Elyssa Wortzman: Foraging for Manna
Elyssa Wortzman is an artist, Jewish Spiritual Director and developer of award winning Jewish cultural programs. In Foraging For Manna, Wortzman explores a process at the nexus of art and spiritual direction, bringing awareness and meditation practices to the art-making process. Based on a Talmudic midrash explaining manna as the food that “draws out the heart”, Wortzman journeyed into the forest to forage for manna, spiritual sustenance that derives from the environment. Using the map of Eden Village as the underlying image, Wortzman created a collection of mixed media works that document this process, exploring our footprint on the landscape and the landscape’s imprint on us. By bringing awareness to and cultivating trust in the environment, she could gather only what was needed (manna), developing an individual understanding of environmental sustainability.
Elyssa Wortzman is an artist, Jewish Spiritual Director and developer of award winning Jewish cultural programs. In Foraging For Manna, Wortzman explores a process at the nexus of art and spiritual direction, bringing awareness and meditation practices to the art-making process. Based on a Talmudic midrash explaining manna as the food that “draws out the heart”, Wortzman journeyed into the forest to forage for manna, spiritual sustenance that derives from the environment. Using the map of Eden Village as the underlying image, Wortzman created a collection of mixed media works that document this process, exploring our footprint on the landscape and the landscape’s imprint on us. By bringing awareness to and cultivating trust in the environment, she could gather only what was needed (manna), developing an individual understanding of environmental sustainability.
Wortzman also used her dance background and experience with Authentic Movement in Shira Dicker's Transcendental Trope Performance, which combined spontaneous movement, Torah reading and music.
As part of her research for her Doctorate of Ministry in Jewish Spiritual Direction (Graduate Theological Foundation) Wortzman is currently creating an arts-based embodied curriculum for spiritual growth for tweens and teens called JewSTU, which received a grant in the category of Innovation in 2012 from UJA’s Westchester Program Services Cabinet.
As part of her research for her Doctorate of Ministry in Jewish Spiritual Direction (Graduate Theological Foundation) Wortzman is currently creating an arts-based embodied curriculum for spiritual growth for tweens and teens called JewSTU, which received a grant in the category of Innovation in 2012 from UJA’s Westchester Program Services Cabinet.