A proof of concept for The Jewish Photographer is an image from a visit to a horse ranch in Argentina which we visited on the way to Antarctica. The horseback ridder is participating in a competition among the ranch hands using a pencil like object to be placed, if successful, in a circle hanging from an horizontal post.
While dramatic enough on its own merits, the photograph of the horseman yields spiritual meaning when the traditional Jewish notion of “Cheyt” or Sin is brought to bear.
Chyet“ חֵטְא” is a significant part of the Jewish liturgy for the high holidays, Rosh Hashannah and Yom Kippur. During worship on these days congregants recite a litany of sins “Al Cheyt”/For the Sins” including “for the sin which we have committed in our speech.
Imagine for a moment the concentric circle target of the archery range.
The goal of the archer is to hit the target with her arrow, ideally in the very center circle of the target. Not hitting the target is often described as missing the mark. And that expression ‘missing the mark’ is the traditional Jewish notion of Chyet.
Looking at the picture of the competitive horseman, it appears that he committed the sin of missing the mark, missing placing the pencil like object in the circle. Thus if we were to place this image on the prayer book page of the “Al Cheyt”/For the Sins” there would be added meaning. Or more simply, we could add a caption/title:
Al Cheyt/For the Sins
“Davar Acher” is used in traditional interpretive texts is appropriate here and in the pages of this book. It simply means, yet another matter, another possible explanation!
Davar Acher
As I began to assemble photographs and concepts for The Jewish Photographer another caption or title occurred to me in the form of a question going back to Maslow’s Jonah Complex.
Al Cheyt – Which is worse, Missing the mark or not trying at all?
Which is worse, missing the mark or not trying at all? Are the concepts, photos, associations I am using to build The Jewish Photogarpher of interest and meaning for anyone else? Will I be effective in developing a working definition?
Obviously this book is the answer. My response to this question and my response to Maslow’s Jonah Complex is the rabbinic adage: “It is not incumbent upon you to complete the task, but neither are you at liberty to desist from it.” (Pirke Avot)
Davar Acher
At this point the Split Rock thinking approach applied to photography has been established, so only a brief mention will be made of another perspective worth mentioning briefly if we consider the horse and rider as representing body and soul respectively. The body and soul relationship is the subject of many words in Jewish theology along the lines of which is more culpable if we miss the mark of moral behaviour.
Related to this horse/body, rider/soul lens is another title which I leave to the reader grasp
Without Photography We Would Be Bodies Without Souls