The Eternal Light of Rashbi

🖼️ Title: The Eternal Light of Rashbi

Description:

This radiant portrait celebrates the legendary Rabbi Shimon Bar Yochai (Rashbi), the 2nd-century Tannaitic sage and mystic revered as the author of the Zohar, the foundational text of Kabbalah. Renowned for his spiritual depth and defiant faith during Roman persecution, Rashbi's legacy continues to burn brightly across generations.

The artwork fuses divine mysticism with vivid expressionism, depicting Rashbi enveloped in glowing hues of fire, gold, and celestial light—symbolizing his soul’s ascension and the eternal flames of Lag BaOmer, the day of his Hiloula.

Behind him rises the Beit HaMikdash (Holy Temple), reflecting the spiritual foundation Rashbi helped preserve through Torah and inner wisdom. His face, marked with serenity and intensity, gazes into the infinite, as stairs of light ascend from his heart, guiding the multitudes below—pilgrims, seekers, and disciples—toward enlightenment.

At the top, the Hebrew inscription reads:
כִּי לֹא תִּשָּׁכַח מִפִּי זַרְעוֹ
“For it shall not be forgotten from the mouth of his descendants”
(Deuteronomy 31:21)
—A testament to the undying transmission of his teachings.

Curator’s Note:

Rabbi Shimon Bar Yochai’s presence in this piece is not static—it radiates. Through layers of symbolic architecture, Torah light, and human devotion, the viewer is drawn into a space where mysticism and memory meet. This portrait is an homage not only to the man, but to the light of secrets revealed, and the promise that his voice—his fire—will never fade from the Jewish soul.