A Sabbath for the Land

Me'irah Iliinsky

About Me'irah Iliinsky

I am a rabbi and an artist. My desire and mission is to bring people close to Torah through illuminations of verses from Torah, in the broadest sense of the word. So few of our thousands of glorious verses are well known. I work in Gouache, and am inspired by medieval illuminated manuscripts, the pre-Raphaelite painters, fairy tale illustration, botanical illustration.

About A Sabbath for the Land

A gouache painting lifting up the verse Lev 25:4, But the seventh year shall be a sabbath of solemn rest for the land, a sabbath to the Lord. Your field you shall not sow and your vineyard you shall not prune. (in English) and in Hebrew: Shabbat shabbaton hi l’aretz–a sabbath of sabbaths for the land. The fruits depicted are six of the seven fruits of Israel: fig, olive, pomegranate, wheat and barley, grape, (date palm is missing) while the deer and fox appear in the Song of Songs. The fruits are growing wild, untamed by human hands the year of the shmita.