Torah Pointers Performing the Priestly Blessing

Mark Podwal (b. Brooklyn, NY, 1945)
2017, USA
Acrylic and colored pencil on paper, 20 x 16 in.
2018.5.12

Mark Podwal created this piece for an exhibition that took its inspiration from Judaica in the B’nai B’rith collection transferred to the Skirball Museum in 2015. In this piece, he drew altered versions of the Polish yad made by M. Goldsmidt and a 20th century yad from the United States. But rather than topping off each yad with the traditional pointed fingers that helps Torah readers keep their place in the scroll, Podwal arranges hands in the shape of the priestly blessing atop each one, as though the yads are arms outstretched in benediction by a priest of the ancient Temple in Jerusalem.

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