Question

1. Why is there, in these poems written in English, French and Farsi, so much love related to paintings, deriving from paintings and from these particular paintings?

2. It is because true painters express – like Bezalel – the moments when, at Sinai “all the people saw the voices” (Shemot, Exodus 20.18). And a painter is able to re-open these channels if he is a “true” painter (see thoughts on art of great thinkers. Link)

3. As spectators we, in turn, can receive this flux if we allow our inner selves to truly connect with these paintings.
Then, daily with these paintings, we can more easily uphold this verse from the Psalms (16,8):
“I have set Hashem always before me, Shiviti Hashem le negdi tamid.”

4. The love poems presented on this page are not addressed either to the paintings or to the painter (that would be idolatry), but to the creative force of the Creator, which is present and powerfully expressed in these paintings.
Bezalel works of art, such as these, are priceless.

5. They represent the work and presence of the one whom the Torah calls hakham lev, the wise-hearted man (Shemot, Exodus 31.6 – 35.10), and connect particularly to Exodus 36.1 which mandates artists and painters to work for the good of the people: “Then wrought Bezalel and Aholiab, and every wise-hearted man, in whom Hashem put wisdom and understanding to know how to work all manner of work for the service of the sanctuary, according to all that Hashem had commanded.” Exodus 36.8 continues: “And every wise-hearted man among them that wrought the work of the tabernacle made ten curtains of fine twined linen, and blue, and purple, and scarlet, with cherubims of cunning work made he them”. This is so important that Proverbs (Mishle 10.8) says that it is the wise of heart who “receive” this commandment.

Poems in english - Poèmes en englais encounter between the perception of the artist and that of the spectator, by Prof. Rav Yehoshua Rahamim Dufour   - Israel, you must be moon - I was with You at the edge of the sea of love - Les tableaux de Roee Suffrin nous interpellent - Beasts and prophets - My love for you - Oh! The gaze - I-you love me

The paintings of Roee Suffrin interrogate us

The paintings of Roee Suffrin interrogate us
Between light and darkness.
Men, not humans, like war.
They love war machines.
They teach their children war games.
They want them to be great killers.
Nothing but this in the universe.
All politics center on war.
With no opposition by spiritual leaders,
For they too are men.

Women live a life of torture:
men wound and ruin them too.
They imprison them in the mechanics of war management.
They tell them: work fast, stay locked up, turn your Retours, and shut up.
Understand that you must: “be silent and disappear!”

 

Roee Suffrin, the painter, enters in the midst of this party.
On the canvas, their grimaces and games are revealed.
These killers imagine themselves greater than Heaven.
Their strength, their speed are their art.

Artists, depict the magnificent abstract beauty of our wars.
Pure art, if you please, without human beings.
The strokes fuse, explode and become entangled.

One sole light remains, preserves, protects, pure, beautiful, solid woman.
Her serene existence is their antithesis.
Her beauty is their failure.
She remains divine and solitary.
The painter loves her.
He and she are two prophets.

[Top]

Oh! The gaze

 

Exhibition of paintings by Roee Suffrin
On display for one year in my home.
Yehoshua Rahamim Dufour.

Poem by the scribe, your servant
who recorded the spontaneous words
expressed by visitors as they stood
before the painting of Roee Suffrin:
words whispered in confidence,
uncontrolled and uncontrollable.
With these words, the visitors,
all without exception,
and at each occasion,
discovered in his works,
the experience of a great painter,
his gaze, his inner life
projected on a canvas which speaks and looks at them.
On each occasion, I recorded the words
that soared, from their hearts, before me.

1
Oh, the gaze
becomes a celestial encounter,
perfect prayer,
purity direct.
This is the essence,
no need to please.
No words to express,
the encounter is perfect.
Everything is here, I forget the rest.

2
The second life is here,
eternal embrace
in a multidimensional
multiplicity.
You
painter-eternal-child
gave me
the mirror of infinity
in every color
in every stroke.

 

3
I will no longer be able to forget
that the paintings
exist within me
wherever I go,
wherever the world exists.
Henceforth, every gaze
is a gaze that shines.
He who revealed this to me,
if he is not a prophet,
he is Jewish, he gave me
the universal connection
and the gaze that knows.

4
Every being is nobility
henceforth.
Every gaze is intimacy
and majesty.
Life is no longer forgotten.
Eyes stare wide-eyed
at happiness revealed.

5
The painter labored at
his painting. I purchased it.
I acquired eternity.
Paradise is revealed,
Inhabiting the secret
intimacy of my house renewed.
Happy Jewish children
of this modest painter,
son of great prophets.
From birth,
he transmits to them
the river of eternity.

6
My acquired painting
is an eternal family
dating Retour to Bereshit.
Here God is truth,
There is no false seduction.
The romance is constant,
breath perfumed.

7
Such a work, only
a king, a queen
can buy.
It is not a decorative work,
it is the perfect gift
in the art of contemplating
hopes discovered
in contemplation given.
I bought a breath
that cannot be forgotten.
He labored
to achieve it.
He lent it to me.

8
Hafez, the inimitable Persian
trained you in Iran:
be a rebel, he said, and be grateful,
drink the wine of humanity.
Be the pearl infinitely capable
of receiving the light that is given.

And Saadi told you so wisely
that all humans are one entity
so modestly you shared
with everyone
without ever cheating,
with dignity, and truth,
the roses of the Garden of happiness
which your ancestors bequeathed to you.

Saadi revealed to you
that respiration is a blessing renewed,
Bezalel perpetuated
and you depicted it for us
in the painting of the two figures
sounding of the shofar
and in the painting of generations marching
sustained by the Torah.

Like your painting, the children
whom we beget,
among a people who see voices,
will reveal to us even more.

Paradise is here.
Roee Suffrin – thank you.

 

- I love you, says the bird to the flower.

* You love me, how good it is to hear!
But how can you love me without knowing me?

- I know you:
You are one of the beauties in the garden.

 

* You love me because I look like others,
like pretty pictures.

But as soon as you will see another beauty,
you will leave me.
You will jump from beauty to beauty.

- I love your beauty.

* But I am not that beauty,
I am myself.
And you do not know whether my real me
is as beautiful as the images you admire.
Are you beautiful in your inner self?

- Lend me your pupils
and I shall look at myself in your clear water.

* Are you sure that it is pure enough?

- Look at it deep within my pupils.

* How will I know if it is you
or me or the reflection of the sky?

- Know it well,
the world is night, complete darkness,
even in the day,
but if I am your light,
and if you are my light,
we shall light up the full moon and make the universe shine.

* Or you know how to speak beautifully,
or you are the secret of my whole being.

- You doubt me, my beauty,
But I doubt myself even more, be sure of that.
When I see you, I begin to doubt
that I am armed with wings.
I prefer your aerial-like petals.

*- One thing is certain, you and I are the same.

 

[Top]

Beasts and Prophets

The fox drew close to the lion.
Walking on his hind legs,
his two front legs stretched towards Heaven,
he cried out: “I am the Prophet!”

The lion, astounded at such a creature,
did not even consider tearing him asunder,
thinking to himself: “this is a wondrous sight!”
The fox, in a trance, cried out to Heaven:

“Is there here the best of the universe,
The strongest, the noblest, the one we respect?”
The lion, deeply flattered, said to himself:
“Who better than I to receive a Prophet?”

 

 

“Sit before me, my ears are all yours.”
The fox stood erect, nodding his head:
“I bear a powerful, awesome and celestial message.
He who will receive it must pass a test

And offer a sacrifice that matches the universe
before I can transmit to him the secret.”
The lion, flattered by the respect accorded
to his power over all creatures.

“Speak,” he said. “what you ask for, I accept.”
“Give me 830 lambs and 400 goats.”
“Here they are.” The fox: “Will you grant me a last request?”
“Since it is divine, I do so totally.”

“If you accomplish it, you will be king of the universe,
your praises will be eternal, from generation to generation.
But if you do not, you will turn into a turtledove.”
The lion was terror-stricken and prostrated himself on the ground.

“Speak,” he said. “Your servant accords his respects.
My word is sacred or I will become a turtledove.”
He trembled like a bush in a storm.
“Give to Heaven, through me, your secret riches

and the mirage will continue, no one will know the real truth:
you are not a lion but a turtledove.
And you will have to bring me every month 830 lambs and 400 goats.”
“I will do it,” said the lion, “upon the word of turtledove.”

“Then,” said the fox, “the savior of all creatures will arrive.
He will name you King of Kings, melekh.
And I shall be near you, closer than your two eyes.”
The lion was in ecstasy, thanked Heaven and said: “I accept.”

 

 

He prostrated himself, waiting for the fox to say: “Rise.”
Then, from behind the bushes, sprung the members of the sect.
They strangled him and feasted upon him. .
And they said: “Thank you, Creator of the universe.

You created imagination, religion, sects,
absurdness, stupidity, and us gangsters.
This was your will since the Creation of the universe.
We are teachers, kings, priests.

 

 

Let us drink, drink, and feast.”
They did not see that behind the bushes
The panthers had arrived.
They stood round him in a circle
and cried out: “We are the last prophets.”…

 

From far away, the painter painted the scene,

sustaining the world in light.

 

[Top]

I was with You at the edge of the sea of love.

 

(Here is the poem “I was with you” in english language.
It is a tribute to the holy, eternal triangle of Esther, the King of Kings and the
Creator.
May it exist every year between Iran and Israel,
a unique relationship, which no other nation has had with
Israel.
In the Temple of Jerusalem, a plaque instructed every pilgrim to
remember this relationship and pay homage and thanks to the
Creator and the nation of Persia.)
Photos Dufour. Copyright.

I was with You at the edge of the sea of love.

I was with You at the edge of the sea of love.
There were no more secrets between You, the waves and my beloved.
The planets and children play together in harmony

 

 

then, suddenly, You shattered to the core my confidence.
I was a dead, suffering body in Your presence.

I looked around. You were there and You gave me Retour
the secret hidden in a secret, unknown even to the universe.

You took us out of the Garden of Eden and the Palace of Love
and we were “one” united in a common breath.

Even the body does not yet understand the perfume of this new flower.

It illuminates day and night with sweetness
but, only the prophets and the pure can know her.

At last, the moment-beginning-bereshit has become eternal and good.

 

Through You...

[Top]




My love for you

"My love for you
is as beautiful as the flight of birds,
as the song of blackbirds and the dancing of waves,
as the green landscapes,
the water-colored clouds,
the purity of dew-drops,
the laughter of babies,
the majesty of mountains,
the immensity of oceans,
the amazingly infinite galaxies,
the caresses of cascades and rivers,
the power of leaping tigers,
the variety of the seasons,
and of men and women of every race,
the music and dances,
and intoxicating perfumes.”
Said the Creator to Israel,
said the Creator to every being
made in very His image.

“I love,
You are of this source,

 

Cease all wars,
all hatred,
all that is ugly.
There is only one being,
in every being.
It is so good, so clear.
It is a fatal mirage,
the money which you seek.
This is the Jewish challenge of every being".

 

[Top]