The walls were studded with canvasses: Israeli landscapes, Jerusalem street scenes, a general view of the Holy City, Hasidim dancing, musicians, flowers.
Extraordinary pictures by an unusual artist.
Zvi Raphaely is a painter, rabbi and Kabbalist.
On February 20, an exhibition of his creations opened at Nechemia Glezer’s on Madison Avenue, the only Shomer Shabbos gallery in New York.
The artist was there in person. A warm and outgoing man. Smiling eyes, a high forehead and a flowing silvery beard grace his intelligent face. The fifty-three year old painter was born in Egypt and brought up in Paris where his parents settled when he was a child. He attended public schools and a Talmud Torah. After the German occupation of Paris he continued his studies despite the dangers involved. He attended lectures in philosophy and literature and entered the Ecole des Beaux Arts. In 1943 when the Germans embarked on an all out effort to deport the last remnants of Paris Jewry, Raphaely left the city and with the aid of a Jewish underground group found refuge with a farmer. Later he joined the resistance and participated in actions agains tthe Germans.
After the liberationof France he resolved to emigrate to Palestine. He intended to study there at a Yeshiva and to complete his training as a painter. He was deeply religious. In school he had often discussed and defended Judaism in talks with his fellow students. He had always wanted to learn more about his heritage but the Talmud Torah which he attended offered only little.
In 1945 he emigrated to Palestine. On his first visit to Jerusalem he was shown around the city by a French speaking Hasid from Belgium. He was present at a Hasidic wedding in Meah Shearim and was deeply impressed. The same day he visited the Yeshiva “Shomre Emunim” of the Hasidim of Reb Are’le who have been known for their ecstatic prayers.
“I saw children who looked like angels and adults who looked like angels with beards,” Raphaely reminisced.
He decided on the spot to join Reb Are’le Hasidim and asked permission to remain with them. Reb Arele sent word to the young man, who spoke neither Hebrew nor Yiddish and whose outward appearance befitted more Montmartre than Me’ah Shearim, that he was welcome. Raphaely became a Hasid among Hasidim. He grew a beard and pe’oth. He shared the poor meals of Reb Are’le’s Hasidim and participated in their ecstatic prayers and dances. He studied under their guidance Humash and later Mishna and Gemara.
Eventually he joined the Sefardic Yeshiva “Porath Yosef.” However he never forgot his dream to become a painter. He approached the great artist Jacob Steinhardt and told him of his desire to combine the study of the Torah with an artistic career. The great master understood him and accepted him as a student.
He studied at the Yeshiva “Porath Yosef” in the Old City until its capture by the Arab Legion in the spring of 1948, living through the terrible days of the siege and the fighting. He was taken prisoner and stood in line to be taken to a prisoner of war camp.
“My pious mother who never left me persuaded an Arab Legionnaire to spare me,” Raphaely told us. “The solder engaged me in conversation and when I turned around I noticed that the other prisoners had been marched off. I joined those who were permitted to cross into the New City. It was a miracle.”
He continued to study at “Porath Yosef” which was reestablished in the New City, devoting part of his time to painting.
When his paintings were exhibited for the first time, he discovered to his own surprise that there were eager buyers.
Since then his works have been shown in many countries and have been acquired by various public collections.
His rise to prominence in the world of art has not affected his style of life. He continues to devote much of his time to Torah; and studies Jewish mystical writing with the Kabbalistic scholars of Yeshiva Beth-El.
In 1966 Nechemia Glezer exhibited Rapahel’s paintings in New York. Nechemia has now presented us once more with a fine selection from the artist’s creations.
“I love to paint flowers, they are the palette of G-d,” Raphaely told us, pointing at a painting entitled “Spring Bouquet.” By painting flowers, I try to catch something of G-d’s colors.”
He spoke at length about his technique of preparing paint which gives transparency and brilliance to his colors.
Raphaely’s paintings excel by the fine execution of details, the harmonious blending of colors and their nearly ‘plastic atmosphere.” You can almost “feel” the majesty of “Jerusalem the Golden,” the sounds and movements of the “Machane Yehuda Market,” the tranquility of “Chafet Chaim Street,” His Hasidic Dance” radiates joy.
“How beautiful are the yellow-golden bekeshes of Jerusalem’s Hasidim,” Raphaely said, speaking of his Hasidic pictures. “I like to portray Hasidic joy. I like to paint joy generally. There is no sadness in my pictures.
We stood not far from a painting named “Tikkun Hazot,” showing a Jew saying that midnight prayer at the Western Wall.
“Isn’t this a sad picture,” I remarked hesitatingly.
“No, it is not,”Raphaely answered with emotion.”It portrays Hitlahavut, it portrays faith in the building of the Third Temple.”Raphaely thinks often of the “Third Temple” and occasionally he expresses his thoughts with his brush.
Two years ago, he executed a large mural, one hundred feet by ten feet for the Hebrew Academy in Miami. It shows the history of the world from creation until he “Third Temple.”
“I believe that if we prepare ourselves for it spiritually and morally we will be privilege to rebuild the ‘Third Temple,'” Raphaely said.
The Jewish Press, March 4, 1977 p. 64