The Quest for Heavenly & Earthly Jerusalem

Awakening – View from the North – digital print / Dimensions of the original painting 100×100

Realization – View from the East – digital print / Dimensions of the original painting 90×120 / 1997

Jubilation – View from the South – digital print / Dimensions of the original painting 100×100

Orientation- View from the West – digital print / Dimensions of the original painting 90×120

Opening the Gate of Mercy – oil on canvas 100×115, digital prints available

Inspired by Dr. Yitzhak Hayutman, in these painting is visualized the age-old yearning of humankind for Peace, Unity & Redemption, expressed through the archetype symbolism of “Heavenly Jerusalem” & the “Third Temple”.
There’re 5 paintings in the series, each showing Jerusalem from a different viewpoint:
“Orientation” from the West, “Awakening” from the North, “Redemption” from the East and “Celebration” from the South, and the center of the mandala is The opening of the Gate of Mercy.

According to the Jewish tradition the First & Second Temple in Jerusalem were destroyed because of hatred within the tribes of Israel, which thus weakened from within, weren’t able to hold on against invasions from outside. Throughout its long history, the city of Jerusalem has undergone awesome upheavals, destructions and rebuildings, that go on even to this day.
The unceasing warring and contention of the nations over the Holy Land intensified the yearning of the suffering people for Peace and Harmony. The invocations of humankind for wholesome Peace fused into the archetypal ideal and myth of “Heavenly Jerusalem”. The challenge of humanity’s reaching adulthood depends on its ability to heal the enormous gap between its holistic heavenly ideals and aching earthly realities.
Our unique way of approaching this demanding subject was through visual art, hopefully contributing to the over-all effort for healing Jerusalem.

The principal messages of these paintings are: Unity through Diversity; unity of male and female; communication between heavenly & earthly – utopia and reality; brotherhood between the three religions that turn to Jerusalem as their common spiritual cradle; and relating to the myth with living heart.
Heavenly Jerusalem is here symbolically envisioned in four visual manifestations, according to a specific symbolism of the art of sacred geometry. It is hovering above the Earthly Jerusalem as a celestial “Temple-ship” or “Merkavah”, while complex interactions are happening between the higher and lower worlds. In each of the paintings Earthly Jerusalem is viewed from one of the four directions: North, West, South and East.