Posted on 12/23/2005 2:39:47 PM PST by Liberty Valance
Efren Reveles once used his hands to heal the sick. Now, the retired neurosurgeon uses them to express his Jewish faith.
Reveles, known to his friends as “Doc,” began making Jewish ceramic art while he was practicing medicine at Cedars Sinai in Los Angeles. After retiring in 1983, Reveles traveled the country in an RV. He often spent the winter months in Mission, Texas, but traveled through Kerrville. When he decided to settle, he chose Kerrville.
“I thought, ‘Kerrville is just a nice, sleepy, little town,’” he said.
How he started
“I’ve always done fine things with my hands,” he said. “I needed something to keep busy and keep my hands in shape — out of habit — and this did it. This keeps me out of mischief, I suppose.”
All of his pieces, from menorahs to wine goblets, are done freehand. He doesn’t use patterns, stencils or other mechanical aids to create his art, he said, which means that no two pieces are exactly alike.
“There’s a little piece of my heart in everything I make,” he said.
Memories of younger days serve as his inspiration.
“I get my ideas from the things I’ve seen in the past, as a child growing up.”
Although Hanukkah is an active season, Reveles said he stays busy year-round.
“It (Hanukkah) isn’t the quote ‘Jewish Christmas’ as some people think it is,” he said. “It’s a commemoration of when the Temple of Jerusalem was reopened.”
Hanukkah can be seen as a link between Judaism and the roots of Christianity.
“If Jews want to read the story of Hanukkah,” he said, “they have to go to the Christian (Catholic) Bible, to the book of Maccabees.”
“According to I Maccabees, the celebration of Hanukkah was instituted by Judas Maccabeus in 165 BCE to celebrate his victory over Antiochus IV Epiphanes, the Seleucid king who had invaded Judaea, tried to Hellenize the Jews, and desecrated the Second Temple in Jerusalem,” according to Encyclopedia Britannica online.
The Temple was cleaned, restored and dedicated on Kislev 25, which Judas “proclaimed that the dedication of the restored Temple should be celebrated every year for eight days beginning on that date.”
Just as the story of the Festival of Lights reaches across religions, so does Reveles’ ceramic art.
He said people from small towns come to Kerr Market Days at the county courthouse, where he sets up a booth, and are surprised they don’t have to drive to San Antonio or another larger city to purchase items with Jewish motifs.
One of is most popular items, especially among Christians, is the mezuzah case. A mezuzah, or scroll, inscribed with passages from the Torah is placed in the case, which is then put on the doorpost.
“I thought, ‘In Kerrville, I’m going to run out of Jews real quick,’” he said. “It’s amazing how many people who aren’t Jewish buy these things, too.”
Ping
Happy Hanukkah to you!!!!
Merry Christmas and Happy Hanukkah to you!!!!!
Merry Christmas, dear N2!!!
So many N's....so little time!
Ha!
:)
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