A Visit to the Museum of Psalms

April 9, 2009

by Nina Robinson

JERUSALEM - Once in a while one comes across a hidden gem, which is what happened when a group of friends and I set out for a visit to the Bet Ticho Museum on Yafo Street in Jerusalem. As we headed toward the gallery, a bright blue sign caught my eye, indicating the entrance to the Museum of Psalms. And what a museum it is. As you enter the courtyard that leads to the main part of the museum, you could be anywhere. Well, except America, as someone pointed out. I guess anywhere where there are old tin cans lying around, dusters, rusting pipes, stray cats and a general sewer smell.

But this was in no way an indication of the beautiful works of art that greeted us as we passed under the old stone, arched entrance. Everywhere one looked, there were vast murals containing a myriad of colours depicting one of the psalms contained in the Tanakh. Swirls of clouds emitting carefully selected letters of the Hebrew alaphabet, intertwined and embedded in the grander scheme and image, bursting with brightness and vitality. One wanders from room to room not knowing which one to look at first and how one is going to be able to remember them all. Some line a covered walkway, their edges wrinkled from the Israeli humidity, and the path is strewn with mud from an overflowing plant pot. Not only are there paintings in frames but the ceilings and walls themselves contain large and intricate murals that appear to have been made with painstaking care to retain symmetry and definition.

From around the corner appeared an elderly gentleman with a thick French accent, long white beard and well used and worn hands. He explained that the rabbi of the Kotel had opened this museum many years ago and that he had received a special blessing from Rabbi Schneerson to continue this work and paint a picture to represent each psalm. He told us he was  the only one who had been given permission to display his art in an exhibition at the Kotel itself. Whilst we stood around marvelling at the paintings surrounding us, he discussed a couple of the designs in detail, describing his particular selection of colours, shapes and their placement within the picture.

One of the group asked him if he had been inspired by Kabbalah, as it sounded to her, by the way he described the symbolic significance of the colours employed, that this indeed may have been the case. However, it seemed that this was not a question he was prepared to answer. The irony is that the website clearly states this inspiration and as he handed me a postcard that I had bought in a ‘Zohar Cleaners’ bag. I couldn’t help but smile.