BRATTLEBORO — Rabbi Andrea Cohen-Kiener will give a free talk on Jewish mysticism, focusing on the teachings of the Kabbalah, at the Brattleboro Museum & Art Center on Thursday, June 6, at 7 p.m.
The talk will take place in the Museum's Wolf Kahn & Emily Mason Gallery, which currently features “Sandy Sokoloff: Emanation,” an exhibition of large, spherical, Kabbalah-inspired paintings.
Rabbi Cohen-Kiener is the spiritual leader of Temple Israel in Greenfield, Mass. She was ordained by the Alliance for Jewish Renewal, a progressive spiritual stream of Jewish practice.
In her historic overview of Jewish mystical thought, Cohen-Kiener will share basic and universal ideas from the Jewish tradition. She will explore fundamental notions from Jewish mysticism, especially the Kabbalistic (esoteric) teachings on cosmology, or how the world came into being.
Attendees will have the opportunity to view Sokoloff's paintings through the lens of the Kabbalah. Sokoloff was several years into creating a series of mystical, abstract paintings when he learned about Sephirot, often translated as “emanations.”
“Sephirot is a Kabbalistic view that says that although we may not have a direct experience of the higher power that we call G-d, it does emanate,” Sokoloff said, “and, according to the Kabbalah, it can take the form of 10 spheres, which present the various aspects of the higher power.”
Sokoloff said she was powerfully struck by the connection between this concept and his work.
For more information, call 802-257-0124 or visit www.brattleboromuseum.org.