Word as Image - Week 3: An Infinity of Shoulds (Lech Lecha 2023/5784)

This piece, entitled An Infinity of Shoulds, was created on Shabbat Lech Lecha 2023, in the shadow of Hamas’ ghastly October 7 attack and all that followed. 

Using a paper-craft design of a cascading waterfall of openable pages (images below), I drew on missives from Roberta Wall (Torah at the Intersection), Rabbi Daniel Raphael Silverstein and Rabbi Josh Warshawsky, conversations with my study companions, inspiration from my Jewish mindfulness and meditation practice and the Lech Lecha teachings of the Lubavitcher Rebbe and the Netivot Shalom.

This is a very personal piece. As it happened, our whole family had recently experienced an unrelated but completely unexpected tragedy that left all of us reeling. It all got tangled up with the the fall-out from October 7. I was experiencing a lot of family pressure to respond, lead and act in particular ways - hence the title, An Infinity of Shoulds.  I was mired in grief, lost in fear and unable to practice, meditate or pray. And in the background, the rising spectre of antisemitism and the horror of what was unfolding in Israel, Gaza and beyond.  

Rabbi Daniel’s words stayed with me:

"God tells us that the path is not easy, that there will be suffering, that being in this role of loving Oneness,, of encountering every being with infinity value and dignity involves standing up to paradigms, dichotomies and tyrants…We all need to be Avram Haivri - Avram the Hebrew - standing on one side of the river examining ourselves while the entire world seems to be on the other side”.

I remember listening for the small still voice inside, but it completely alluded me. All I could hear was that cacophony of “shoulds”. 

Chana-Toni Whitmont

Parshat Lech Lecha 5784/2023

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Lech Lecha - An Infinity of Shoulds is part of the Word as Image project which comprises more than 50 weekly visual midrashim to be published here over the year 5787. Click Word as Image to find out more about this project.   

Chana-Toni Whitmont is a collage and mixed media artist, crystal sound practitioner, creative, writer, wanna-be calligrapher and curious questioner whose practice and passions are born from her spiritual connection to her Jewish lineage and the ebbs and flows of its calendar cycle. She lives on ancient Bidjigal, Birrabirragal and Gadigal Country (also known as Bondi), on the Pacific coast of Australia.

She can be contacted through the AJS Members WhatsApp Group or at twhitmont@gmail.com