The project for which we are designing consist of three separate installations along a building axis, which runs through the Chapel, Recognition Hall and the Main Sanctuary.  We have defined an idea, which associates the three separate projects as progressing from "the earthly to the transcendent."
The three separate projects are:

1. The stained glass window on the western wall of the chapel, which also appears, from the exterior, as the singular piece facing the road and approaching visitors. The theme of this composition has to do with man’s relationship to man, as defined by the commandments within the Torah.
2. The design for The Chapel Ark and surrounding stained glass derives from the idea of  man’s relationship to God’s creation i.e. It is a Tree of Life. The stained glass windows surrounding the Chapel Ark are also visible in Recognition Hall, where they frame the large wall, which is the back of the Chapel Ark. On this wall, an inscription, in raised metal letters, For every thing there is a season, and a time to every purpose under heaven.
3. The Main Sanctuary Ark and surrounding stained glass windows, deals with man’s relationship to God, as portrayed in the story of Jacob’s Dream.

The overriding theme of the three projects, taken together, revolves around the idea of Al Shlosha Devarim

The theme of the sanctuary art work, Jacob’s Dream, is about that which connects the Heaven and the Earth, a ladder, symbol of theTorah. One has to climb a ladder. It is a device, which requires action.

Recognition Hall is about all the people who have performed the avodah that has built and sustained the synagogue/community. Aytz Chaim, the theme of the artwork surrounding the bima and visible from recognition Hall,refers to one's responsibility to care for the world, to Tikun Olam, repairing and completing God’s Creation.
The 613 commandments, the 10 Obligations Without Measure, Love thy neighbor, as thyself, these are summaries of the imperative to take care of each other, the gimilut hasadim, which is the moral content of the Torah.

Of course, our triad of compositions contain within them references to the great ideas of Judaism.
At the midpoint of the axis of spirituality, the Chapel Ark and Recognition Hall stained glass point to the beauty of the natural world that is the creation.

At the western end of the axis, the Chapel stained glass combines the laws of the Torah with the insignia of the Twelve Tribes, notarizing the contract between God and Israel, which is the revelation.

At the eastern end of the axis, in the sanctuary, the redemption of Jacob is represented, who at a most desperate and wayward point in his life, is truly saved by a gentle and reassuring God.

The emphasis, in all the ideas is upon action, on deeds, on the performance of work, the maintenance of the community, on taking responsibility, on what is commanded from us, what is required of us and what it is hoped we may be capable of. This, more than anything, is what makes this work specifically, a manifestation of the community of Temple Beth El, whose leaders, and congregants take the commandment to social action seriously.

Copyright ©2009 Plachte-Zuieback Art Glass