Cincinnati Art Museum, Ohio

Rembrandt Cyberangels Return from Israel to Cincinnati Art Museum to Herald Corona’s End

By Mel Alexenberg

Open the website of Cincinnati Art Museum and you’ll read that it’s closed:

“While our doors may be closed, we won’t let that keep us from our mission to inspire, challenge and delight you. Please check our website and social media channels for daily up-dates and additional digital offerings to bring the arts, artists of today and the creative process to you at home or wherever you may be.”

It is significant that Cincinnati Art Museum has closed its physical space but opened in virtual space. As the coronavirus pandemic has forced us to hide at home away from everyone, the world of smartphones, laptops, Zoom, and the Internet is inviting us to come out of hiding and connect to anyone.

As an artist who has pioneered in creating art in virtual space, I launched cyberangels from Israel to High Museum of Art and 30 other museums throughout the world as an homage to Rembrandt on the 350^th anniversary of his death on October 4^th.  These museums have my Rembrandt inspired artworks in their collections. My lithograph “Angel Announcing Birth of Samson to Manoah” lithograph has been in the collection of the Cincinnati Art Museum since 1986.

I sent cyberangel on a faxart flight around the globe via AT&T satellites in 1989 on the 320^th anniversary of Rembrandt’s death. On the morning of October 4^th, it ascended from New York, flew to Amsterdam to Jerusalem to Tokyo to Los Angeles, returning to New York on the same afternoon. When it passed through Tokyo, it was already the morning of October 5^th. Cyberangels cannot only fly around the globe, they can fly into tomorrow and back into yesterday.

My current blog Global Tribute to Rembrandt documents the cyberangels entering the Cincinnati Art Museum and each the 30 other museums with images enriched with texts on the impact of digital culture on art that I developed when I was professor at Columbia University and research fellow at MIT Center for Advanced Visual Studies. The blog post’s title is “Cincinnati Art Museum: 6,195 miles from Jerusalem, Israel; 228 miles from JerUSAlem, Ohio; or 0 cybermiles via the Internet Cloud.”

 I am reactivating a cyberangel team led by the angel Raphael to return to Cincinnati Art Museum when it reopens to herald the grand finale of the coronavirus plague. The angel Raphael works to heal bodies, minds and spirits. “Raphael” is related to the word rophe, the divine healer in biblical Hebrew (Exodus 15: 26), and medical doctor in contemporary Hebrew.

These digitized angels dormant in museum flat files awakened to adorn the cover of my book Through a Bible Lens: Biblical Insights for Smartphone Photography and Social Media. The book’s cover is based upon my artwork in the collection of the Israel Museum that I created in Jerusalem. It shows cyberangels ascending from a NASA satellite image of the Land of Israel as they emerge from a smartphone screen. It illustrates the biblical commentary that the angels in Jacob’s dream go up from the Land of Israel and come down to earth throughout the world. “A ladder was standing on the ground, its top reaching up towards heaven as divine angels were going up and down on it.” (Genesis 28: 12) A smartphone has the power to make this vision a reality.

Through a Bible Lens offers biblical insights for the new media age. It was published shortly before the coronavirus pandemic erupted, anticipating the need for spiritual insights for coping with the radical changes in our lives in physical isolation while demonstrating how new media can connect us in virtual space. The book demonstrates to people of all faiths how biblical insights can transform life, in good times and bad, into imaginative ways of seeing spirituality in all that we do.

Distinguished professor Dr. Shaun McNiff, author of Earth Angels: Engaging the Sacred in Everyday Life, writes that Through a Bible Lens integrates wisdom about the Bible, creative thought, and cyberangels. “It is the most recent, and arguably one of art’s most complete and compelling integrations of the sacred and profane. It reads like a swift and soulful breeze. I love every ‘byte’ of it.”  Australian theologian Dr. Shimon Cowen, author of Aesthetics and the Divine, called my book “a mystical computer program for spiritual seeing.”

The cyberangels will herald the end of the COVID-19 pandemic by taking virtual flight to the Cincinnati Art Museum and 30 other museums on five continents when they reopen. They will begin their flight from the Israel Museum’s Shrine of the Book in Jerusalem, home of ancient Bible scrolls. People throughout the world will “Awaken and shout for joy” (Isaiah 26: 19) when the curtain comes down at the end of the plague.

The writer is author of the highly acclaimed book Through a Bible Lens: Biblical Insights for Smartphone Photography and Social Media (HarperCollins Christian Publishing) and The Future of Art in a Postdigital Age: From Hellenistic to Hebraic Consciousness (Intellect Books/University of Chicago Press). He is former professor at Columbia University, research fellow at MIT Center for Advanced Visual Studies, and in Israel where he now lives, professor at Ariel and Bar-Ilan universities and head of Emunah College School of the Arts in Jerusalem.

Captions for attached images:

Cyberangels arrive from Israel at the café of the Cincinnati Art Museum since food and angel are spelled with the same four Hebrew letters to tell us that angels are spiritual messages arising from everyday life

 

Cyberangels go up from the Land of Israel on the cover of Dr. Alexenberg’s book Through a Bible Lens that offers biblical insights for our age of new media

Contact the author: melalexenberg@yahoo.com, +972-52-855-1223 (in Israel)

Sent to Rasputin Todd, The Enquirer, editor of Entertainment & Lifestyles, rtodd@enquirer, 5 May 2020

High Museum of Art, Atlanta, Georgia

As an artist who has pioneered in creating art in virtual space, I launched cyberangels from Israel to High Museum of Art and 30 other museums throughout the world as an homage to Rembrandt on the 350^th anniversary of his death on October 4^th.  These museums have my Rembrandt inspired artworks in their collections. My “Digitized Homage to Rembrandt: Day Angels” lithograph has been in the collection of the High Museum since 1987.

I sent cyberangel on a faxart flight around the globe via AT&T satellites in 1989 on the 320^th anniversary of Rembrandt’s death. On the morning of October 4^th, it ascended from New York, flew to Amsterdam to Jerusalem to Tokyo to Los Angeles, returning to New York on the same afternoon. When it passed through Tokyo, it was already the morning of October 5^th. Cyberangels cannot only fly around the globe, they can fly into tomorrow and back into yesterday.

My current blog Global Tribute to Rembrandt documents the cyberangels entering the High Museum and each the 30 other museums with images enriched with texts on the impact of digital culture on art that I developed when I was professor at Columbia University and research fellow at MIT Center for Advanced Visual Studies. The blog post’s title is “High Museum of Art in Atlanta: 6,456 miles from Jerusalem, Israel; 340 miles from JerUSAlem, Georgia; or 0 cybermiles via the Internet Cloud.”   

 I am reactivating a cyberangel team led by the angel Raphael to return to High Museum when it reopens to herald the grand finale of the coronavirus plague. The angel Raphael works to heal bodies, minds and spirits. “Raphael” is related to the word rophe, the divine healer in biblical Hebrew (Exodus 15: 26), and medical doctor in contemporary Hebrew.

These digitized angels dormant in museum flat files awakened to adorn the cover of my book Through a Bible Lens: Biblical Insights for Smartphone Photography and Social Media. The book’s cover is based upon my artwork in the collection of the Israel Museum that I created in Jerusalem. It shows cyberangels ascending from a NASA satellite image of the Land of Israel as they emerge from a smartphone screen. It illustrates the biblical commentary that the angels in Jacob’s dream go up from the Land of Israel and come down to earth throughout the world. “A ladder was standing on the ground, its top reaching up towards heaven as divine angels were going up and down on it.” (Genesis 28: 12) A smartphone has the power to make this vision a reality.

Through a Bible Lens offers biblical insights for the new media age. It was published shortly before the coronavirus pandemic erupted, anticipating the need for spiritual insights for coping with the radical changes in our lives in physical isolation while demonstrating how new media can connect us in virtual space. The book demonstrates to people of all faiths how biblical insights can transform life, in good times and bad, into imaginative ways of seeing spirituality in all that we do.

Distinguished professor Dr. Shaun McNiff, author of Earth Angels: Engaging the Sacred in Everyday Life, writes that Through a Bible Lens integrates wisdom about the Bible, creative thought, and cyberangels. “It is the most recent, and arguably one of art’s most complete and compelling integrations of the sacred and profane. It reads like a swift and soulful breeze. I love every ‘byte’ of it.”  Australian theologian Dr. Shimon Cowen, author of Aesthetics and the Divine, called my book “a mystical computer program for spiritual seeing.”

The cyberangels will herald the end of the COVID-19 pandemic by taking virtual flight to the High Museum of Art and 30 other museums on five continents when they reopen. They will begin their flight from the Israel Museum’s Shrine of the Book in Jerusalem, home of ancient Bible scrolls. People throughout the world will “Awaken and shout for joy” (Isaiah 26: 19) when the curtain comes down at the end of the plague.

The writer is author of Through a Bible Lens: Biblical Insights for Smartphone Photography and Social Media (HarperCollins Christian Publishing) www.throughabiblelens.blogspot.com and The Future of Art is a Postdigital Age: From Hellenistic to Hebraic Consciousness (Intellect Books/University of Chicago Press) www.future-of-art.blogspot.com. He is artist of Global Tribute to Rembrandt www.globaltributetorembrandt.blogspot.com.  Former professor at Columbia University and research fellow at MIT Center for Advanced Visual Studies, he now lives In Israel where he was professor at Ariel and Bar-Ilan universities and head of Emunah College School of the Arts in Jerusalem

Captions for the two attached images:

 

Rembrandt inspired cyberangels arrive from Israel at the High Museum of Art from the Israel Museum's Shrine of the Book in Jerusalem, home of ancient Bible scrolls

 

Cyberangels spiral up from a NASA satellite image of the Land of Israel emerging from a smartphone screen on the cover Dr. Alexenberg’s book on biblical insights for the new media age

 For further information contact Mel Alexenberg at melalexenberg@yahoo.com and +927-52-855-1223

Sent to Kevin Riley, Editor, Atlanta-Journal Constitution, kriley@ajc.com, 4 May 2020 

Art Gallery of Nova Scotia, Canada

Cyberangels Fly from Nova Scotia, Canada, to Herald End of Corona Plague

“A lion has roared; who will not fear?” (Amos 3: 8) “Go into your houses, my people, and lock your door behind you; hide for just a moment until the wrath has passed.” (Isaiah 26: 20)

While the frightening coronavirus pandemic requires that you hide in physical isolation away from everyone, the world of smartphones and the Internet invites you to come out of hiding and connect to anyone. People throughout the world look forward to “Awaking and shouting for joy” (Isaiah 26: 19) when the curtain comes down at the end of the plague.

Art Gallery of Nova Scotia

I make the words of the Bible come alive in our age of new media by having cyberangels fly from the Israel Museum in Jerusalem into the Art Gallery of Nova Scotia and 29 other museums on five continents that have my Rembrandt-inspired artworks in their collections. These virtual flights are documented in my blog Global Tribute to Rembrandt http://globaltributetorembrandt.blogspot.com that pays homage to the great master on the 350^th anniversary of his death.

The cyberangels arrived from Israel at the Art Gallery of Nova Scotia through its cafe to illustrate that the biblical words for angel and food are spelled with the same four Hebrew letters to teach that angels are spiritual messages arising from everyday life.  They arrived as a tray of chocolate cakes came out of the oven. I digitally enlarged them to be like a work of pop art on the plaza in front of the art gallery facade. (See attached image.)

 When I was head of the art department at Pratt Institute and research fellow at MIT Center for Advanced Visual Studies, I was invited to lecture on art and new technologies at the Nova Scotia College of Art and Design (now NSCAD University) and the Art Gallery of Nova Scotia. My mixed media artwork "Digitized Homage to Rembrandt: Spiraling Angels," an etching with chine colle from a computer-generated image, was accepted by the art gallery's acquisitions committee in 1987.

I am reactivating a cyberangel team that will be led by the angel Raphael to herald the grand finale of the coronavirus plague. The angel Raphael works to heal bodies, minds and spirits. “Raphael” is related to the word rophe, the divine healer in biblical Hebrew (Exodus 15: 26), and medical doctor in contemporary Hebrew.

When I opened the Nova Scotia Art Gallery’s website, I encountered this message: “Given the continued spread of COVID-19 and based on the guidance of public health officials, the Art Gallery of Nova Scotia is closed to the public and will reopen when clearance is received from public health officials.” Since the COVID-19 pandemic has closed all 30 museums, I am sending the angel Raphael team to bring healing words to their homebound staff with an image of cyberangels flying into their museums when they reopen.

Through a Bible Lens

My latest book Through a Bible Lens: Biblical Insights for Smartphone Photography and Social Media http://thoughabiblelens.blogspot.com shows creative ways to see the miracles of the new media age through a Bible lens. It was published by HarperCollins Christian Publishing shortly before the coronavirus pandemic erupted. It anticipated the need for spiritual insights for coping with the radical changes in our lives in physical isolation while demonstrating how new media can connect us in virtual space. The book demonstrates to people of all faiths how biblical insights can transform life, in good times and bad, into imaginative ways of seeing spirituality in all that we do.

The book’s cover is based upon my artwork in the collection of the Israel Museum that I created in Jerusalem. It shows cyberangels ascending from a NASA satellite image of the Land of Israel as they emerge from a smartphone screen. It illustrates the biblical commentary that the angels in Jacob’s dream go up from the Land of Israel and come down to earth throughout the world. “A ladder was standing on the ground, its top reaching up towards heaven as divine angels were going up and down on it.” (Genesis 28: 12) A smartphone has the power to make this vision a reality.

Nova Scotia on the Atlantic coast with British Columbia on the Pacific coast create the parenthesis of Canada. Moving from NSCAD University in Halifax, we arrive at Vancouver’s Emily Carr University of Art and Design. Dr. Ron Burnett, president of Emily Carr U, wrote in his review of Through a Bible Lens: “The iPhone has changed our culture and our ways of thinking and acting in the world. This book brings together spiritual thought, everyday practices of communication and interaction and profound insights about meaning and purpose in contemporary life in a brilliant and sustained exposition. Once again, Alexenberg has carved out a unique point of view that deserves the highest praise and a large readership. Great book!!”

Biblical Insight for Corona Lockdown

The Bible relates how three angels disguised as men, appeared to Abraham while he was sitting at the entrance to his tent in the heat of the day. One of the angels was Raphael the healer. “Abraham rushed to the tent to Sarah and said, ‘Hurry!  Take three measures of the finest flour!  Kneed it and make rolls!’ Abraham ran to the cattle to choose a tender and choice calf.” (Genesis 18: 6, 7)

A centuries-old biblical commentary explains that Abraham ran after the calf because it ran away from him into a cave that he discovered was the burial place of Adam and Eve. He was drawn to the intense light emanating from an opening at the end of the cave. As he approached, he saw the Garden of Eden through the opening. This deeply spiritual person, the patriarch Abraham, found himself standing at the entrance to Paradise. About to cross over the threshold into the pristine garden, he remembered that his wife and three guests were waiting for lunch back at the tent. What should he do?  Should he trade Paradise for a barbeque? 

Abraham realized that paradise is what we create with our spouse at home.  Other visions of paradise are either mirages or lies. “Enjoy life with the wife you love through all the days of your life.” (Ecclesiastes 9: 9)

During our corona lockdown, Miriam and I create a Garden of Eden for ourselves every day in out small apartment in Ra’anana, Israel. How blessed we are to also live in the age of WhatsApp, Facebook, Instagram, and Zoom when we can stay in touch with our children and their spouses, and our grandchildren and great-grandchildren. After the Passover holiday, our son Moshe made a WhatsApp call to us to announce that his wife Carmit had given birth to Arianna Chana and posted a photo of the beaming parents with their new born baby.

She was born on the seventh day of our counting the 49 days from the time the Hebrews gained their freedom from slavery in Egypt to their receiving the Ten Commandments at Mount Sinai. Each of these days has a different name made up of combinations of the divine attributes in Chronicles 1: 29, “Yours God are the loving kindness, the strength, the beauty, the success, the splendor, and the foundation of everything in heaven and on earth.”  

To be a slave, every day is the same. To be free is to be able to shape each day in a new way. Arianna Chana was born on the day called “Foundation of Loving Kindness.”

The writer is author of the highly acclaimed book Through a Bible Lens: Biblical Insights for Smartphone Photography and Social Media. He is former professor at Columbia University and research fellow at MIT Center for Advanced Visual Studies. In Israel, he was professor at Ariel and Bar-Ilan universities and head of Emunah College School of the Arts in Jerusalem.

Captions for attached images:

Cyberangels arrive from Israel at the café of the Art Gallery of Nova Scotia as messengers of good tidings

Cyberangels go up from the Land of Israel on the cover of Mel Alexenberg’s highly acclaimed book Through a Bible Lens that offers biblical insights for our new media age

Contact the author: melalexenberg@yahoo.com, +972-52-855-1223 (in Israel)

Sent to The Chronicle Herald, Nova Scotia, May, 1; The Vancouver Sun; and Canadianart, April 30

Smithsonian Institution’s National Museum of American History

Cyberangels Fly from Israel to the Smithsonian to Herald End of Corona Plague

By Mel Alexenberg

“A lion has roared; who will not fear?” (Amos 3: 8) “Go into your houses, my people, and lock your door behind you; hide for just a moment until the wrath has passed.” (Isaiah 26: 20)

While the frightening coronavirus pandemic requires that you hide in physical isolation away from everyone, the world of smartphones and the Internet invites you to come out of hiding and connect to anyone. People throughout the world look forward to “Awaking and shouting for joy” (Isaiah 26: 19) when the curtain comes down at the end of the plague.

Smithsonian Institution’s National Museum of American History

I make the words of the Bible come alive in our age of new media by having cyberangels fly from the Israel Museum in Jerusalem into the Smithsonian's National Museum of American History in Washington, D.C. and 29 art museums on five continents that have my Rembrandt-inspired artworks in their collections. These virtual flights are documented in my blog Global Tribute to Rembrandt http://globaltributetorembrandt.blogspot.com that pays homage to the great master on the 350^th anniversary of his death.

The cyberangels arrived from Israel at the National Museum of American History through its cafe to illustrate that the biblical words for angel and food are spelled with the same four Hebrew letters to teach that angels are spiritual messages arising from everyday life.

Gary Kulik, chairman of the museum’s Department of Social & Cultural History wrote about the gift from Pratt Graphics Center of my new media artwork that I created there: “It gives me great pleasure to acknowledge, on behalf of the National Museum of American History, the receipt of "Digitized Homage to Rembrandt: Day Angels" kindly presented to our Division of Graphic Arts. This lithograph from a computer-generated image is a most valuable addition to our collection.”

I am reactivating a cyberangel team that will be led by the angel Raphael to herald the grand finale of the coronavirus plague. The angel Raphael works to heal bodies, minds and spirits. “Raphael” is related to the word rophe, the divine healer in biblical Hebrew (Exodus 15: 26), and medical doctor in contemporary Hebrew. Since the COVID-19 pandemic has closed the museums, I am sending the angel Raphael team to bring healing words to their homebound staff with an image of cyberangels flying into their museums when they reopen.  

Through a Bible Lens

My latest book Through a Bible Lens: Biblical Insights for Smartphone Photography and Social Media http://thoughabiblelens.blogspot.com shows creative ways to see the miracles of the new media age through a Bible lens. It was published by HarperCollins Christian Publishing shortly before the coronavirus pandemic erupted. It anticipated the need for spiritual insights for coping with the radical changes in our lives in physical isolation while demonstrating how new media can connect us in virtual space. The book demonstrates to people of all faiths how biblical insights can transform life, in good times and bad, into imaginative ways of seeing spirituality in all that we do.

 The book’s cover is based upon my artwork in the collection of the Israel Museum that I created in Jerusalem.  It shows cyberangels ascending from a NASA satellite image of the Land of Israel as they emerge from a smartphone screen. It illustrates the biblical commentary that the angels in Jacob’s dream go up from the Land of Israel and come down to earth throughout the world. “A ladder was standing on the ground, its top reaching up towards heaven as divine angels were going up and down on it.” (Genesis 28: 12) A smartphone has the power to make this vision a reality.

Dr. Ori Z. Soltes, professorial lecturer of Theology and Fine Arts at Georgetown University in Washington, D.C., wrote in his review of Through a Bible Lens:

“For those of us familiar with the diverse and exhilarating work of Mel Alexenberg as an artist, educator and profound thinker, this latest book offers precisely the four things we would expect. The narrative thinks brilliantly outside the box. It synthesizes the realm of the abstruse and transcendent with the realm of the concrete and immanent. It crisscrosses disciplines, from science and technology to philosophy and mysticism to art as both historical and creative phenomena. Finally, the entirety is managed in a style both accessible and inviting. Those with prior knowledge of any or all of the disciplines from which Alexenberg draws will smile again and again in affirmation, and those entering without prior knowledge will be thrilled to understand things that they thought might be beyond them. This is one of those books that other thinkers will wish they had somehow thought about how to write, and to which readers of diverse sorts will simply respond by saying: wow!”

Biblical Insight for Corona Lockdown

The Bible relates how three angels disguised as men, appeared to Abraham while he was sitting at the entrance to his tent in the heat of the day. One of the angels was Raphael the healer. “Abraham rushed to the tent to Sarah and said, ‘Hurry!  Take three measures of the finest flour!  Kneed it and make rolls!’ Abraham ran to the cattle to choose a tender and choice calf.” (Genesis 18: 6, 7)

A centuries-old biblical commentary explains that Abraham ran after the calf because it ran away from him into a cave that he discovered was the burial place of Adam and Eve. He was drawn to the radiant   light emanating from an opening at the end of the cave. As he approached, he saw the Garden of Eden through the opening. This deeply spiritual person, the patriarch Abraham, found himself standing at the entrance to Paradise. About to cross over the threshold into the pristine garden, he remembered that his wife and three guests were waiting for lunch back at the tent. What should he do?  Should he trade Paradise for a barbeque? 

Abraham realized that paradise is what we create with our spouse at home.  Other visions of paradise are either mirages or lies. “Enjoy life with the wife you love through all the days of your life.” (Ecclesiastes 9: 9)

During our corona lockdown, Miriam and I create a Garden of Eden for ourselves every day in out small apartment in Ra’anana, Israel. How blessed we are to also live in the age of WhatsApp, Facebook, Instagram, and Zoom when we can stay in touch with our children and their spouses, and our grandchildren and great-grandchildren. After the Passover holiday, our son Moshe made a WhatsApp call to us to announce that his wife Carmit had given birth to Arianna Chana and posted a photo of the beaming parents with their new born baby.

She was born on the seventh day of our counting the 49 days from the time the Hebrews gained their freedom from slavery in Egypt to their receiving the Ten Commandments at Mount Sinai. Each of these days has a different name made up of combinations of the divine attributes in Chronicles 1: 29, “Yours God are the loving kindness, the strength, the beauty, the success, the splendor, and the foundation of everything in heaven and on earth.”  

To be a slave, every day is the same. To be free is to be able to shape each day in a new way. Arianna Chana was born on the day called “Foundation of Loving Kindness.”

The writer is author of the highly acclaimed book Through a Bible Lens: Biblical Insights for Smartphone Photography and Social Media. He is former professor at Columbia University and research fellow at MIT Center for Advanced Visual Studies.  In Israel, he was professor at Ariel and Bar-Ilan universities and head of Emunah College School of the Arts

Captions for attached images:

 

Cyberangels arrive from Israel at the Smithsonian's National Museum of American History in Washington, D.C as messengers of good tidings

 

Cyberangels go up from the Land of Israel on the cover of Mel Alexenberg’s latest book Through a Bible Lens that offers biblical insights for our new media age

Contact the author: melalexenberg@yahoo.com, +972-52-855-1223 (in Israel)

Sent: Cathy Gainor, Managing Editor, Washington Times, cgainor@washingtontimes.com, 29 April 2020

Birmingham Museum of Art, Alabama

Cyberangels Fly from Israel to Birmingham with Biblical Insights on Corona Plague

By Mel Alexenberg

“A lion has roared; who will not fear?” (Amos 3: 8) “Go into your houses, my people, and lock your door behind you; hide for just a moment until the wrath has passed.” (Isaiah 26: 20)

While the frightening coronavirus pandemic requires that you hide in physical isolation away from everyone, the world of smartphones and the Internet invites you to come out of hiding and connect to anyone. People throughout the world look forward to “Awaking and shouting for joy” (Isaiah 26: 19) when the curtain comes down at the end of the plague.

Birmingham Museum of Art

I make the words of the Bible come alive in our age of new media by having cyberangels fly from Israel into the Birmingham Museum of Art and 29 other museums on five continents that have my Rembrandt-inspired artworks in their collections. These virtual flights are documented in my blog Global Tribute to Rembrandt http://globaltributetorembrandt.blogspot.com that pays homage to the great master on the 350^th anniversary of his death.

The cyberangels arrived from Israel at Birmingham Museum of Art through its cafe to illustrate that the biblical words for angel and food are spelled with the same four Hebrew letters to teach that angels are spiritual messages arising from everyday life. My blog post for Birmingham Museum of Art shows that it is 5,951 miles from Jerusalem, Israel; 167 miles from Jerusalem, Alabama; or 0 cybermiles via the Internet Cloud https://globaltributetorembrandt.blogspot.com/2019/09/birmingham-museum-of-art-in-alabama.html.

I am reactivating a cyberangel team that will be led by the angel Raphael to herald the grand finale of the coronavirus plague. The angel Raphael works to heal bodies, minds and spirits. “Raphael” is related to the word rophe, the divine healer in biblical Hebrew (Exodus 15: 26), and medical doctor in contemporary Hebrew. Since the COVID-19 pandemic has closed the museums, I am sending the angel Raphael team to bring healing words to their homebound staff with an image of cyberangels flying into their museums when they reopen.  

Through a Bible Lens

My latest book Through a Bible Lens: Biblical Insights for Smartphone Photography and Social Media http://thoughabiblelens.blogspot.com shows creative ways to see the miracles of the new media age through a Bible lens. It was published by HarperCollins Christian Publishing shortly before the coronavirus pandemic erupted. It anticipated the need for spiritual insights for coping with the radical changes in our lives in physical isolation while demonstrating how new media can connect us in virtual space. The book demonstrates to people of all faiths how biblical insights can transform life, in good times and bad, into imaginative ways of seeing spirituality in all that we do.

Birmingham’s Dr. Gerald R. McDermott, distinguished professor at Stamford University’s Beeson Divinity School wrote about my book, “Who would have thought that there would be a way to connect smartphones to the ancient world of the Bible?  Professor Alexenberg has the expertise and experience to do so. This is a unique and fascinating book.”

Dr. Shaun McNiff, author of Earth Angels: Engaging the Sacred in Everyday Life, writes that Through a Bible Lens integrates wisdom about the Bible, creative thought, and cyberangels. “It is the most recent, and arguably one of art’s most complete and compelling integrations of the sacred and profane. It reads like a swift and soulful breeze. I love every “byte” of it.”  Australian theologian Dr. Shimon Cowen, author of Aesthetics and the Divine, called my book “a mystical computer program for spiritual seeing.”

The book’s cover is based upon my artwork in the collection of the Israel Museum that I created in Jerusalem.  It shows cyberangels ascending from a NASA satellite image of the Land of Israel as they emerge from a smartphone screen. It illustrates the biblical commentary that the angels in Jacob’s dream go up from the Land of Israel and come down to earth throughout the world. “A ladder was standing on the ground, its top reaching up towards heaven as divine angels were going up and down on it.” (Genesis 28: 12) A smartphone has the power to make this vision a reality.

The COVID-19 pandemic that indiscriminately attacks nations throughout the world creates a global village with a shared invisible enemy.  The cyberangels reach out to them “separated into their lands, every one according to his language, according to their families, into their nations” (Genesis 10: 5). They convey God’s message that the nations of the world are not meant to speak one language as in the disastrous Tower of Babel episode.  Each nation has its unique and distinct voice to contribute to the grand planetary choir singing God’s praise as humanity joins together to defeat the deadly coronavirus.

 Foundation of Loving Kindness

The Bible relates how three angels disguised as men, appeared to Abraham while he was sitting at the entrance to his tent in the heat of the day. One of the angels was Raphael the healer. “Abraham rushed to the tent to Sarah and said, ‘Hurry!  Take three measures of the finest flour!  Kneed it and make rolls!’ Abraham ran to the cattle to choose a tender and choice calf.” (Genesis 18: 6, 7)

A centuries-old biblical commentary explains that Abraham ran after the calf because it ran away from him into a cave that he discovered was the burial place of Adam and Eve. He was drawn to the intense light emanating from an opening at the end of the cave. As he approached, he saw the Garden of Eden through the opening. This deeply spiritual person, the patriarch Abraham, found himself standing at the entrance to Paradise. About to cross over the threshold into the pristine garden, he remembered that his wife and three guests were waiting for lunch back at the tent. What should he do?  Should he trade Paradise for a barbeque? 

Abraham realized that paradise is what we create with our spouse at home.  Other visions of paradise are either mirages or lies. “Enjoy life with the wife you love through all the days of your life.” (Ecclesiastes 9: 9)

During our corona lockdown, Miriam and I create a Garden of Eden for ourselves every day in out small apartment in Ra’anana, Israel. How blessed we are to also live in the age of WhatsApp, Facebook, Instagram, and Zoom when we can stay in touch with our children and their spouses, and our grandchildren and great-grandchildren. After the Passover holiday, our son Moshe made a WhatsApp call to us to announce that his wife Carmit had given birth to Arianna Chana and posted a photo of the beaming parents with their new born baby.

She was born on the seventh day of our counting the 49 days from the time the Hebrews gained their freedom from slavery in Egypt to their receiving the Ten Commandments at Mount Sinai. Each of these days has a different name made up of combinations of the divine attributes in Chronicles 1: 29, “Yours God are the loving kindness, the strength, the beauty, the success, the splendor, and the foundation of everything in heaven and on earth.”  

To be a slave, every day is the same. To be free is to be able to shape each day in a new way. Arianna Chana was born on the day called “Foundation of Loving Kindness.”

The writer is author of the highly acclaimed book Through a Bible Lens: Biblical Insights for Smartphone Photography and Social Media. He is former art educaton professor at Columbia University, research fellow at MIT Center for Advanced Visual Studies, and dean at New World School of the Arts, University of Florida’s arts college in Miami.  In Israel, he was professor of biblical thought and education at Ariel and Bar-Ilan universities and head of Emunah College School of the Arts in Jerusalem.

Captions for attached images:

Cyberangels arrive from Israel at the café of Birmingham Museum of Art as messengers of good tidings

Cyberangels go up from the Land of Israel on the cover of Mel Alexenberg’s highly acclaimed book Through a Bible Lens that offers biblical insights for our new media age

Contact the author: melalexenberg@yahoo.com, +972-52-855-1223 (in Israel)

Sent to Birmingham News and Birmingham Magazine, 28 April 2020

The Met and MoMA, NYC

Cyberangels Fly from Israel to The Met and MoMA to Herald End of Corona Plague

By Mel Alexenberg

“A lion has roared; who will not fear?” (Amos 3:8) “Go into your houses, my people, and lock your door behind you; hide for just a moment until the wrath has passed.” (Isaiah 26:20)

While the frightening coronavirus pandemic requires that you hide in physical isolation away from everyone, the world of smartphones and the Internet invites you to come out of hiding and connect to anyone. People throughout the world look forward to “Awaking and shouting for joy” (Isaiah 26:19) when the curtain comes down at the end of the plague.

I make the words of the Bible come alive in our age of new media by have cyberangels fly from Israel into The Met and MoMA in New York City and 28 other museums on five continents that have my Rembrandt-inspired artworks in their collections. These virtual flights are documented in my Global Tribute to Rembrandt blog that pays homage to the great master on the 350^th anniversary of his death.

The cyberangels arrived from Israel at the cafes of each of the museums since the biblical words for angel and food are spelled with the same four Hebrew letters to teach that angels are spiritual messages arising from everyday life.

I am reactivating a cyberangel team that will be led by the angel Raphael to herald the grand finale of the coronavirus plague. In Jewish and Christian traditions, the angel Raphael works to heal bodies, minds and spirits. “Raphael” is related to the word rophe, the divine healer in biblical Hebrew (Exodus 15:26), and medical doctor in contemporary Hebrew. Since the COVID-19 pandemic has closed the museums, I am sending the angel Raphael team to bring healing words to their homebound staffs with an image of cyberangels flying into their museums when they reopen.  

Rembrandt’s inspiration for creating cyberangels began when I was in a synagogue in New York listening to the chanting of the biblical portion about artists Bezalel and Oholiav building the Tabernacle. I was translating the Hebrew words into English in my mind when it struck me that the Bible’s term for “art” is malekhet makhshevet, literally “thoughtful craft.” It is a feminine term. Since I’m a male artist, I transformed it into its masculine form malakh makhshev, literally “computer angel.” 

When the services ended, I ran to tell my wife Miriam that I discovered that my role as a male Jewish artist is to create computer angels. “To do what?” was her response. I reminded her of an article that our son Rabbi Ron Alexenberg had sent us a week earlier when he was archivist at HaRav Kook House in Jerusalem.  Rabbi Abraham Isaac Kook, a down-to-earth mystic who served as the chief rabbi of pre-state Israel, described the light in Rembrandt paintings as the light of the first day of Creation.

I felt well equipped to create computer angels. I was head of the art department at Pratt Institute, America’s leading art college, where I taught “Fine Art with Computers,” and research fellow at MIT Center for Advanced Visual Studies where I taught “Developing Creativity for the Electronic Age.”

My latest book Through a Bible Lens that offers biblical insights for the new media age was published shortly before the coronavirus pandemic erupted. It anticipated the need for spiritual insights for coping with the radical changes in our lives in physical isolation while demonstrating how new media can connect us in virtual space. The book demonstrates to people of all faiths how biblical insights can transform life, in good times and bad, into imaginative ways of seeing spirituality in all that we do.

The book’s cover is based upon my artwork in the collection of the Israel Museum that I created in Jerusalem.  It shows cyberangels ascending from a NASA satellite image of the Land of Israel as they emerge from a smartphone screen. It illustrates the biblical commentary that the angels in Jacob’s dream go up from the Land of Israel and come down to earth throughout the world. “A ladder was standing on the ground, its top reaching up towards heaven as divine angels were going up and down on it.” (Genesis 28:12) A smartphone has the power to make this vision a reality.

The cyberangels reach out to countries attacked by the coronavirus “separated into their lands, every one according to his language, according to their families, into their nations” (Genesis 10: 5). They convey God’s message that the nations of the world are not meant to speak one language as in the disastrous Tower of Babel episode.  Each nation has its unique and distinct voice to contribute to the grand planetary choir singing God’s praise in health and peace. 

The spiritual power of digital culture in shaping the future was recognized early on by the Lubavicher Rebbe, the 20th century’s great Jewish leader who was educated as a scientist. He wrote: “The divine purpose of the present information revolution, which gives an individual unprecedented power and opportunity, is to allow us to share knowledge – spiritual knowledge – with each other, empowering and unifying individuals everywhere. We need to use today’s interactive technology not just for business or leisure but to interlink as people – to create a welcome environment for the interaction of our souls, our hearts, our visions.”

Author of Earth Angels: Engaging the Sacred in Everyday Life and professor at Lesley University, Dr. Shaun McNiff wrote in his review of Through a Bible Lens: “The most recent, and arguably one of art’s most complete and compelling integrations of the sacred and profane. The book is packed with wisdom and learning about Talmudic tradition, creative expression, and cyberangels. It reads like a swift and soulful breeze. I love every “byte” of it.”

The core concept of my book is particularly relevant to how we deal with our lives in lockdown hiding in our homes until the wrath has passed. (Isaiah 26:20)  

The Bible relates how three angels disguised as men, appeared to Abraham while he was sitting at the entrance to his tent in the heat of the day. One of the angels was Raphael the healer. “Abraham rushed to the tent to Sarah and said, ‘Hurry!  Take three measures of the finest flour!  Kneed it and make rolls!’ Abraham ran to the cattle to choose a tender and choice calf.” (Genesis 18:6, 7)

The Midrash, a centuries-old biblical commentary, explains that Abraham ran after the calf because it ran away from him into a cave that he discovered was the burial place of Adam and Eve. He was drawn to the intense light emanating from an opening at the end of the cave. As he approached, he saw the Garden of Eden through the opening. This deeply spiritual person, the patriarch Abraham, found himself standing at the entrance to Paradise. About to cross over the threshold into the pristine garden, he remembered that his wife and three guests were waiting for lunch back at the tent. What should he do?  Should he trade Paradise for a barbeque? 

Abraham realized that paradise is what we create with our spouse at home.  Other visions of paradise are either mirages or lies. “Enjoy life with the wife you love through all the days of your life.” (Ecclesiastes 9:9)

During our corona lockdown, Miriam and I create a Garden of Eden for ourselves every day in out small apartment in Ra’anana, Israel. How blessed we are to also live in the age of WhatsApp, Facebook, Instagram, and Zoom when we can stay in touch with our children and their spouses, and our grandchildren and great-grandchildren. After the Passover holiday, our son Moshe made a WhatsApp call to us to announce that his wife Carmit had given birth to Arianna Chana and posted a photo of the beaming parents with their new born baby.

She was born on the seventh day of our counting the 49 days from the time our ancestors gained their freedom from slavery in Egypt to their receiving the Torah at Mount Sinai. Each of these days has a different name made up of combinations of divine attributes. To be a slave, every day is the same. To be free is to be able to shape each day in a new way. Arianna Chana was born on the day called yesod b’hesed, “Foundation of Loving Kindness.”

The writer is author of the highly acclaimed book Through a Bible Lens: Biblical Insights for Smartphone Photography and Social Media, http://throughabiblelens.blogspot.com, and in Hebrew: Dialogic Art in a Digital World: Judaism and Contemporary Art. He is former professor at Columbia University, head of the art department at Pratt Institute, and research fellow at MIT Center for Advanced Visual Studies. In Israel, he was professor at Ariel and Bar-Ilan universities and head of Emunah College School of the Arts

Captions for attached images:

Cyberangels arrive from Israel at the café of the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York with the original Rembrandt and Alexenberg’s digital interpretation in their collection

Cyberangels arrive from Israel at the terrace café of New York’s Museum of Modern Art with Alexenberg’s new media versions of a Rembrandt angel drawing in their collection

Cyberangels go up from the Land of Israel on the cover of Mel Alexenberg’s highly acclaimed book Through a Bible Lens: Biblical Insights for Smartphone Photography and Social Media

 Sent to Algemeiner on April 27, 2020

Angel Announcing Birth of Samson

In the collections of:

Cincinnati Art Museum, Cincinnati, Ohio, USA.
Everson Museum of Art, Syracuse, New York, USA. 
Haags Gemeentemuseum, The Hague, The Netherlands.
Haifa Museum of Art, Haifa, Israel.
Museum Moderner Kunst, Vienna, Austria.
Nelson-Atkins Museum of Art, Kansas City, Missouri, USA.
Malmo Museum, Malmo, Sweden.

Lithograph printed in 1986 by the artist, Mel Alexenberg, on BFK Rives paper at Pratt Graphics Center, New York, 75 x 56 cm., edition of 40