פרשת אַחֲרֵי מוֹת Parshat Acharei Mot
Geoffrey Lawrence and Rabbi Ysoscher Katz
Summary and Video Link:
This Articulation features Geoffrey Laurence and Rabbi Ysoscher Katz. They have both undergone their own respective Yom Kippur Avoda Services and done so to reflect on their life stories and to call out to G-d and ask questions about the Holocaust, theodicy and our recobbled together lives in its aftermath. This presentation will move you, and will mindfully escort us into the apex of the High Holiday Season, Yom Kippur.
To watch the recording of their Articulation please follow this HERE
Piece Description:
Geoffrey Lawrence, “Atonement”
Amid performing the Avoda Service, The High Priest glances up at the Almighty. He obeys and performs his duties without a word, but his expression can not hold back his perplexed despair. The name of the Torah Portion is Acharei Mot, “In the wake of loss”, it is after losing his two sons that Aaron performs the first Yom Kippur service. In the background of the image are the ominous gates of Auschwitz. This piece dresses the theological grappling that we all have been burdened with in the aftermath of the Holocaust.
Discussion Questions:
1. The gates of Auschwitz hang over Aaron’s head, but it is obscured, darkened and covered by the smoke stack of the foregrounded image. What does this artistic choice say about this image’s inner message? Read Leviticus Chapter 16 with this lens. How does bringing the Torah portion of Ache Mot in conversation with the Holocaust change the way you read the text? Does some of the language change in resonance?
2. It is particularly striking that the High Priest is only wearing a Tallis. The rabbis teach that the repeated phrase from the Selichot service “ויעבור ה על פניו ויקרא“ describes a moment that G-d passed over Moses and became his Tallis. In what ways does this artistic choice speak to this idea. Given that this garb does not match what the high priest actually wore during the Avoda Service, , and incorporates modernized imagery innovatively, in what ways does the photo-realism of this image allow us to reconstruct the image of the Avoda service with new resonance and meaning?
3. In Geoffrey Laurence’s early drafts, he drew Aaron with blood on his hands, but as he began painting the layers, it wouldn’t allow him to include this feature on the High Priest’s hands. What would this have changed about the image’s message? Have you ever experienced a dynamic relationship between yourself and a creative project you were working on, where you felt the agency from the other side? Where, if you listened close enough the project was speaking to you?
4. The rams and lambs are alive and stare directly at the observer, while Aaron’s eyes are directed upward. In these moments before they are to be sacrificed, what Is being expressed in this moment? Do their pretense make Aaron feel more alone or more lost. What does it imply of where we find ourselves along the chronology of the Avoda service? Who do each parties represent to you? Under your construction, would you be able to think of a way in which those representational roles are reversed?
Parshat Acharei Mot אַחֲרֵי מוֹת
by Rabbi Ysoscher Katz
Coming soon…