Berchot Ha Torah (Blessings of the Torah)

marleneburns©2013
Berchot ha Torah. marleneburns©2013

Blessed are You, O Lord, Our G-d, King of the universe,
Who selected us from all the peoples and gave us His Torah,
Blessed are You, O Lord, Giver of the Torah.
Blessed are You, O Lord, Our G-d, King of the universe, who gave us
the Torah of truth and implanted eternal life within us.
Blessed are You, O Lord, Giver of the Torah.  (Berchot ha Torah)

This image is the expression of the blessings that frame the chanting of a
portion of Torah. The honor of saying these blessings is called an aliyah.
G-d’s presence is the color red at the top of the painting with His influence
directed downward in the drips and bands of color. The red bands heading
down to the red circle on the right, represent the giving of Torah at Mount Sinai.
This revelation happened in the second book of Moses. Each of the rectangles
symbolizes one of the five books of Moses. Central to the painting is the
silhouette of the Torah in deep purple. Around this form, lines embrace the scroll, emulating how we embrace the Torah and center our lives around its teachings.
Within this silhouette are the first and last letters of the Torah, bet and lamed.
The red circles reference the gematria (numerology) of those letters.
The two dots are for the letter bet, with its numerical equivalent of two.
The trio of dots, with each dot representing ten, totals thirty for the lamed.
The first and last letters of the Torah form a larger lamed.
This letter signifies the strength of G-d’s words for His people, Israel.
Pirke Avot (Ethics of Our Fathers) states that thirty is the age of great strength.

Marlene Burns’ website.