Friends, exciting times for Beyond Noah's Ark! We had our first community-invited event yesterday, and we're about to be starting our Pesach Prep Maker Series this Tuesday.
It was an honor and a pleasure to collaborate on this book-talk/learning/chevrutah creation event with Jessica Tamar Deutsch, the creator of The Illustrated Pirkei Avot. Along with the learning we did from Jess's book, I shared some selections from Sun and Moon, Together. We were thrilled to be hosted by Nell and Chaim at Afikomen Judaica, amidst lovely Judaica purchasing people.
As we discussed selections from each work as a group, we compiled a list of the facets of chevrutah we were coming across in the texts.
And then we broke into the art materials and got to work, inspired by the presence of Ezra, age 5, who had, in point of fact, been tinkering and creating the whole time. The basic prompt we offered was to create a wire mobile to remind us of the various modes or opportunities available within Chevrutah work. Some people took this in a pretty straightforward direction (ok, that was actually just me) but others spun the basic idea off into a new direction. Some worked in a huddled, intensely focused chevrutah pair, while others shared ideas for direction and inspiration, but created separately.
Andrea and Baruch developed a concept for a multi-tiered world mobile, with two pairs of chevrutas, and a central hebrew letter vav, all together representing the word zug (pair).
Lior created a wire hourglass, with sun and moon radiating from each side.
Jess designed a modern ner tamid (eternal flame) with many hands as the supportive base.
Do you have a study or creation partner -- a Tversky to your Kahneman, A Gauguin to your Van Gogh, A Miro to your Calder? Do you relate more to the aspects of chevrutah study that nurture a shared sense of purpose, or the more tension driven elements? What opportunities have your best chevrutot/study/creation partners brought to your life?