Judaica

Lattice Pendant • Jewish Art Pendent Series

Wear Your History

The Lattice Pendant is in the pendant series based on Jewish art motifs and sources. The Sukkah Soul pendants offer a connection to our past so we feel close to our history.

The pendant is made of cast-bronze using the ancient lost-wax method and is a signed, limited edition of museum quality.

Inspired by ancient coins and seals, the pendants are worn by women and men for casual or dress attire.

Rich in color, the light affects the polished bronze in various ways as shown by the photos.

Inspiration: Concealing & Revealing G*d

18th century Polish synagogues were designed and painted in accordance with the Kabbalah's Zohar to create a place for God/Shekhinah.

The lattice window in 18th C synagogues in Polish / Lithuanian small towns; concealed and revealed God's presence

The lattice window in the wooden synagogue in Gwozdziec, as well as other Polish synagogues, located on the western wall ‘…was a conduit for the passage of prayer to God and a place within the synagogue through with God / Shekhinah, concealed behind the lattice, could observe the congregation....The lattice serves as an architectural device to simultaneously conceal and reveal God's presence to the congregation....’

-Thomas C. Hubka, Resplendant Synagogue, Brandeis University Press of New England, 2003, p. 154

In Kabbalah's Zohar

The Zohar has stories of ‘the exiled Shekhinah concealed behind lattice’

-Zohar III: 114b per ibid, footnote 12, p. 205

The Zohar has images of windows and lattice:

“He goes up on roofs to gain a sight of them (Israelites) through the chinks of the wall, as it says, ‘He looketh in the windows, he glanceth through the lattice,’ in synagogues and houses of learning.”

-Zohar III: 114b per ibid, p. 152

“…the Zohar emphasizes a Divine window or ‘Gate of Heaven” through which prayers ascend to God and answers to prayer descend from God.”

-ibid, p.153

The connection between window and Gate of Heaven:

When Jacob awoke from his sleep....And he became frightened and said, 'How awesome is this place! This is none other than the house of G*d and this is the gate of heaven.’

-Genesis 28:16-18

“For indeed this is the Gate of Heaven…the gate assuredly through which pass the blessings downward, so that it is attached both on high and below: on high, as being the gate of heaven, and below, as being none other than the house of God [the synagogue].”

- Zohar I:150b per Thomas C. Hubka, Resplendant Synagogue, Brandeis University Press of New England, 2003, p. 153

Beneath the Jablonow Synagogue lattice window was the inscription: ‘All the gates are closed, only the gate of tears is still open…”

- Maria and Kazimierz Piechotka, Heaven’s Gates; Wooden synagogues in the Territories of the Former Polish-Lithanian Commonwealth, Wydawanictwo Krupski, 2003, p. 115

Lecha Dodi in which we welcome the Sabbath bride

The prayer Lechah Dodi, painted on the western wall near the doorway of Chodorow Synagogue clearly demonstrates the connection between the liturgy...and the entrance of the Shekhinah through the doorway of the prayer hall.'.

-Thomas C. Hubka, Resplendant Synagogue, Brandeis University Press of New England, 2003, p. 154

Lost-Wax Bronze Casting - an ancient process

These pendants are fine art bronze castings using the lost wax method. The lost wax method of bronze casting was developed in the Ancient Near East in the late 4th millennium BCE, found then both in ancient Ur and Egypt.

This ancient process is used today to create fine art bronzes that embody the artist’s touch. In the pieces, you can see the imprint of the artist’s hand molding clay and modeling wax. It is a labor-intensive process, demonstrating fine craft with 5000 years of history utilized during the time of Abraham.