Suffering With Joy

Moshe Tzvi HaLevi Berger – Painter of the Psalms

July 30, 2010

Since I began participating in the meme “Praying the Psalms” and stumbled on the work of Moshe Tzvi Halevi Berger, I have been thinking about this man and his work. What contribution might his paintings make to my spiritual life and my understanding of our heavenly Father? What of his life will contribute to my understanding of Orthodox Judaism? What might it tell of the minds and hearts of devout Jews at the time of Jesus?  Of devout Jews of today?

These subjects may not be important to many, but I am always thinking of how we Catholics can possibly bridge the gap between our understanding of Christ and that of others. Who knows what role the answers to my questions will play in gathering others to Him?  Perhaps none, but learning more will make me a better, more thankful Christian and deepen my awe of how God works in others.  Of that I am sure.

To understand Berger’s paintings, it is important to understand the man.  Born in 1925 in Transylvania, Berger is no ordinary person although he looks like the quintessential Jewish grandfather.  He is someone I wish I could sit down and speak with for many days because of his fascinating life and work.

Berger is descended from a long line of Hassidic Rabbis. As a young man he was interned in a Nazi prison camp for several years and after being liberated completed medical school to became an oral surgeon.  By 1957 he quit medical practice to study in Paris at the Ecole des Beaux Arts.  He also studied in Italy at Rome’s Instituto de Belle Arte and became a successful commercial artist.  God was working in Berger in the midst of his secular success, however.  His artistic focus changed dramatically when he began studying the Torah and Kabbalah. In 1982 as he began living as an observant Jew, he was experiencing that deep longing only God can satisfy.

A short departure here: the Torah is the five books of Moses.  The Kabbalah is, according to Wikipedia

a discipline and school of thought concerned with the mystical aspect of Rabbinic Judaism. It is a set of esoteric teachings meant to explain the relationship between an eternal and mysterious Creator and the mortal and finite universe (His creation).

As in New Age systems that corrupt Christian teaching and mash eastern mysticism with Christian spirituality, some unscrupulous people promote the Kabbalah as holding the “secrets” of all wisdom.  It’s all gnosticism and what the attraction to this perversion of truth holds for many is beyond me.   I can say that based on what Berger writes about his paintings, he is giving expression to the mystery of God’s love for man in his art, making verses of the Psalms become visual.  Superstition and gnosticism appear to play no part in his thinking or work.

After moving to the United States in the early 1980s, Berger gained renown for very large Kabbalistic murals he painted in Florida and Brooklyn, New York.  The latter was six stories high.  In 1988 he began his series of Psalm paintings which would take him fifteen years to complete. The year 1992 saw him move to Jerusalem where in 1995 he founded the Museum of Psalms in a building located in the courtyard of the synagogue built by former Israel Chief Rabbi, Avraham Yitzhak Kook.   Berger lives in a single room next to the museum and visitors often are privileged to have him as a guide when viewing his works.

As if illustrating all 150 Psalms was not enough, Berger embarked on the task of painting 42 images on healing, light, and meditation called the Sun series. Based on the Zohar, these are no less deep than the Psalm paintings.  Completed in 2007, they are part of the collection at the Museum of Psalms.

Another short departure: the Zohar is a group of books including commentary on the mystical aspects of the Torah (the five books of Moses).  Wikipedia says,

The Zohar contains a discussion of the nature of God, the origin and structure of the universe, the nature of souls, redemption, the relationship of Ego to Darkness and “true self” to “The Light of God,” and the relationship between the “universal energy” and man. Its scriptural exegesis can be considered an esoteric form of the Rabbinic literature known as Midrash, which elaborates on the Torah.

The goal of Moshe Tzvi HaLevi Berger in painting the Psalms was to “bring inspiration to the souls of many who seek spiritual enlightenment and do not live by bread alone.”

These are the very words Jesus spoke in Matt. 4:4:

But he answered and said, It is written, Man shall not live by bread alone, but by every word that proceedeth out of the mouth of God

and Luke 4:4:

And Jesus answered him, saying, It is written, That man shall not live by bread alone, but by every word of God

derived from Deuteronomy 8:3:

And he humbled thee, and suffered thee to hunger, and fed thee with manna, which thou knewest not, neither did thy fathers know; that he might make thee know that man doth not live by bread only, but by every word that proceedeth out of the mouth of the LORD doth man live.

Berger has had more than 100 one-man shows on three continents.  Had it not been for the internet, I would never have discovered this great and unique spiritual art which rightly belongs to the Judeo-Christian heritage.  In my next post I will write a little about the elements of symbolism in his works but for now, let me say that he has inspired me on my journey of suffering with joy.

Tags: art, joy, suffering

1 Comment to Moshe Tzvi HaLevi Berger – Painter of the Psalms

1. 

   Interesting. I’m going to have to do some research on his work.
Evan on August 1st, 2010