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By Rabbi Dr. Shimon Cowen
"Images of Tanya" is the result of a collaboration between the painter, Victor Majzner and a Rabbi, Shimon Cowen. Jewish or religious art as art of real significance, one might have thought, would have to be the work of an individual of both deep religious knowledge and experience as well as of major artistic talent. The present project, a limited edition of one hundred and twenty folios of ten images to illustrate the The Gate of Unity and Belief, the second book of the mystical classic, Tanya, has followed an alternative possibility: that the same might result from a sympathetic meeting of two minds, in Torah and art.
The Gate of Unity and Belief (Sha'ar Hayichud v'Ho'emunah) is a work of the great Chassidic scholar and kaballistic mystic, Rabbi Schneur Zalman of Liadi. It treats the theme of the unity of G-dliness and the creation, how the oneness of G-d is reflected in the creation in all its concrete multiplicity.
Macmillan in 2002 published a book on his art, Earth to Sky - The Art of Victor Majzner. The book pictures each of the ten silk screen prints of the Images of Tanya with an explanatory essay on them.
This is religious art of a world class.
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