivors are a pluralistic lot, with myriad opinions, convictions and doctrines. But we share a deep desire to transmit to the future generations what we lived through, and what we learned during that dark time, before we bid farewell to this life that showed us so much bitterness. It is from here, from Har HaZikaron - the Mount of Remembrance - from Yad Vashem in Jerusalem, that we the survivors choose tell our story. And it is now, that we raise our collective and individual voices.

In Jewish tradition, the command to remember is absolute. But its obligation does not end with the cognitive act of memory - it must be connected to both meaning and action. Today, we for to the next generation. We pass to you as well, the fundamental lesson of Judaism, that memory must be accompanied by action of ethical and moral intent. This must be the foundation and the focus of your energies toward the creation of a better world.



“Thou shalt not murder!” This basic tenet of human morality was trumpeted to all humanity from the heights of Mount Sinai. The memory of the murder of 6 million Jews by the Nazis and their willing helpers obligates us to act on this injunction. Life is a gift of creation, its form and essence a statement of ultimate equality among all those created in God’s image. With this in mind, it would seem obvious and indisputable that this fundamental commandment obligates all of humanity. And yet it is being mockingly violated in every corner of the world. As a part of the legacy of the Shoah we must be relentless in our pursuit of solving human conflict, between states and between people, in ways that prevent unnecessary bloodshed.



For us, who experienced the degradation of cruel racism and prejudice, who were condemned to death merely for being born Jews, we call on humankind to adopt principles of equality among men and nations. Tyrannical despotism, political and religious oppression, economic deprivation designed to destroy human dignity must be seen by the world community as grave sins that will not be tolerated. There is no real alternative to coexistence between people and nations. All must be done to resolve differences not through the spilling of blood but through discussion and mediation, in the Middle East and in the entire world.

Anti-Semitism and all other forms of racism present a danger not only to Jews but also to the community of nations. These days the “new anti-Semitism” is directed simultaneously against Jews, against Israel and against Zionism. By equating these terms the danger for Jews as a whole is exacerbated. This phenomenon is also common in propaganda emanating from the Arab world. The Holocaust showed the world the extent of the destructive power of anti-Semitism and racism. Holocaust denial, as well as minimization and banalization of the Holocaust provide a means of avoiding the evident conclusions and learning the lessons for the future. We, the survivors, call upon the world to wipe out these phenomena and to combat them relentlessly.

The memory of the Shoah is contentious and dark, exposing the ugly and naked face of consummate inhumanity that threatens the very nature and stature of civilization itself. We who staggered through the valley of death, only to see how our families, our communities and our people were destroyed, did not descend into despondency and despair. Rather, we struggled to extract a message of meaning and renewed purpose for our people and for all people, namely: a message of humanity, of human decency and of human dignity.

The Holocaust, which established the standard for absolute evil, is the universal heritage of all civilized people. The lessons of the Holocaust must form the cultural code for education toward humane values, democracy, human rights, tolerance and patience, and opposition to racism and totalitarian ideologies.

From Har HaZikaron in Jerusalem the words of Rabbi Hillel need to ring out loud and clear: “What is hateful to you, do not do to your fellow human being!”

====================

The Survivors' Declaration was first read out by Holocaust survivor journalist and writer- Zvi Gill at the closing ceremony of the international conference held at Yad Vashem on "The Legacy of Holocaust Survivors: The Moral and Ethical Implications for Humanity." The ceremony took place in the Valley of the Communities at Yad Vashem.


Friday, February 04, 2011

Judaism and the Golden Ratio


Judaism in its initial, biblical form, emphasized the connection between man and nature.

Relationship between God, human society, individuals and Land of Israel in the Torah scrolls are woven into one system of religous order.

The Holy Land is the promised land, a land flowing with milk and honey.

Sabbatical law is one of the most important in the Torah.
It allow exile punishment to the people, to complete the Sabbatical years not been fulfilled properly.

In the Jewish holiday of Sukot people live in huts for seven days, to be close to nature.
This is to celebrate the renewed reading of the Torah from Jenesis.

In Pagan religons priests established a similar religous system, linking man's behavior to that of nature.

But the Golden Ratio, which was used widly for aesthetics, and imposing a combination of natural and religous order, almost does not appear in the entire Torah, which is full of numbers and measures.

This is in contrast to the Pyramids, Parthenon and Pantheon, with their sophisticated Golden Ratios.

These were the temples of the enemies of the Jewish people in ancient times, and enemies of the rising monotheistic belief.

Yet Judaism and early Christianity were percieved as more advanced and capble of handling human life.

How could that be without the science of Golden Ratio?

Surely the religous scholers were aware of its importance, even in times of religous persecution and times of change to urban life style.

Judaism had to adjust to modern life its tradition of man's links with natue, but instead a sparation process started.

The immense interpretations of the Torah’s laws didn’t recall the Golden Ratio or even nature's importance.

In the Diaspora, the concept of ignoring nature, and aesthetics, had become even stronger as a central motif for Jewish scholars.

The only imortant thing were moral values and the detailed religous laws.

Human Beings in their flash and blood, with their full neuances, captured the imagination.

Imagination refute formal images and recreate them as dynamic ones.

People were considered brothers and friends, illuminated by God's light and capable of moral attributes, and this was the only important thing.

They asked for Resurgence as a dynamic sublimation process, in an unceasing dialogue between Mankind, God and Earth.

How could Judaism and early Christianity detach themselves so confidently from the values of nature, science, and aesthetics?

There isn't any inherent contradiction between monotheism and the Golden Ratio.
Morality and science should co-exist as vital bricks for building society.
Truth and beauty are simply two differnet ends for the same people.

Perhaps Land of Israel, the original geographical base of Judaism and Christianity, had special properties which allowed scholars to extend their range of interpretation of human life, to a degree uncommon in the Pagan world.


Thursday, February 03, 2011

The Golden Ratio


Leonardo's Human Golden Ratio

Fibonacci, the greatest Mathematician of the Middle-Ages, was a genius who reached the summits of thought and dream. He described a Mathematical series: the Golden Ratio, known also as the Divine Proportion.

In this series any number is the sum of the two previous numbers. It goes on: 1,1,2,3,5,8,13,21,34,55,89,144,233,377,610, 987, 1597, and so on.

The ratio 1.618… is a constant between each two following numbers.
It is always an irrational number without an end.

This series has fantastic qualities, mathematical and accordingly geometrical.

The occupation with the Golden Ratio is so exiting, the formed harmonies so wonderful, that it can create a full world perception.


The Golden Ratio is credited as having great influence on the development of human history and knowledge.

The architects of the pyramids in Egypt proportioned it with a Golden Ratio between the mast and the side lengths.

In the Parthenon in Athens the front is a Golden Rectangle, one of the best manifestations of the Golden Ratio.

The holiest shrine of the Roman Empire, The Pantheon, was also designed according to the Golden Ratio.

Renaissance men like Leonardo de Vinci and Michelangelo used it in their famous works of art.

Composers like Mozart, and modern artists like the architect Le-Corbusier, created their works of art using the Golden Ratio.


The importance of the Golden Ratio in Nature is even bigger.

This ratio appears in countless natural phenomena, which are amazingly different in their outlook appearance.

Few examples are:
The D.N.A shape, the numbers of leafs in plants, the sub divisions of mountains ranges and rivers, the distances between the solar system planets.


The human body organs are proportioned according to the Golden Ratio.

It appears in many of the facial, body and limbs proportions.

This was one of the foundations of Classic Hellenistic sculpture.

Le-Corbusier designed the 'Modular', a drawing of a man with Golden Ratio proportions as a base for his Architectonic plans.

Wednesday, February 02, 2011

The Holy Land and world culture


Gustave Dore - New Jerusalem

The people of Israel had re-established their state in Land of Israel after two thousand years of exile and the Holocaust. One of the lessons of the Holocaust is that a strong Israel is a moral obligation of the free world.
But the Promised Land borders are not defined precisely in the Bible. The Bible says that God, the people of Israel, and Land of Israel, are a consolidated entity. This definition has already decided the fate of the Jewish people. But unlike the people's clear concrete rules, the boundaries were vague and undefined.

Research has determined that there are different border settings of Greater Israel. These territorial definitions were created at different times by different people, and caused absolute misunderstanding. There are also those who claim that the country's borders expand and contract as needed.

Lack of clear map has always been an obstacle for the Zionist idea. Jerusalem became abstract term, one that reflects value and is intangible, in the eyes of the Jews themselves in the Diaspora, from the destruction of the first temple and later.

In modern times, the lack of a map defining the boundaries of Greater Israel influenced crucial political decisions. For example, Sinai Peninsula was given to Egypt casually, because it was not considered by the government of Menachem Begin as part of Greater Israel.

The Catholic Church announced a few years ago, based on an Israeli scholar's research, that Mount Sinai is in the Negev plateau.


In contrast to its mental cancellation as a tangible object, the Land of Israel has always evoked the deepest feelings in all Western and Monotheistic cultures. Longings to Israel, the Holy land, find their expression as a strong physical and emotional experience in prayers, hymns, and works of religious art throughout history.

Gospel songs expressing longing to the Holy Land are major assets of Western Culture. They are earthy level of religious poetry. In them, religious and folk poetry is combined in an inseparable connection.


An American Gospel song:

I'm a Pilgrim

I am a pilgrim and a stranger,
Travelling through this wearisome land,
got a home in that yonder city, oh Lord,
and it's not, not made by hands.

I got a mother, sister and a brother,
who have gone to that sweet land.
I am determined to go and see them
oh Lord,
all over on that distant shore.

As I go down to that river of Jordan,
just to bathe my weary soul.
If I could touch but the hem of his garment,
oh Lord, well, I believe it would make me whole.


A philosophy that deals with human beings must adjust to the images of poems and continue their flow. Philosophy must learn poems honestly, because poetry is the peak of contemplation and expression, the climax of thought and dream.

The connection in this poem between the physical Jordan River and the abstract celestial city is too clear and strong then required for a simple metaphor.
It arouses questions regarding the intimacy between religious and material experiences.

The consistant relationship between the personal religious experience and the physical Holy Land calls for examining its sources.