This Hanukkah menorah was inspired by the question (my own): What might the Maccabees have made to commemorate Hanukkah? We have a historic record of the day they rededicated the Temple and that they decreed the event to be a holiday, to be celebrated in perpetuity for eight days. It would have been common to erect a marker (stele) with this important event inscribed. The story would have been written in the vernacular (probably Aramaic) and probably in plaster over stone. I used porcelain over stoneware clay to echo the plaster and English for "the vernacular." On the center panel are inscribed three key verses which describe the rededication of the Temple. The rabbis would have been quick to point out that the Maccabees and the army they led should not receive too much credit for this victory; the credit goes to God. In support, the rabbis used the verse "Not by might, not by power, but by My spirit." Arnold's work on the stele was featured in the Modern Masters holiday special produced for HGTV.
Arnold Schwarzbart
Studio of Arnold Schwarzbart
Arnold Schwarzbart ז״ל · 1942 – 2015 · Knoxville, Tennessee