THE JEWISH PARADOX

At the core of many of the biblical Jewish stories is the idea of the paradox...something unfathomable.

It may be the mysterious story of the akeidah, where abraham is commanded to sacrifice his beloved son isaac or the mysterious story of Jacob wrestling alone with the angel (in anticipation of meeting his estranged brother esau and the looming threat of fratricide).

The primal jewish experience is the confrontation with the great mystery.

Many of the films here have a similar feeling. Some are positive aspirations of being jewish, whilst other consist of a struggle for faith.

The very hebrew term Israel translates as 'one who wrestles with God and man.'

The early jewish experience is a struggle against the void, to attempt to comprehend the great vast infinite oneness that exists out there.

One cannot fully understand it, but the evolution of the law makes sense of this energy, shaping and harnessing it into a layer of clarity and protection.

Therefore, the early biblical encounters are pulsating with drama, but still full of metaphysical gloom... where the dawn of judaism begins to encounter the deeper meaning of itself and the way forward toward a new spirituality.

The true jewish experience is to maintain an eternal light, that whatever is turning upside down in the world, there is a voice of reason, sanity and conscience.

The picture is far from perfect, but this is the ideal. Even if it means standing against the grain and saying what people do not want to hear, the jewish experience is a constant struggle to find order from chaos. A battle that rages eternal.