"Malach Melacha" --by RusticWoodArt

this is amazing. I’ve already “seen” so many images within it, let alone the beauty of itself without trying to mold it into a known subject.
I see a butterfly wing, I see a monk in prayer, .. to name just two.
I want to run out to an old sawmill and look for “junk” :)
Awesome.

-- ~ Debbie, Canada (http://www.execulink.com/~yohan)

Hi Debbie;
—-yes I also have seen the ‘butterfly wing’ and ‘the monk in prayer’.

Imagination is a wonder-full thing and its free to any who would take and use. Only thing is that after using your imagination, you might become a dreamer….and what is your worth then? All-ways looking to heaven while hating to put your feet in shoe leather, and so I soar in heavenly realms where beauty is ever in abundance!

GODSPEED,
Frank

-- --frank, NH, http://frank.wordpress.com/

Frank, these are indeed treasures from the forest. Excellent work. I always enjoy your postings!I really like the figure of spalted wood. I am just finishing a small cherry chest with frame and panel construction. The front frame is made of splted cherry.

-- http://foldingrule.blogspot.com

I saw an Eagle’s Head. You definately have an “Eye” when it comes to “seeing the being” of the wood.

-- http://ye-olde-cabinet-shoppe.com/

Hi David;
I have not seen spalted cherry up close, but can imagine that cherry would look real good all spalted. One of the features I like about cherry is how it darkens over time. In the days of way back then and when and during my junior high school days, I made a cherry book rack which I still have in my office, 16’’ in length and 7’’ wide. I will post it sometime as a project, well over the years it has darkened to a golden dark shade of red. Makes me wonder now days as to how many wood shop classes in junior high start you off with cherry….oh well!

Looking forward to seeing your cherry chest when you have completed it!
GODSPEED,
Frank

-- --frank, NH, http://frank.wordpress.com/

Malach Melacha

I just needed to know what the title of this piece meant. So here it is fresh from here.

The Hebrew word for “angel” is “malach.” The word “malach” is related to the word “melacha,” which means “task.” Hence, a malach is an agent or vehicle which accomplishes a task. The English word “angel” comes from the Greek word “angelos” meaning “messenger” or “agent.”

Therefore, a “malach” can be a wind, a person, or a purely spiritual force. The angels such as those who spoke to Abraham and Jacob were purely spiritual forces which appeared in human form.

Our Sages state that when you perform a commandment you create an angel that accompanies you. Maimonides explains that this refers to the spiritual and intellectual concepts that influence the person as a result of performing the commandments.

According to Maimonides, the degree of Divine Providence you experience is directly proportional to your attachment to God, and therefore the commandments which create that attachment are the true “guardian angels” of a person.

Sources:

• Tehillim 104, Commentary by Rabbi Avraham Chaim Feuer
• Zohar, Raiya Mehemna Parashat Shelach & Tractate Avodah Zarah 17a
• Maimonides, Mishneh Torah, Laws of Mezuzah, 6:13
• Maimonides, Guide for the Perplexed, Section 3 _

-- CanuckDon "I just love small wooden boxes!" http://www.hilsbiblechurch.org/

Don – You indeed have many talents!

Frank, I would enjoy seeing the cherry book rack. How fortunarte to have worked with cherry in woodshop. I think it is a shame that classes such as woodshop seem to be fading from the curriculum. I have fond memories of wood shop and metal shop. Keep the interesting projects coming! My favorite thing to do is check what is new on LJ after coming home from work. Takes the edge off a long day!

-- http://foldingrule.blogspot.com

thanks for that Don!

David, there is a TV “reality” program from the UK where teenagers are put into a 1950’s style school for a couple months. It is quite interesting. Anyway, part of the boys’ curriculum is auto mechanics, bricklaying, woodworking, and whatever else a boy needs to be a man. It is fascinating to watch them come alive as they learn and master the basics. The one episode was on the bricklaying and the teenager who was a little trouble-maker and failing regular school made this bench. On parents’ day, his father – who happened to be a brick layer, said that it was the best work he had ever seen and even better than his own. Both the boy and father were in tears, connecting for the first time and the teenager seemed to also feel good about himself and his abilities for the first time.

Just as an aside, the girls had to do all the things girls need to become a a woman and got to change diapers, make a cake, wash laundry, ... they hated it all.

-- ~ Debbie, Canada (http://www.execulink.com/~yohan)

Hi Debbie;
—-well what does a boy need to do to ‘become a man’ and what does a girl need to do to ‘become a woman’....this is the kind of thinking that goes against every-thing that ‘I am’....

....and then we must needs to teach how to be a gentleman and a lady….and then what comes next?

Being arouud lands, woods, and fields of gardens has taught me that….just within the seed is found the nature and character of the seed….plant the seed in the ground and forget about, the nature of the seed will take care of all the rest….

My connecting with my father can be an emotional moment that passes and is then gone, my connecting with the character of the seed that is within me will be a life-giving force that will shape me for eternity!

In the writings of the ancients is the saying that; we all knew, all things before coming to earth…., but then we forget don’t we. Have you ever looked into the eyes of a new born baby and seen “Ehyeh Asher Ehyeh”, this is the Hebrew word for “I will be who I will be” and then we tell that child later to become like us…..and then there came the day when I remembered where I came from; you might say the nature and character of the seed blossomed within me and I saw myself as imaged after the likeness of the one who created me….now my heart cannot stop singing; ”....oh happy day!”

I hope this topic does not offend any, since we are a wood forum, so I will end by saying that part of my leaning comes from listening to trees. Trees do not tell saplings what they must do to become an elder tree, all trees know, that you just grow….
GODSPEED,
Frank

-- --frank, NH, http://frank.wordpress.com/

A “knight” chess piece in the game of life. Again Frank, your eye for the beautiful in all that surrounds us is inspiring.

-- Better to say nothing and be thought the fool... then to speak and erase all doubt.