Artist Spotlight: Avraham Loewenthal

Posted in Art, Featured Artists on October 2, 2019

Art can have deeply spiritual meaning, and the work of Avraham Loewenthal is no exception. Growing up in a Jewish family in Michigan, Loewenthal became interested in spirituality and meditation while attending college at the University of Michigan. He was introduced to the Kabbalah, the inner spiritual wisdom of Judaism. After traveling to Israel to explore his Jewish roots and learn the Kabbalah, he decided to move there permanently. “All my art is inspired by ideas from the Kabbalah. The Kabbalah is about our spiritual development towards attaining union with our divine source. This is through the spiritual work to attain a state of true giving with unconditional love.”

Loewenthal has lived in the Old City Artist Quarter in Tzfat in the mountains of northern Israel for 25 years with his wife and three children. His studio, Tzfat Gallery of Mystical Art, is where he exhibits his art and meets with tour groups from all over the world, presenting the ideas from the Kabbalah that inspire his work. The most important item in his studio? The Zohar, the ancient books of the Kabbalah.

The main theme that has inspired his work is depicting sounds of the shofar (ram’s horn), which is sounded on the Hebrew new year in an ancient pattern of 100 shofar sounds. Eventually, he began to sound the shofar through software that graphically analyzes the soundwaves, digitally creating paintings with the results. “It is exciting to be able to paint with sound. It is also exciting to be combining the ancient pattern of shofar sounds with our contemporary technology,” said Loewenthal.

Here’s what Julie Ann Segal, owner of Metro Interiors, has to say about Loewenthal’s work: “His work is very intentional and has deep meaning. It is reminiscent of Feng Shui because we place items with intention; his work has the intention built right in.”

View Avraham Loewenthal’s art in our Virtual Art Gallery where it is also available for purchase. Below you will find three of the painting inspired by the shofar sounds, along with a detailed description of the meaning behind the piece titled “Shofar Sounds”:

The four different shofar sounds are: tekia, shevarim, terua and tekia gedola.
This picture depicts the sounds ascending from the bottom.
The sounds correspond to states of consciousness.
One kavana (meditation) of shofar blowing associates the sounds with giving, receiving, balance and oneness.
The sounds also correspond to the four letters of the holy divine name (see below).
One kavana of shofar sounds:
tekia —————1 long sound————-giving———-י
shevarim ———3 shorter sounds———-receiving——-ה
terua ————–9 very short sounds——balance———ו
tekia gedola ——1 very long sound——–oneness——–ה

The whole long sound of tekia expresses inner joy and thankfulness.
The three broken cries of shevarim express brokenness.
The sound of terua, so broken it is whole, is the prayer from the depths of our heart revealing the always
flowing divine goodness.
The final very long sound of tekia gedola represents unconditional love and oneness.