Lots of Water - Chumashim Bima Cover

After completing this fun, colorful, different and meaningful parochet for my high school friend Hunny’s shul, and receiving rave reviews, I received a surprise email- Dr. Noah Levi, a shul member, would like to create a matching bima cover!

What design elements came to mind? More Shivas Haminim or Jerusalem houses. Either all around the bima flaps or on the table top part, or both, for something richer.

I suggested these concepts to Dr. Levi, but they were a bit too boring for him. He had other ideas. He thought about it for a few days and then came back with a brand new idea:

“Chana, what do you think of this- we do 5 Chumashim- a depiction of each Chumash on each side of the bima cover?”

“I love it!!!! I’ve never done anything like that before and have never seen such a concept on a bima cover!”

“Great! Let’s do it!”

And the rest is history- I sat down with my artistic team to think up the most appropriate symbols for each book of the Torah. So that the observer would immediately say- “Hey, this is Breishis! And that’s Bamidbar!”

B”H, one of my main artists is also what I call a ‘Talmida Chachama’ and has incredible ideas for these types of projects.

So this was our original

Breishis:  Noah ark, flood, dove and olive leaf

Shmos: Har Siani, the luchot, reeds on the banks of water and clouds of glory  

Vayikra: Mizbeach - karbonot 

Bamidbar: Desert and well of Miriam 

Dvarim: Mitzvah to write the torah 

Although Dr. Levi really loved the concept, he still felt like we were missing a certain ‘je ne sais quoi’.

He got his daughter Estee on board for a marathon 2-hour search throughout the entire Chumash for psukim that had to do with water!

B”H, they succeeded!

They found 5 water-related psukim that they felt a personal connection to, one from each Sefer.And the Vayikra passuk was especially meaningful for them, as Levi’im:

.ויקרב משה את אהרן ואת בניו וירחץ אתם במים

Isn’t that amazing???

So here are the updated designs:

Dr. Levi and Estee saw them. Their reaction?

“Approved!” 

That’s when we moved on to the fabric selection and digitizing stage which took a few weeks!

On to the embroidery machine:

I was super nervous before sewing each of the 5 pieces of this masterpiece together and asked Dr. Levi to measure and remeasure his bima from every possible angle to ensure an exact fit!

I even had my seamstress sew a ‘sample’ bima cover based on the dimensions he gave me and shipped it off to Southfield for him to try on- 

B”H, we tweaked the dimensions…

Here is the final product… Unbelievable, eh?

Makes you want to fly out to Southfield just to see this bima cover in person!!!!

Honestly, I’m so moved by the holy art that I’m zocheh to create together with inspired individuals the world over, enabling them to connect to the spark of kedusha inside and #MakeJudaismFunAgain!