The Power of Fasting: "Moses With The Law" by Moritz Daniel Oppenheim

ALPHA OMEGA ARTS
By TAHLIB

"Moses with the Law" by Moritz Daniel Oppenheim

Jews believe Moses fasted 40 days & nights, without food or water, and then he wrote the Ten Commandments. Such is the power of fasting. Exodus 34:28: "And he was there with the LORD forty days and forty nights; he did neither eat bread, nor drink water. And he wrote upon the tables the words of the covenant, the ten commandments." Moritz Daniel Oppenheim was a successful Jewish painter of the 19th century. "He was eighteen when he painted the aggressive 'Moses with the Law'" according to Jewish art critic Richard McBee. "It is a wall sized evocation of our Teacher pointing at 'You shall have no other godsÉ' within the Ten Commandments, that maintains respect and piety in both the powerful depiction of Moses and the avoidance of using God's name fully spelled out. The emphasis on the second commandment by the artist shows a subtlety well beyond his years."