Artist Hadassa Goldvicht, created her video installation, entitled “143 Hours (Shabbat Clock)” when she was pregnant, which is perhaps why it is somewhat reminiscent of a fetal ultrasound. The work features five clocks that count the 143 hours between the end of Shabbat and the start of the next one six days later. The clocks display the number of hours that are left before Shabbat starts in different cities around the world in real time.
The piece is displayed in the ANU Museum of Jewish Life on the campus of Tel Aviv University, one of the many stops on our recent congregational trip.
The sense of relief and joy as Shabbat approaches is captured in this innovative piece of art. The artist makes another important point, relevant in our ever-busy lives: in order to create, we must rest. It is a simple and essential truth—and one the world constantly conspires against.
As we pray each week, “help me to withdraw for a while from the flight of time. Contain the retreat of the hours and days from the grasp of frantic life. Let me learn to pause, if only for this day. Let me find peace on this day. Let me enter into a quiet world on this day. On this day, Shabbat, abide.”
