Revised design includes a new configuration of curved lines as well as the introduction of a “four-branched shin” shown as a shadow of the standard three-branched shin.

Design Notes for “Ner Adonai” Revision 1-23-23

In the foreground, lines and curves flow inward and upward. People make aliyah as a congregation. Everyone has their own path. All lines converge at the light of G-d.

In order for us to reach the world to come, the “Olam Haba,” accosrding to Kaballah, we are tasked with returning the sparks, the shards of light to G-d’s broken vessel from which it was scattered. This is the work of Tikun Olam. We are the sparks.

Fragments of dichroic glass are adhered to the surface of the window to represent the sparks of light.

At the focal point, there is a Hebrew letter, “Shin,” composed of fragments of dichroic glass, recalling the shattered vessel which had contained G-d’s light, reassembled.

In the background,a subtle blue gradient is created by shade blasting blue flashed glass. Black lines and white lines: a vision of the ineffable.

Detail

The four-branched shin appeared only once in the liturgy, on the engraving of the original Tablets of the Ten Commandments as the negative space surrounding the standard shin, and, as such, is a symbol of the Ten Commandments. The four-branched shin has also come into customary use on the Tefillin to deliniate the “two shins.”