“The original ceiling illustrated a simple theme shared by many synagogues: a night sky, filled with golden stars. This scene is reminiscent of Jacob’s dream while sleeping under the stars (Genesis 28:11–19) shortly after fleeing his father’s house. It was… — Benjamin Blech Copy Share Image
“Michelangelo managed to join the preexisting flooring with his new ceiling design into a unique statement. The result was an uncanny illustration of the ancient Kabbalistic tenet “As below, so above; as above, so below.” In other words, the spiritual… — Benjamin Blech Copy Share Image
“If an artist of the caliber of Leonardo or Michelangelo was paid a hefty commission for a new private piece of art, that artwork… — Benjamin Blech Copy Share
“The Florentine public didn’t care. When the full-sized preparatory cartoons were displayed, the entire city went into ecstasy over both works. This was the… — Benjamin Blech Copy Share
“The floor is a fifteenth-century revival of medieval Cosmatesque mosaic style. The Cosmati family developed their unmistakable technique in Rome in the twelfth and… — Benjamin Blech Copy Share
“Carafa, as Pope Paul IV, established the Index of Forbidden Books, banned all women from entering the Vatican, burnt volumes of Talmud and Kabbalah,… — Benjamin Blech Copy Share
“The Vatican preached that because the Jews had killed Jesus and rejected his teachings they were punished with the loss of their Holy Temple… — Benjamin Blech Copy Share
“The Jew cannot accept the New Testament since it is the words of one man intended to undo what the Creator had shared with… — Benjamin Blech Copy Share
“THE VATICAN The very name Vatican comes from a surprising source. It is neither Latin nor Greek, nor is it of biblical origin. In… — Benjamin Blech Copy Share
“Buonarroti was later given the job of designing the huge dome of the new Basilica of St. Peter. It is well known how much… — Benjamin Blech Copy Share
“How to maintain the proper mood and not bore the congregation to sleep? Art was the answer. But not just pretty pictures that required… — Benjamin Blech Copy Share
“Yet another strategy for encoding in Renaissance works involved environmental “special effects.” Messages were ingeniously inserted so that they could be viewed only when… — Benjamin Blech Copy Share
“But last and least known is its additional purpose as a Kabbalistic meditational device that thus, in one more way, links it to ancient… — Benjamin Blech Copy Share
“Thus, Michelangelo filled the chapel with hidden messages of his passionate loves and his righteous rages, along with mystic symbols of divine justice and… — Benjamin Blech Copy Share
“He infused his ceiling fresco with Kabbalistic images that reflected the Kabbalistic pavement design below. He linked the Jewish ancestral tree to Jesus. He… — Benjamin Blech Copy Share
“In 1510 the pope ordered the scaffolding dismantled and the first part of the fresco displayed to an eager public. The ecstatic reactions from… — Benjamin Blech Copy Share
“In Jewish tradition, we find the cautionary adage “Be in the world, but not of the world.” In the Gospels, Jesus says: “Render unto… — Benjamin Blech Copy Share
