Praise Awaits You

The congregation that commissioned this curtain brought me a poem, written by Zelda, and requested a High Holy Days curtain that refers to it. The poem ends with the words (in free translation): “But more beautiful than all poems is the white ark curtain on which Praise Awaits You is embroidered in white thread”.

​

This was not an easy task, how to interpret this very pure and understated image into an ark curtain that will maintain the solemnity of the poem yet will have the glory appropriate for the High Holy Days?

 

I looked for inspiration to the source of the text “Praise awaits you”, Psalms 65, for the images on the quilt, while preserving the spirit of Zelda’s poem.

 

The ark curtain is made of raw silk in shades of white and gold. It is heavily quilted by machine and by hand and embellished with white and gold beads.

 

Commissioned for the Bavat Ayin Reform congregation in Rosh HaAyin by Relly Pardo in loving memory of her husband, Yosef Pardo.

​

27x60”