Jacqueline Nicholls (b. 1971)
Maternal Torah: The Yeshiva In-between, 2008
Mixed media
Museum Collection
The shape of this Sefer Torah corset is based on that of a pregnant woman. The Talmud describes the fetus as learning Torah from an angel. As he leaves the womb, the angel strikes the baby, causing it to forget everything it once knew. Consequently, we spend our lives retrieving the Torah knowledge that was once ours, when ensconced in our mother’s womb.
Must Know
Jacqueline’s work examines the tradition from her contemporary, feminist, perspective. She Questions the traditional roles that women are expected to fulfill, and how women are discussed in the texts. This sefer torah corset is based on a pregnant woman’s shape. In the Talmud in Niddah 30a, the fetus is poetically described as learning torah from an angel in the womb. On exiting, the angel strikes the baby, forming the indent in the upper lip, causing the baby to forget all the knowledge that it once knew. We are to spend our lives retrieving the knowledge that was once ours. Torah is not a new thing for us, but a retracing of prior learning. A woman’s body is a place of revelation, a makom torah, a primal beit midrash for the fetus.-it’s own personal Mount Sinai . In the Yom Kippur prayers, on Kol Nidrei evening, we mention the Yeshiva Shel Ma’alah, and the Yeshiva Shel Matah – the Upper and Lower Yeshivot. There is a place in-between the upper and the lower worlds which is called the Yeshiva In-between.
More Info
combines elements of a traditional sefer torah cover, with a woman’s corset. From the sefer torah we have the proportions, the oval top with the two holes, the fringing. From the woman’s corset there are the very feminine shapely curves, the ribbon binding at the back, and the fringing…
Torah is often described in traditional learning circles as a feminine object. The torah is held, kissed, even married to (on Simchat Torah).
The corset seems to be a perfect metaphor for Torah, and halacha (Jewish Law) – it gives shape, support, constrains and eroticises.
The phrase ‘Torat Imecha’ is from the book of Mishlei (Proverbs) – ‘listen children to your father’s instructions, but do not forget your mother’s torah (torat imecha)
