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The Charlotte Jewish News - May 2013 - Page 24 Putting the Ten Commandments on Display By Edmon J. Rodman Los Angeles (JTA) - Are the Ten Commandments only to be heard but not seen? And when they are seen, how should they look? Some groups, notably the Anti- Defamation League, believe that publie images of the Ten Com mandments should be searee. “That the inereasing eall by pri vate eitizens and publie offieials for the government to post the Ten Commandments in sehools, gov ernment buildings, eourts and other publie plaees - while often well-intentioned - is bad poliey and often uneonstitutional,” the ADL says on its website. Other organizations advoeate displaying them, even in sehools. The eonservative Ameriean Cen ter of Law and Justiee argues that the Supreme Court “should not prohibit their display in the ab- senee of a elear showing that the display has the effeet of endorsing a partieular religion.” Yet as we approaeh Shavuot, the holiday that eommemorates the handing-down of the Ten Commandments at Mount Sinai, justbeeause there’s a debate about the publie appropriateness on dis playing the Ten Commandments doesn’t mean you ean’t surround yourself with them at shul - or even in your front yard. Available for purehase online, there’s an olive wood Moses and Ten Commandments for your desk or dresser, and a dog tag im printed with them. There’s a matehbox eover emblazoned with the Roman numerals 1-10 to re mind you of the eommandments when you light a eandle, as well as a refrigerator magnet printed with the words “The Top Ten” featur ing the first words of the eom mandments in Hebrew. Then there’s the version by Design Toseano of Illi nois that’s a foot-and-a-half high, 21 inehes wide and weighing 12 pounds. It’s east in resin, and the serip- ture is written in English on one side and Hebrew on the other. “Our faux stone tablet is both historie and inspiring, and makes a defining state ment in your home or gar den,” the eompany’s online eatalog proelaims. Probably not right for the tem ple driveway. But in the syna gogue, where the Ten Commandments are read on Shavuot, what kind of imagery is OK? Just the usual twin tablet de sign? In the Torah, the Ten Com mandments are ealled “Aseret Ha’Devarim,” the Ten Words, whieh though seen as a moral eode of behavior are eonsidered even more as the overarehing basis for the 613 mitzvot, or eom mandments, found in the Torah. Growing up, the well-known double tablet image of the twin tablets weleomed me in front of my synagogue, as well as other temples I visited. Many syna gogues eontinue to have the image of the Ten Commandments promi nently displayed, and many Ju- daiea websites that sell Torah eovers feature a design with the eommandments sewn on, usually represented by the first 10 letters of the Hebrew alphabet. Now I wonder how eontempo- rary designers might interpret them. I ealled the New York design team of Miehael Berkowiez and Bonnie Srolovitz-Berkowiez, who in San Juan, Puerto Rieo, had re- eently dedieated a Holoeaust me morial they ereated ealled “In the Shadow of Their Absenee.” It was the same husband-and-wife pair that had designed a pair of Chanukah menorahs for the World Trade Center that were destroyed in the 9/11 tragedy, whieh they plan to replaee using steel from the demolished buildings. Coneerning the appearanee of the Ten Commandments, I quiekly diseovered that there were more issues involved than if and where they should be displayed. “Not everyone aeeepts the same shape of the tablets,” said Berkowiez, who finds that every Jewish design proj- eet leads to a journey. Counter to what I thought, he told me that the oft-seen image of the tablets with rounded tops is not eorreet. “The biblieal interpre tation is that they were reetangular,” said Berkowiez, who was set straight, so to speak, by a Chabad rabbi with whom he was eonsulting. There went my lawn deeoration. “As they are usually seen, some of our elients view the Ten Com mandments as a eliehe,” said Berkowiez, who was bom in Poland in 1944 to parents who had fled Europe during World War II. “The ehallenge is how to interpret them.” To meet that ehallenge, the eou- ple designed a thought-provoking interpretation of the Ten Com mandments for Congregation Mieah, a Reform synagogue in suburban Nashville, TN. Srolovitz-Berkowiez noted that the eouple won an award from the Ameriean Institute of Arehiteets for the 1997 ereation. Eneouraged by the synagogue’s rabbi, Kenneth Kanter, who now serves as direetor of the rabbinieal sehool for the Hebrew Union Col- lege-Jewish Institute of Religion in Cineinnati, OH, they made a pair of ark doors. But instead of the standard tablet form, with eaeh eommandment represented by ei ther Hebrew letters or the first word or two of eaeh eommand ment, they ereated a design that ineorporated the entire text of Chapter 20 of Exodus, where the Ten Commandments are found, into the eopper doors. Using a high-powered waterjet programmed with the Hebrew text, the letters were eut through the metal. The doors are baeklit by the ark’s interior lighting system. “When you first see it from a distanee, the letters are not appar ent,” Berkowiez said. “As you ap proaeh you have an aha moment.” To the synagogue’s eurrent rabbi, Laurie Riee, the ark repre sents “aeeessibility. It’s approaeh- able,” she said. “Cutting through allowed the light of the Torah to shine through,” Srolovitz-Berkowiez said. Berkowitz adds, “The light of the Torah is being reeeived.” ^ (Edmon J. Rodman is a JTA columnist who writes on Jewish life from Los Angeles. 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