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Judaica | Marc Chagall's Gallery | Marc Chagall's Stained Glass

Jacob's Blessing | Moses' Blessing

Zevulun
 

Background

The Synagogue of the Hadassah-Hebrew University Medical Center was dedicated on February 6th, 1962, as part of Hadassah's Golden Anniversary celebration. The floors and interior walls are made of Jerusalem Stone, and the Synagogue is illuminated by a hanging lantern and by sunlight which streams through the magnificent Chagall Windows.

Marc Chagall, who was present at the dedication, spoke of the joy he felt in bringing “my modest gift to the Jewish people, who have always dreamt of biblical love, of friendship and peace among all people; to that people who lived here, thousands of years ago, among other Semitic people. My hope is that I hereby extend my hand to seekers of culture, to poets and to artists among the neighbouring people.” The creation of the Windows was a labour of love to Chagall and his assistant, Charles Marq, both of whom worked on the project for two years. Marq developed a special process of veneering pigment on glass which allowed Chagall to use as many as three colors on a single uninterrupted pane, rather than being confined to the traditional technique of separating each color pane by lean strips.

To ensure that each window receives the proper light, Marq came to Jerusalem and made tests on the spot where each of the windows was to be placed.

The Windows represents the 12 sons of the Patriarch Jacob, from whom came the Twelve Tribes of Israel. Chagall’s Windows are populated by floating figures of animals, fish, flowers, and numerous Jewish symbols. To fully understand the significance of the Windows they must be viewed against Chagall’s deep sense of identification with the whole of the Jewish history, its tragedies and victories, as well as his own personal background in the shtetl of Vitebsk, where he was born and grew up. “All the time I was working,” he said, “I felt my father and my mother were looking over my shoulder, and behind them were Jews, millions of other vanished Jews of yesterday and a thousand years ago.”

But it was the bible which provided his main inspiration, particularly Genesis 49, where Jacob blesses his 12 sons, and Deuteronomy 33, where Moses blesses the Twelve Tribes. The dominant colors used in each window are inspired by those blessings as well as by the Description of the breastplate of the High Priest in Exodus 28:15, which was coloured gold, blue, purple, and scarlet, and contained 12 gems including emeralds, turquoise, sapphire, blue jacinth, agate, beryl, lapis lazuli and jasper.

In the Synagogue of the Hadassah university hospital, Ein Kerem, the windows depict Jacob’s blessings to his sons, the Twelve Tribes of Israel.

Naftali