Skip To Content
JEWISH. INDEPENDENT. NONPROFIT.
Back to Opinion

Portrait of the Rabbi as an Artist Explaining Another Artist’s Portrait

I stand in the gallery

pointing out to them

the play of light and dark,

lines curved and straight,

cubes and angles,

all alluding to the Artist’s ardor,

as I coax their adoration.

Some half doze and politely yawn.

Others dismiss with candor

the painted objects of veneration.

And others get entranced

with how He conjures up the dawn.

Dan Ornstein is a rabbi at Congregation Ohav Shalom and a writer in Albany, N.Y.  This poem was inspired by a Torah teaching he learned from Rabbi Gordon Tucker while Ornstein was a rabbinical student at the Jewish Theological Seminary.

Republish This Story

Please read before republishing

We’re happy to make this story available to republish for free, unless it originated with JTA, Haaretz or another publication (as indicated on the article) and as long as you follow our guidelines. You must credit the Forward, retain our pixel and preserve our canonical link in Google search.  See our full guidelines for more information, and this guide for detail about canonical URLs.

To republish, copy the HTML by clicking on the yellow button to the right; it includes our tracking pixel, all paragraph styles and hyperlinks, the author byline and credit to the Forward. It does not include images; to avoid copyright violations, you must add them manually, following our guidelines. Please email us at [email protected], subject line “republish,” with any questions or to let us know what stories you’re picking up.

We don't support Internet Explorer

Please use Chrome, Safari, Firefox, or Edge to view this site.