{"id":3354,"date":"2023-09-27T13:48:35","date_gmt":"2023-09-27T11:48:35","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/famkevanwijk.nl\/covenant-of-joy-and-sorrow\/"},"modified":"2024-06-24T13:35:24","modified_gmt":"2024-06-24T11:35:24","slug":"covenant-of-joy-and-sorrow","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/famkevanwijk.nl\/en\/covenant-of-joy-and-sorrow\/","title":{"rendered":"Covenant of Joy and Sorrow"},"content":{"rendered":"\t\t
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Covenant of Joy and Sorrow<\/h2><\/div><\/div>\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t
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Covenant of Joy and Sorrow\u00a0(2015)<\/strong><\/p>\n

Bronze, LED lights, plexiglass staff.
\nLarge drum with light carrier 80 by 80 cm
\nSmall drum with Torah scroll 50 by 50 cm
\nOvercoat 100 by 70 cm<\/p>\n

This text was taken from a speech by Famke van Wijk during the opening of the Memorial Garden in Oldenzaal September 10th 2015. In memory of the Jewish families from Oldenzaal who were killed in the period 1940-1945. The official opening was performed by Chief Rabbi Binyomin Jacobs.<\/p>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t

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These images were created in memory of the Jewish population of Oldenzaal and all the Jewish victims of the persecution of Jews in WW2. The key words for this task were; Imagination \u2013 Experience \u2013 Identity \u2013 Meeting spot \u2013 Lodging- Awareness \u2013 History and Tolerance. My desire and hope went out to the revival of an ancient Jewish prayer, that when we enter the Memorial Garden we will feel a little bit closer to our loved ones, but also a little bit closer to the pain and unspeakable suffering of the Jewish people which is what we want to provide a place for here.
\nThe suffering was to get a place, a place of awareness, a place where the history of the past can regain perception and awareness.
\nA place where there is room for imagination and tolerance, a place where we can remember and want to reside.
\nThis prayer have I applied to the lower edge of the largest drum in the Hebrew language (clearly visible) which means: \u201cMay their souls be bundled into the covenant of eternal life.\u201d Which meaning I wanted to represent with the torsos interlocking with each other. This text is still being used as a prayer for both the living and the dead. And is also used for tomb and memorial stones.<\/p>\n

Faith can give us courage and willpower to survive, but also joy that we need in tough times. \u00a0I have highlighted these attributes of faith, which also signifies the faith and the identity of the Jewish people, by using the Torah, the drums and the \u201cJad.\u201d<\/p>\n

Jad is a fescue, which is used to read the Torah, the holy book of the Jews. When reading, the text is followed by the stick so that the scroll, the sacred book, is not touched directly and is therefore protected symbolically. The Jad literally has a small hand at the top of the stick with an outstretched forefinger to follow along with the text. I have given the pointing \u2013 stick another function by letting the hand point to the light that now shines out of the scroll, as a reference to our heavenly home and our \u201ctogetherness\u201d with God. The dead are reunited in the light and the \u201clove of God.\u201d And brings hope and comfort, which is so badly needed.<\/p>\n

The Synagogue in Oldenzaal combined the look of beauty with the security of a shelter. Where worship, which by definition, occurs through the sanctification of words.
\nThrough the attentive and respectful reading of the words of the Torah, in this way they are kept in the heart of man. The Torah scrolls have I used to symbolize the love of life, and the love of God.
\nAccording to the \u201cNefesh,\u201d the traditional Jewish view of the soul, there is no difference between the spiritual and the physical.
\nAccording to Jewish belief, the soul is a part of the physical and spiritual world of man.
\nThe Jad and the large drum, I also wanted to give a physical and a spiritual resemblance. The Jad also resembles a brush. This is used on drums to create a soft rustling sound. This refers to music which is a great source of inspiration in the Jewish tradition. I was inspired by a beautiful old Jewish saying: \u201cEveryone is an instrument and everyone\u2019s life is the melody.\u201d Also to represent the source of joy, the will to survive, and the source of love. The images provide inspiration.<\/p>\n

Every day is spiritually but also physically worn in an ancient belief that joy and suffering (sorrow) come together and get their experience in the rich Jewish traditions and culture.
\nFor example, during a Jewish wedding, under the \u201cchuppah\u201d the seven blessings are pronounced, the \u2018Sjeva berachot\u2019, but at every party \u2018Simcha\u2019 sorrow should also be represented. So the groom stomps with his foot and shatters a glass under the \u201cchuppah.\u201d Which symbolizes the destruction of the Holy Temple<\/p>\n

The temple, their higher purpose in life, their desire to be with God, has been put on the first place, and currently sacredly commemorated again. It has eternal beauty if joy and sorrow come together.
\nThere is music, the crowd goes crazy\u2026 there is joy!! Mazel Tov!! One wishes to each other.
\nThe Klezmer musicians start loudy with their cheerful clarinet, their cimbalom, quick-fingered violin, and drum.
\nEveryone dances, even if he cannot do it well, the rabbi begins dancing and dances with fire in his eyes\u2026 everyone is an instrument and everyone\u2019s life is the melody.\u201d<\/p>\n

At the Jewish wedding, with a lot of joy sorrow is also remembered.
\nBut how do you remember the source of joy, the will to survive, the source of love, beside so much persecution and suffering? Can joy of a Faith (which ever Faith it may be) enlighten us above the temporal and earthly, with all its hardships and pain?
\nMay the joy of a faith help process untold suffering?
\nIt is truly a celebration if faith can bring comfort, joy and even vitality.
\nThis is what I wanted to portray with the large and small drums. The drums themselves stands for joy and gladness, but the larger drum has a double meaning; You see that there are literally and figuratively people interconnected with each other\u2026 connected by their covenants in joy and sorrow. And they bear one another\u2019s burdens and pain, but they also share in each other\u2019s joy, namely the love of God. They also bear the name \u201d The covenant people.\u201d<\/p>\n

In all their struggles as a people to survive, Zion is no longer a poetic metaphor, but an obligation, a destination.<\/p>\n

My heart is in the east, and I in the uttermost west How can I find savour in food? How shall it be sweet to me?
\nHow shall I render my vows and my bonds, while yet Zion lieth beneath the fetter of Edom, and I in Arab chains?
\nA light thing would it seem to me to leave all the good things of Spain \u2014
\nSeeing how precious in mine eyes to behold the dust of the desolate sanctuary.<\/p>\n

Yehuda Halevi.<\/p>\n

The unspeakable suffering that has been inflicted to the Jewish people is depicted by the coat.
\nThey literally had to leave their lives behind, had to lay down \u2026 as if you take your clothes off and leave them behind, not knowing that they would not receive water, but the gas. This disgrace, this loss, and pain must still be worn to remember never be forgotten. They had to bear grief, where we can still not be fully aware of. That\u2019s why I concealed the silhouette of a face in the lining of the jacket.<\/p>\n

Through the Torah, and other symbolic sacred texts and scriptures, but I also think of the many symbolic objects such as for example: The \u201cMenorah \u201d and their great faith in God, Judaism could always survive and retain its cultural, intellectual and spiritual identity.
\nIn this monument, I wanted to emphasize the contrast between joy and pain, which may be simultaneously present in a philosophy of life, which go together in love and power.<\/p>\n

The title of this Monument is: \u201cCovenant of joy and sorrow.\u201d<\/p>\n

Famke van Wijk<\/p>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t

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