Stained Glass Windows

 

 

The Stained Glass Windows that adorn the sanctuary of

Congregation Neve Shalom, Metuchen,  New Jersey, presented

to it by the Sisterhood are the work of Efrem Weitzman.

 

The five themes are:

Creation (of the world, of life, of man)

And the four key moments in the life of a Jew:

Birth, Bar/t Mitzvah, Marriage, Death.

  Creation

 

The first theme basically follows the biblical account of Creation, as recorded in the very first chapter of the Torah (starting at the right) darkness giving way to light at God’s command; the wind of the Divine spirit over the waters (note the wing of the Sh’cheenah, God’s creative presence); the appearance of dry land through the gathering of the waters; the sprouting of vegetation; the rising of the sun, moon and stars; the emergence of animal life beginning with fish, creeping things, and fowl and culminating with man, crown of God’s handiwork. In accordance with a widespread tradition, the creation of man is depicted without the use of a human figure; it is here portrayed by two stones and a torch, since fire is crucial to so many of man’s creative pursuits. (According to a famous midrash, Adam’s hope for survival in the world was sustained by his discovery of the art of making fire.) 

 

This first theme concludes with the inscription (within a banner) of the Hebrew word “B’resheet” (in the beginning) and with the depiction, through wine cup and decanter, of the sanctification (kiddush) of the Holy Shabbat; a weekly reminder of God’s completed work of Creation; weekly reminder of man’s blessed duty-and-privilege to pause from one’s own work and hallow the day hallowed by God; weekly reminder of God’s redemption; and weekly reminder of the Covenant between God and Israel.

 

 

BIRTH

 

 

Besides the seventh-day token of the Covenant, the Torah provides an eighth-day token of the Covenant; it is on the eighth day of a Jewish male’s life (even if the eighth day be the Sabbath or Yom Kippur) that the sign of the holy Covenant of Abraham our father is sealed in the flesh through circumcision of the foreskin – a sign in the organ of generation that God’s Covenant with Abraham, the very first Jew, is passed on through all the generations of Abraham’s seed. (Genesis, Chapter 17.) the circumcision is here depicted by the Hebrew words “B’rit Milah” (Covenant of Circumcision) inscribed in the bottom banner; by the candles lit on that occasion; by the knife (within the sun); by the six-pointed star or Shield of David (Magen David), which has come to be a symbol of the People of Israel; and by the chair of Elijah, on one of whose cushions the infant is held – with the other cushion left vacant for Elijah the Prophet: messenger of the Covenant fulfilled, repairer of the breach, And forerunner of the Messiah, descendant of David. (The time of the Messiah’s coming is unknown: perhaps it will be soon, within this child’s lifetime; the identity of the Messiah is unknown: perhaps it will be this child.)

 

A male child who is a first-born as well is not only circumcised on the eighth day of his life but is also redeemed on the thirty-first, in accordance with the command of Scripture (Exodus, Chapter 13 and Numbers, Chapters 3 and 18). Note the Hebrew letters (in the top banner) spelling “Pidyon Haben,” redemption of the (first born) son.

 

The redemption price of five shekels (note them on the cushion) is paid to a Kohen, a member of the priestly clan, for even though the Covenant People Israel in its entirety was to constitute a “kingdom of priests and holy nation,” Scripture records a special “covenant of shalom,” a special degree of holiness, and a special status of priesthood for the descendants of Aaron, brother of Moses. This designation of the Kohen-clan, released the first-born of all other Israelite families, upon redemption, from whatever priestly service might have developed upon them when they were spared while the first-born Egyptians were slain in the last of the Ten Plagues before the Exodus. (A first-born son who is himself a Kohen or Levi, descendant of Moses and Aaron’s tribe, Levi, is therefore not redeemed.) Note the wine cup and adjacent challah-bread partaken of on these as on other holy, festive occasions. Note also the recently risen sun in this depiction of the dawn of life.

 

 

 BAR/BAT) MITZVAH

 

The sun is now at its height, for the child had now attained physical maturity and religious majority; at the age of thirteen (he or she) becomes a Bar (or Bat) Mitzvah, child of the Commandment, old enough to enter upon the Covenant obligation and privilege of observing the commandments of the Lord. Note the Hebrew letter (in the bottom panel) spelling “Bar Mitzvah” (The original intent in the 1960s when this was created was Bar Mitzvah though the word might also be read as “Bat” with the extra red addition to the second letter of that word.) Note (within the sun) the skullcap (kippah) and phylacteries (t’fillin); note also the fringed prayer shawl (tallit), the prayerbook (siddur) and the open scroll of the Torah. Wearing the skull cap, robed in the fringed tallit (see Numbers, Chapter 15), schooled in the prayers of the siddur, the Bar (Bat) Mitzvah is for the first time granted the honor of an Aliyah (ascent) to the pulpit for the reading from the Five Books of Moses, written by hand on the parchment scroll of the Torah in the original Hebrew – thus publicly acknowledging the blessed privilege of being of the People Israel, with whom the Covenant was established at Sinai and to whom the Torah was given. Ever therafter he (or she) is eligible to called to the Torah on Sabbaths, holy days, or other

days when it is read – thus renewing the covenant through the Torah, tree of life to those who hold fast to it and key to life eternal. Thereafter, she or he may be counted among the ten adults required for public worship, and among the three adults required for the public form of the grace after meals.

Thereafter, on each weekday, the young adult can wear t’fillin upon head and arm as commanded in scripture (Exodus Chapter 13; Deuteronomy Chapters 6 & 11) – reciting, as one winds the leather strap around the fingers, God’s word of covenantal love to Israel, “I will betroth you to Me forever…in justice and righteousness, in love and compassion, and in faithfulness.” (Hosea Chapter 2).

 

 

 MARRIAGE

 

 

Upon maturity a child of the Covenant becomes ready for the covenant of marriage. Note the halves of two wedding rings on the windows to the right and the left of the pulpit: linked, as it were, by the Holy Ark (Aron Hakodesh) which houses the scrolls of the Torah. Above the Ark hangs the Eternal Light (Ner Tamid), token of God’s constant presence (ours was created by a member of Neve Shalom, Sol Chadowitz). A Jewish husband and wife are to live their personal covenant of love in the context of God’s covenantal love for Israel and the constant awareness of God’s word and law and holy presence. With that awareness, their union will be sanctified and their love hallowed (kiddushin) – a love will be sanctified and purified by the Torah; without awareness, their love becomes mere passion, the wedding bands and bonds are broken, and the marriage is consumed. The mutual faithfulness required of husband and wife is analogous to the faithfulness required of Israel by God. (Both requirements are included in the Ten Commandments which frame the Holy Ark.) The light and joy and fragrance of true marital love are analogous to the light and joy and fragrance of God’s love for Israel. (“God rejoices over you as a bridegroom rejoices over his bride.”) Hence the candles, which are carried both in the wedding procession and in the Torah procession on Simchat Torah (Festival of Rejoicing over the Torah). Hence also the apples (on the candlesticks), with their double association of the sweetness and the fragrance of life (“under the apple tree I aroused you”; “like the apple tree among the trees of the forest, so is my beloved among daughters”) and the sweetness and fragrance of Israel’s acceptance of the Torah.

 

Note the marriage canopy (chuppah) supported by two poles, which symbolizes the home that husband and wife build and share. Note also the Magen David which appears once again in the background: the home is to be a Jewish home. Note also the two trees (on either side), the cedar and cypress, one planted at the birth of a boy and the other at the birth of a girl, so that upon maturity the branches might provide the poles for supporting the chuppah. (Note the Hebrew word “chatunah”. (wedding) in the bottom banner). Note also the booth (sukkah) above the chuppah, a further reminder that our married life is on trust from God, known to God and dependent upon God – the true Builder (“if the Lord does not build the house, in vain do they labor who seek to build it”); our true “dwelling-place in all generations”; and Israel’s guardian from the days of the wilderness until this day. (“I remember the loyalty of your youth, your bridal love, when you followed after me in the wilderness, in a land that was not sown.”) Note the streams of sunlight and of seed and the bowl of fruit they yield. (“Be fruitful and multiply.”) Note (within the sun) the cup of wine that is sipped by bride and groom under the chuppah, token of the cup of joy and blessing to be shared by husband and wife. Note also (at the bottom) the

fragments of a second cup, broken at the conclusion of the wedding – a re-affirmation of the psalmist’s oath “to set Jerusalem above my chiefest joy,” until the Holy Temple in Jerusalem will be rebuilt and the People Israel fully restored, until the City of Peace will be fully established and mankind fully redeemed.

 

Until that time, the love of the husband and wife must not be a love-in-isolation, of separation from Israel’s lot and task, but must be a love lived in dedication and involvement, a life of effort and concern. (The colors are bright, the sun still strong, “like a bridegroom coming forth from his chuppah, rejoicing lie a young man to run his course.”) The Messiah may come within the lifetime of this very couple, or he may not; the Messiah may be the offspring of this very couple, or he may not. In any case, even if it is not given to human beings to bring the Messiah, it is given them to hasten or delay his coming – and in the Day of Final Judgment, each will be asked: ”Did you work for His coming with integrity, did you hope for His coming with confidence?”

 

 DEATH

 

The sun is setting; the candle (within the sun) is burning low; the colors are subdued; the sands in the hour glass have run out; the chain of life is broken; the end has come; death is here.

 

But death is not absolutely final; death does not defeat God; God remains enthroned; God fits even death into God’s plan and purpose; and in God’s own time will the Lord bring about a resurrection of the dead (Note how the chain of life, broken at the right of the bottom ram’s horn (shofar), is resumed on the left.)

 

“A great shofar is sounded; a still small voice is heard; the day of judgment is at hand.” As on the High Holidays, the Days of Awe, one shofar (to the right of the sun) proclaims that the Lord is King; a second shofar (below the sun) proclaims that the Lord remembers. Nothing is hidden from God who in truth is Judge, Prosecutor, Witness – the All-knowing One. The record is clear and complete; note how the sun contains a recapitulation-in-brief of all that has come before: in the right hand portion, a recapitulation of the Creation (note the sun, moon, etc.); in the left hand portion, a recapitulation of the three key moments in life (note candle, wine cup, challah, etc.) preceding this fourth moment of death.

 

And yet, though there is judgment and punishment and chastisement, when administered by the just and loving God these are not vindictive nor destructive, but corrective and purgative; indeed they are redemptive. Hence the third shofar (left of the sun): shofar of Messianic redemption. The One who smites is also the One who heals; the sun, which had previously set, has not risen again, with protection and healing in its wings. (Note how the wings of the Sh’chinah, the Divine presence that hovered over creation in the first group of windows are spread across the top and dominate these last four windows.) “Your sun shall no longer smite you by day, nor the moon by night; for the Lord shall be your everlasting light, and the days of your mourning shall be over” As the last words of the twenty-third Psalm assure us (note the five Hebrew words in the three banners: “V’shavtee b’vet Adonai l’orech yameem” - “I shall dwell in the House of the Lord forever.”