honoring God in the arts ...

[HelenaZF]

This is just a thought about being aware when bringing hebraic influence into our arts ministry. We may have received the revelation about our Jewish roots and are zealous to honor God and bless Him with the symbols, words and images of the cultural idioms in the scriptures. But we must also be aware and sensitive to how those things are used. We want to bless Israel, not anger Jews unnecessarily.


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<IMG content="http://img520.imageshack.us/img520/5619/tetragrammatonak3.jpg"> Tetragrammaton

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One area of controversy can be the tetragramaton... the 4 Hebrew letters that represent God's name. Some Jews consider it too holy to be spoken, so they pronounce it "Adonai" (the Lord) or "Ha Shem" (the Name). Also, anything carrying "the Name" must be treated with honor, and when retired, destroyed in a specific way. As Christians seeking to bring honor to the Lord, we might wonder if it is even wise to use those 4 Hebrew letters. Some will warn against it, saying that it would be an offense to observant Jews. The truth really is that it can be very honoring to display the Name for both the Christian and the Jewish community.



I have a set of banners of the Covenant Names of God that have the tetragramaton of God's Name displayed on the banners, along with the english translation and other illuminating symbols and scriptures. A Jewish person seeing the banners would read them as "Adonai Shalom", 'Ha Shem Nissi" etc., and would not be offended by seeing the Name used on a Christian banner. They would probably, as a friend of mine pointed out, be more offended by the Name being pronounced out-loud as Yah-way or Jeh-hoe-vah. But writing out the four Hebrew letters is not a problem, as it is not being physically spoken.



Another area that comes under debate is the use of the tallit. Is it appropriate to use an actual tallit in our presentations? Just be aware that when using the tallit dramatically or in a dance choreography, that you should be careful not to allow the fringes (tzit-tzit) to touch the floor. Some dancers I know have "tallit-like" garments constructed so that the sense of using a tallit is obvious, but they are not using an actual tallit with knotted fringes. It is a matter of knowing a bit about the customs and idioms and being as respectful as possible as we minister with these important symbols.



<IMG content="http://www.zionfire.com/Pix/img085.gif"> Example of one of the Covenant Name banners