Hello. I’m David Plachte-Zuieback and this is Michelle. As our introducer pointed out, we are the stained glass artists. Rabbi asked us to speak this evening briefly about the process of making these windows and it is altogether fitting and proper that we do this.

The first step is the design.Fortunately, rabbi gave us a lot of clear direction specifying elements he wanted to include in the design for the sidelights in the little chapel, he even made a very simple sketch and that essentially, became the basis for the design.

It's a vision of the tent of Abraham sitting on the edge of the desert wilderness. There is pillar of fire, by night and pillar of cloud by day.

Speaking to Abraham, it says, Lech Lecha. “Go forth , and to complete the thought, go forth from your native land and from your fathers house to the land that I will show you.”

And its speaking to us

It is our native land.

Our father’s tent is beautiful, a tent of many comforts.

Before us, no object no tree, not even a rock occupy this vast and empty plane. There is nothing inviting about it. In the distance, at the end of the desert, yet, still, the beginning of the mountain wilderness, what is that flame, by night and cloud, by day?We advance to it over the distance-collapsing plane, but, as we follow, it seems that no matter how far we go we never get any closer to it.

its a mystery

It's a parable, it's a midrash its a story we all know.

And in this version of the story, the wilderness is the main character.

It's terrifying in its beauty its vastness and in its indifference. The sun, the moon and the three stars that signal the beginning of shabbat, our sense of time. All symbolize the eternal but indifferent nature of the earth and the universe. The Sun is large. The heat is on. The moon is in its final phase, Time is running short…for us.

Go forth is a call to action, a call one could say to confront the challenge of our collapsing environment. Because there is no place left where we can just go forth from and leave our trash behind. Is this wilderness a vision of our future? Is this vast indifferent planet ours to scour? Aren't we supposed to be the stewards of the earth?

Can we give up the comfort of our many colored tents and our many colored cars and our many colored pursuits of personal fortunes and thoughtless fun in order to make the whole earth the whole people our native land the land that no one needs to show us because we have already seen it and its only up to us to embrace it?

That’s what I wonder.

Once we had go the design created and approved, the next step was for Michelle to enlarge the design to make the full size patterns for the nine panels. It's a tricky process and despite what I think, Michelle totally knows what she is doing.

Next, Michelle chooses all the glass colors and sheets of glass to be used. Its a very exacting process and I do my best to steer clear of it.

Probably, the biggest part of the whole job is the cutting of the glass. Michelle picks the exact color and the exact sheet and cuts each piece of he window and lays it out on a second copy of the pattern.

Any preparation for sandblasting such as the inscription above, Lech leech or preparation for painting such as the two worlds bet Abraham falls under Michele’s purview.

You might be asking yourself at this point what exactly falls under David’s purview? Well,.This is where I come in. I pick up the glass pieces, one at a time and assemble them with the lad channel to hold it all together. Now a whole panel, it needs to be soldered and glazed, meaning puttied, on both sides. Then, cleaned, crated, delivered and installed. A process which we completed with the help of Lon and his crew, a couple weeks ago.

So think you so much for your attention We are very proud of this work. We are so glad to see the windows installed where they belong, here at Beth Abraham instead of leaning against the wall in boxes in our studio. And we hope that they may be an inspiration to the now and future generations of the Beth Abraham community to go forth with purpose and determination, to love beauty, to love judaism and to love our mother, the earth.