Untitled Sculpture (Sotah 7:5) cast glass

Sotah 7:5 tells of the Blessings and Curses ritual, which must be done in Hebrew. At the conclusion an altar made of stone and plastered with plaster has "all the words of the Torah'" carved into the plaster in seventy languages. The dichotomy of using stone, a relatively permanent material, and covering it with plaster, a disposable material that needs to be reapplied often, compelled me to think on ideas of permanence and impermanence in Jewish thought as well as the implication of retaining 'all the words of the torah' on such plaster covered stones. Further reflection also questioned the permanence of language and text, finally returning to define 'permanence' itself, sometimes as unchanging or flexibility to change. These thoughts fueled the creation of a glass stone, a simultaneously fragile and long-lasting material, engraved with the phrase " all the words of the Torah".