Visit to the Museum of Psalms in Jerusalem, May 2013

While visiting with a friend in Jerusalem, I had some time on my hands, so after visiting the Anna Ticho museum/restaurant, I stopped by the Museum of Psalms near Rav Kook's home.  I was amazed by the little jewel I found.

Walkway entrance to museum

The museum contains one permanent exhibit - the paintings of Moshe Tzvi Berger. Berger was born in Transylvania in 1924.  He spent time in a work camp during the Holocaust, and then studied art in the Belle Art in Rome and the Beaux Arts in Paris.  He became a Ba'Al Teshuva (Orthodox) in 1982 and immigrated to Israel in 1992,  . The Museum of Psalms opened three years later in 1995.  He bagan painting the Psalms series in 1988, but did not complete them until 2003

I bought two lithographs, and the assistant went to have the artist sign them.  I asked if I could meet him, and he came to sign them in front of me.  We talked for about ten minutes--mostly in English.  He had been to Seattle and eaten our famous salmon.  He made quite an impact on me.

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Each of the Psalm painting  has an actual text as its background. The paintings also have a Kabalistic and spiritual style to them. 

Many of Berger's beautiful paintings are also available for purchase.

The two lithographs that I bought were in books that he had.  Photographs are not allowed of the paintings themselves, but it was OK for me to take pictures from the books.

 

The Museum of Psalms is located at 9 HaRav Kook Street in Jerusalem. It is open most days but closes early on Friday.  Admission is free but a donation is recommended. 

The museum has just 4 or 5 smaller rooms, filled with pictures of the psalms. They are not in numeric order.  The rooms seems to overflow with color. 

In addition to the signed lithographs, I bought several large and several medium sized post cards of his works as well as a booklet of 42 paintings of the "sun" series that were added to the museum in 2007.