TEL AVIV.- Polish-born graphic artist Fishel Rabinowicz (b. 1924), a Holocaust survivor now living in Locarno, Switzerland, provides us with a personal interpretation of Jewish mysticism using a geometric system of Hebrew letters and forms in a traditional paper-cut technique.

Rabinowicz has taken the mystical interest in the Hebrew letters – the basic, building blocks of creation – to a new level.

One major component of mystical understanding is the arrangement of Hebrew letters to reach a non-semantic visual experience, which is meditative. This approach, used by the Kabbalist Abraham Abulafia in the 13th century and others, is here continued by Rabinowicz, who dedicates one of his works to Abulafia, and continues with works representing the mystical encounter of the Four Rabbis Who Entered the Pardes (garden of paradise or mystical contemplation), the Lurianic doctrine of the sefirot (heavenly spheres), and more.

A trained graphic artist, Rabinowicz applies his knowledge of gematriah – the mathematical set of equivalents of numbers to Hebrew letters – in a unique and personal graphic language of geometric form to express the inner, mystic meaning of Jewish tradition.

Rabinowicz selects essential texts from the Bible, the Mishnah, and the Talmud, and magically transforms them into a com plex system of squares and triangles. This graphic interface is then applied to mystical sources from Sefer Yetzirah, the Book of Creation, and from the Zohar, the Book of Splendor.

Rabinowicz first began to explore Jewish culture and Yiddish literature in Switzerland while recovering from his traumatic experiences at a Nazi camp and a series of nine concentration camps.

Much as did the mystical Iyyun Circle of medieval Provence, Rabinowicz focuses our attention on the inner meaning of the Aleph, the first letter of the Hebrew alphabet, and imbues it with personal significance related to his own experiences in the fragmented post-Holocaust existence of our times.

His work is of a "striking design, with an imaginative and evocative use of Hebrew letters." Benyamin Netanyahu, Israeli Prime Minister (31 January 2010)