"In the Beginning..."

Torah is too wise to declare there is such a thing as "the" beginning. With its very first word, b'reishit, Torah denies us the certainty of origin that we yearn for. That Hebrew phrase is a grammatical oddity. Its vocalization is missing the vowel which might provide us the definite article "the." To give us the assurance that it is, in any case, speaking to us about "in a beginning," it should be followed by a noun. But instead what follows is a verb, bara (created). The great medieval Torah commentator Rashi declares that this very first word shouts out "Expound me!" The opening of this great sacred work provides not a revelation of how existence orderly unfolded. It begins with destabilizing provocation.

Beginnings, Torah teaches us, are far more complex, deceptive and layered than we might wish them to be. "Man cannot do without the make-believe of a beginning," wrote George Eliot. Beginnings are more a declaration of where we intend to start our story than the discovery of its point of natural birth.

And so, we must declare our point of beginning in exploring the struggle of an emergent spirituality in modern art. I declare that beginning to be the Impressionists. And where to start with the Impressionists? Certainly, a good case can be made for the prolific and innovative Claude Monet. Yet, I choose to begin far from that brilliant French star. I choose to begin with a Sephardic Jew, born on the Danish West Indies island of St. Thomas: Camille Pissarro. What can we say of his origins? What was he in search of? How did he help us to see differently? That will be the story in my next blog. At least it will be the beginning of one.

Self Portrait ~ Camille Pissarro, 1900