Photo by: Yaal Herman | https://www.yaalherman.com/
Living and working in Jerusalem, I am a painter and independent scholar specializing in medieval Kabbalah and philosophy. Art is not only a way of life for me but also a laboratory in which I intensify and articulate the mysteries of life as I perceive them.
Traditional techniques and the extraordinary potential of materials, coupled with the power of representation, formal or symbolic, along with arts of transmutation which give access to magic, stand at the core of my research and practice.
Art and Kabbalah meet in my work primarily within the dimensions of depth that are so instrumental
to mystical approach. Depth is where imaginary space opens to unknown perspectives. I trace the
threads of my visions, seeking passages from one dimension to another. Multi-dimensional worlds
captivate my attention. Utilizing tools of extension, retraction, elevation, and descent I craft access points to consciousness.
Depth conceals and conveys secrets, enabling the eye and consciousness to navigate through opacity and intricacies: finding simplicity amidst complexity, recognizing the part within the whole, and the whole within its parts. Within the modest confines of our human world, limitation fosters life, yet within these boundaries lies the the potential to aspire towards something greater… something infinite.
For the last decade, I have focused my artwork on traditional kabbalistic topics such as Angels, Talisman, Merkavah, Hamsah and Ilan Sefirot (tree), gathering ancient Jewish iconography and reinterpreting them into a new image system. One of my goals is to create new icons from ancient ones, to revive them and give them new form. In a way it is a cultural process where ancient forms of life are reborn into new ones.
In recent years, my artistic practice has delved into dreams and prophetic practices, drawing guidance from my own dreams, mystical meditation (prophetic practice), and shamanic journeys, exploring the liminal spaces of consciousness where passages are forged between reality and the imaginary realm. I’ve developed a deep affinity for map and labyrinth representations which have become new gateways to journey within my artwork, helping me navigate enigmatic spaces and paving new paths. I draw inspiration and guidance from my dreams. They are my spiritual guides, giving me inspiration and unique abstract and figurative compositions.
PROFESSIONAL ACTIVITIES
2019-2024: Lecturer, Hebrew University, Rotberg School.
2018-2019: Yale U. affiliated scholar
2016-2018: Israel Museum-Safed College-Rothberg School, Hebrew University
2014-2016: Israel Museum- Lecturer Emunah College- Safed College- Lecturer
2013-2014: Seminar Coordinator. J. R Elyachar Center for Studies in Sepharadi Heritage, Ben-
Gurion University of the Negev.
2011-2013: Goldstein-Goren Post-Doctorate Fellow & lecturer, Department of Jewish Thought,
Ben-Gurion University of the Negev, Israel.
2010 – 2011:Rabin Post-Doctorate Fellow & Lecturer, Department of Religion & Institute for
Israel and Jewish Studies, Columbia University, New York USA.
2009 – 2011: Lecturer, Religious Studies Dept., Yale University.
Spring 2010: Dean Ernest Schwarc Visiting Eminent Professor in Jewish Philosophy – Queens
College.
2008-2009: lecturer, History Department & the Center for Jewish Studies,UCLA & AJU
(American Jewish University).
2003 – 2005: Shalom Hartman Institute, Jerusalem.
2002 – 2003: Lecturer, ‘Alliance Israelite’, Paris.
2001 – 2002:Lecturer, ‘Beit Hillel’, Hebrew University, Jerusalem.
EDUCATION
2008: PhD: Hebrew University of Jerusalem / Dept. of Jewish Thought.
1990 – 1996: Ecole Nationale Supérieure des Beaux-Arts de Paris. Diplôme Supérieur des Arts
(M.A Painting)
winter semester 1994: Art Institute of Chicago: Computer Imaging, Holography, Light
Experimenting and Light Technology.
1989 – 1994: M.A. in Philosophy, University of Paris I, Sorbonne.
EXHIBITIONS
“The Doe of Dawn”, curator: Rachel Verliebter, Bible Land Museum, biennale of Jerusalem,
2024.
IASD exhibition, Kerkrade Netherlands, 2024.
“Hearing silence”, curator: Vanessa de Loya, Gesher Guest House, biennale of Jerusalem,
2022.
“Bodyscapes”, curator: Adina Kamien, Israel Museum, 2020.
“Géométries de l’Invisible”, EAC Centre d’Art Contemporain, France (collective exhibition),
2020.
“Energeia”, curator : Pascal Pique, Galerie Topographie de l’art, Paris, 2019.
Circles in the Tree, BEKI Gallery, New Haven, USA, 2019.
“Les Visionnaires”, curator : Pascal Pique, galerie 24Beaubourg, Paris, 2019.
“Hamsah hamsah hamsah in Contemporary Israeli art”, curator: Ido Noy & Miriam Shamir,
Islamic Art Museum, 2018.
“City-Wide open studios”, Erector Square, New Haven, USA, 2018.
“Skyline Artefacts”, curator: Sandra Valabregue, Skirball Museum Jerusalem, biennale of
Jerusalem, 2017.
“Bad ve-Bad”, Jerusalem Theather, 2015.
“Machboim“, Jerusalem House of Quality- Art Center, 2014.
BEKI Congregation, New Haven, 2011.
“Fingertips”, Allan and Leah Rabinowitz Gallery, Slifka Center, Yale, 2010.
“God loves Beauty Festival”, Wilshire Temple, Los Angeles, 2008.
Merkaz Ha-Tarbouyot, Jérusalem,2002&2007 .
Gallery Espace du Possible, Paris, 2001.
Salon de Marne la Vallée, 1996.
Gallery Les Creations, Paris, 1995.
CONFERENCES
“Sefirotic Tree and divine body” Conney Conference for Jewish Art, New York, 2019.
“Abstraction and Representation in Medieval Neoplatonism philosophy and Kabbalah”, AJS,
Boston 2018.
“The Role of Images in the Theory of Emanation in Medieval Neoplatonism and Kabbalah”,
Common and Comparative Esotericisms: Western, Islamic and Jewish, ENSIE, Venice, 2018.
“Conceptions of emanation in Kabbalah of Gerona”, conference: kabbalah in Gerona in 13c,
Scholion Center, Hebrew University, Jerusalem, 2018.
“Sign and Angel: an artistic portrait”, Van Leer Institute, Jerusalem, 2017.
“The Status of the Symbol in Theosophical Kabbalah” Bar Ilan University, 2017.
“The Status of the Symbol in Theosophical Kabbalah” Bar Ilan University, 2016.
“Image as Imaginative Space in Art and Kabbalah” Bar Ilan University, 2016.
“Images of Light in Medieval Kabbalah”, Light in a Socio-Cultural Perspective, international
conference, Beer Sheva.2015
“Faith and theological Heresy in Philosophy and Early Kabbalah” E.A.J.S, July 2014.
“Conception of emanation in theosophical Kabbalah and Zohar literature”, Congress: Literature
of Zohar and its generation, Ben Gurion University [Hebrew], June 2014.
“Conception of emanation in medieval Jewish philosophy and early Kabbalah”, international
workshop: Arabic Neoplatonism in al-Andalus among Muslims Je FMSH-IFERws and
Christians”, Hebrew University of Jerusalem, June 2014.
“La Kabbale et son alter ego la philosophie” C.P.A.F (Centre Paul-Albert) University of Aix-
Marseille Maison Méditerranéenne des Sciences, March 2013
“La réception de la philosophie néoplatonicienne et aristotélienne dans la Kabbale” I.N.A.L.C.O
(Institut National des Langues et Civilisations Orientales), Paris, Fev. 2013
“The Maiden and the Lady: Kabbalah and Philosophy in the Middle Ages”
Ben Gurion University, Dept. of Jewish Thought, Dec. 2011 [Hebrew]
“Theosophical Faith and Theological Heresy in Medieval Kabbalah” AJS, Boston Dec. 2010
“God’s Infinite Dimensions in Medieval Philosophy and Kabbalah” Yale University, Nov. 2010
“The Concept of Infinity in Kabbalah,” Queens College, April 2010
“Eyn-Sof (Infinity) and the Rise of Theosophical Kabbalah,” UCLA, Center for Jewish Studies,
March 2008.
“Rabbi Isaac of Acre Conception of God’s Unity” 14th International Congress for Jewish studies,
Jerusalem, August 2005. [Hebrew]
“La Shefa, Influx divin et émanation dans la Cabale”, Alliance Israelite de France, Paris, June
2004.
BOOKS
בנסתר ובנגלה, האין סוף בקבלה התיאוסופית, כרוב: לוס אנג’לס, 2010
[Concealed and Revealed: “Eyn Sof” (Infinity) in Theosophic Kabbalah, Cherub Press, Los
Angeles 2010]
Abraham Pincas & Sandra Valabregue, La Source et le Nuage, E.R.E.C, Paris, 2003.
ARTICLES
“מהפשטה לייצוגיות: המרחב הפנים-אלוהי בקבלה התיאוסופית”, ספר יובל לכבוד פרפ’ משה אידל, תרביץ (עתיד להתפרסם)
“Imagery of light in Medieval Kabbalah”, in: Light in a Socio-Cultural Perspective, eds. Ruth Lubashevsky, Ronit Milano (Cambridge; Cambridge Scholars Publishing, 2017), 93-110.
“The Limits of Negative Theology in : Medieval Kabbalah and Jewish Philosophy”, in Negative Theology and Jewish Modernity, ed. Michael Fagenblat (Bloomington and Indianapolis: Indiana University Press, 2017), 30-48.
“Philosophy, Heresy and Kabbalah’s Counter-Theology” Harvard Theological Review 109:2 (2016): 233-256
“La représentation du divin dans le Judaïsme”, in : “Figurer le Christ – des temps apostoliques à l’aube de l’époque moderne”, Histoire et Religions 51 (juillet 2013): 60-64.
“Eyn-Sof and the Rise of the theosophical Kabbalah,” Jewish Quarterly Review 102.3 (summer 2012): 405-430.
“La Shefa, Influx divin et émanation dans la Cabale”, La Cité biblique: Une lecture politique de la Bible, S. Trigano (éd.), Pardès 40-41 (2006) : 265-279.
עם אדם אפטרמן, “הזכרת השם המפורש בסדר העבודה ביום כיפור”, בזאת יבא אל הקדש: קדושה בזמן ובאדם. אסופת מאמרים ועיונים, ירושלים תשס”ה, עמ’ 115 – 129.
Sandra Valabregue-Perry and Adam Afterman, “The Utilization of Divine Names in the Temple Worship on the Day of Atonement,” “In This Way He is to Enter into the Holy”: Holiness in Time and Man (Jerusalem 2005), 125-129.
“Maase Mercavah, traduction et introduction”, Anthologie de la Kabbalah, La Pleïade, Paris (Forthcoming). (French)
“Shem tov ibn Shem Tov; une réflexion sur l’Infini”(French) in : Mélanges Roland Goestchel : Etudes d’histoire de philosophie et de mystique juive (Presses de l’université Paris-Sorbonne: Paris, 2025). (forthcoming)