The Accusation - Right Panel of The (In)humanity Triptych


"The Accusation” raises the question of the responsibility for human atrocities and suffering.
In the Book of Esther, Esther accuses the wicked Haman of plotting to destroy the Jewish people. Here, two prisoners in a European ghetto, dressed in the costumes of Esther and Ahasuerus on Purim, accuse us (the viewer) and point to our personal responsibility for the human suffering brought on by humanity’s inhumanity. Perhaps Esther, by pointing outside the frame of the painting, is also accusing God.

 

I have utilized a triptych, a typically Christian device, for several reasons—as I will later explain the triad has, for me, a specifically Kabbalistic significance. However, I also believe that the Christian biblical narrative must be resignified after the Holocaust. In this triptych I am focusing upon the six million who suffered unspeakable physical, mental and spiritual agonies and had their humanity deconstructed for the simple reason that they were Jews. Thus the painting  “The Sacrifice,” which references  the death of the six million in the crematoria, is in the central position that might normally be occupied by Christ on the Cross. Adam and Eve, are in the place of Mary—we see the suffering of the mother and father of all humankind, as they see their progeny incinerated. Finally, Queen Esther (a Jew) and Ahasuerus (a non-Jew)  call upon us to assume ethical responsibility for human suffering.

I am presently contemplating the significance of horror, compassion and responsibility for the theory and practice of psychology. After completing the paintings I have also considered the apparently different roles of men and women in this sequence. This is a topic worthy of further thought and discussion.

From a Kabbalistic perspective, the paintings traverse the dynamic of Shevirah (rupture), Kellipah (husks of evil) and Tikkun (restoration and redemption).

The Kabbalists regarded the expulsion from Eden as a metaphor for Shevirat ha-Kelim, The Breaking of the Vessels. In this painting, I have re-envisioned the Expulsion from Eden as a prelude to the totality of evil that will befall humankind, culminating in the Holocaust. In the first panel of the triptych (above) Adam and Eve peer into the future and see the destruction of humanity in the generation of the flood, which, sadly, presages the destruction of European Jewry in the 20^th century.

In “The Sacrifice” I have depicted my own vision of Noah and his son burning the dead after the recession of the flood. The painting alludes to the God-driven destruction of humanity in the flood, and, of course, to the Shoah. As the story of Noah represents the making of covenant between God and humanity, the Holocaust suggests a rupture in that very covenant, and the highest manifestation of evil in the world. Kabbalistically, it represents the entrapment of divine light in the “husks” of evil, the Kellipot. The light within the crematorium is the fire of divinity that has been turned to abject evil through the acts of man.

The final panel of “The (In)Humanity Triptych represents the possibility for Tikkun ha-Olam, redemption. Here, Holocaust victims in a European ghetto dress up as Esther and Ahasuerus on Purim. They re-enact the scene from The Book Of Esther, where Esther accuses Haman of plotting to exterminate the Jews; only, instead of pointing at a figure within the painting, Esther points at the viewer, as if to accuse us all, and to remind us of our ethical responsibility.

Those interested in these archetypes/symbols may wish to read about them on my website www.newkabbalah.com. 

 The mission style frames for each of the  paintings were handcrafted in Oregon by Jim McDermott in  Quartersawn Oak