Jessie rice - Adaptation

Three shelves of large, heavy Hebrew books lined a prominent shelf in my childhood home. I walked past them daily, but never considered engaging with them. To me, they symbolized the disconnection I felt from my family’s religion. Like the large books of Talmud on the shelf, Orthodox Judaism always felt overwhelming and inaccessible.

As I searched for a sense of spiritual connectedness in my adulthood, I was drawn back to the Talmud. A written record of Jewish oral tradition and interpretation, the Talmud is a connective thread between all Jewish people. In modern Orthodox practice, the Talmud is utilized for Daf Yomi – daily study and interpretation, practiced by Jewish people worldwide.

The pieces in this body of work were developed in solitude, yet they connect me to thousands of Jewish people around the globe. As I engage with each page of Talmud, I know members of my community are glancing over the same words during Daf Yomi each day. By breaking down the structure of the Talmudic page through textiles, I assert my agency, redefining the structure and composition. The materials, soft and approachable, contrast the intense visual layout and hyper-specific content of traditional Talmud pages.