I have always marvelled at people whose knowledge of Hebrew and facility with the liturgy is sufficient to sustain devekut throughout the length of a service. For me, the sheer wordiness of many of our practices is overwhelming, and sometimes, counter productive.
Recently I was fortunate enough to participate in Rabbi Daniel's Deepening into Shabbat Prayer practice group, in which we journeyed through the Shabbat liturgy over eight weeks.
Each week there was something that really expanded my spirit, enriching my Shabbat experience. Each week, these openings found expression in a mixed media collage, which incorporated key source texts from the course, bits of the liturgy, my hand painted collage papers, patterned papers, embellishments, stencils, stamps and waxes, as well as gemstones from my collection, my own items of Judaica and photos all my home sanctuary.
As a collection, these pieces have come to comprise for me Shabbat shivitis, visual touchstones that open the door to both ecstatic and contemplative encounters with the spirit of Shabbat. I am grateful to the new insights and understandings that were shared with our cohort, as well as to the creative mark-making that came through me during those couple of months.
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Chana-Toni Whitmont is a collage artist, crystal sound practitioner, creative, teacher and student whose practice and passions are born from her spiritual connection to her Jewish lineage and the ebbs and flows in the annual calendar cycle. She lives on magnificent Bidjigal, Birrabirragal and Gadigal Country (also known as Bondi), on the Pacific coast of Australia.
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