Exploring Jewish Mysticism Through Art: Ascent Retreat Focuses on Re-Creation

CHABAD
By Yehuda Sugar

Safed artist Yom Tov Blumenthal, whose works include an image of a
 tree of esoteric wisdom emanating from a Torah scroll, will run workshops at the Ascent retreat.

ISRAEL---When most people think of Safed, two things immediately come to mind, aside from the city’s sheer beauty and vistas, perched as it is atop Israel’s Upper Galilee region: Jewish mysticism and art. But until recently, an intensive program had yet to offer students a way to discover Kabbalistic wisdom through art. Enter Ascent, a Chabad-Lubavitch institution that is part hostel and part yeshiva to both local Israelis and foreign tourists. Its new mystical art retreat begins next week, taking a place alongside a program of tours, lectures, and inspirational gatherings that has been in development since Ascent’s founding in 1983. [link]