One Friday afternoon a few weeks ago, I found myself among a potpourri of arts, crafts, jewelry, trinkets and treasures – arranged on linen-covered tables and shaded by white portable tents – spread out over the tiled plaza on Jaffa Street, across from , in downtown Jerusalem. I thought I would just browse a bit until the next train came to take me home to prepare for Shabbat, but one man’s stand caused me to stop and take a closer look. Neatly arranged on a tablecloth were stunning wood and resin mezuzah creations.
Looking at each smooth, seamless composition of waves of olive wood flowing into more waves of turquoise, green, and white resin, I felt like I was gazing down into a clear, deep ocean. Each wood portion was a weaving shoreline for the deep blue sea adjacent to it. Each piece was like its own land-and-sea world, condensed into a 20- or 25-centimeter mezuzah.
Many were standardly shaped, about 20 x 2.5 cm. and 1.
5 cm. thick, but what caught my eye were the ones shaped like the Land of Israel. Although they depicted the Land, I felt like I was actually looking into the Mediterranean Sea and the Sea of Galilee (the Kinneret).
There were also some Land of Israel necklaces. For sale were also a few standard-sized sets of five mezuzot, each set clearly fashioned from a single original wood-resin block, making each mezuzah simultaneously an individual piece of art and part of the larger group (as perhaps we should all be). An amazing resin clock made from embedded .