Letters of Light | Micah Ullman

Micah Ullman, Israel, born 1939

Letters of Light, 2023

The 22 letters of the Hebrew alphabet carved in local stone with the Hebrew "א", Arabic alif "ٱ", and the Latin "A"

The Koum Family Foundation Letters of Light Sculpture Garden

The artwork presented here, both below ground and above it, is constructed from 22 letters, as are the millions of Hebrew books and manuscripts in the National Library: a small number of 'signs' in their various combinations, express the infinity of human thought. According to the Kabbalist work Sefer Yetzirah – "The Book of Creation" – the letters were the building blocks from which the world was created.

The stones in the circle that comprises the upper part of the work are the height of a person. They are arranged according to the place in the mouth where each letter is pronounced, as explained in Book of Creation: "Twenty-two fundamental letters [are] imprinted on the voice, carved in the breath, [and] set in five places of the mouth: ...the throat, ...the palate, ...the tongue, ...the teeth, and ...the lips." The alphabet is sawn out of the stones, leaving the hollows in the form of the letters. Sunbeams passing through the openings, as air does in speech, "inscribe" the letters on the floor of the plaza, between the shadows cast by the stones. Visitors walking among the stone letters cast their own shadows and participate thereby in the "writing." The Letters of Light lengthen and shorten, open and close throughout the day according to the seasons of the year, like an eternal sun dial. One may presumably "see the sounds."

The sides of the subterranean passage in the lower part of the work are engraved with the guttural letters and lead to the “Mouth” space, where three skylights in the ceiling connect to the center of the upper plaza. The shape of each skylight exactly replicates the first letter of one of the alphabets: Hebrew, Arabic and Latin. The letter represents the most basic sound common to all – “aah” with an open throat – like the first sound a newborn makes. The sunlight that penetrates the openings from above creates a light show of the three letters, as they move from west to east, appearing and disappearing in the daily and yearly cycles. Thus is language reborn each day anew.

Three decades ago, Ullman created a memorial in Berlin in the form of a subterranean library of empty shelves, recalling the massive Nazi book-burning of May 10, 1933. That work, dedicated in 1995, reacted to the destruction of language; the Letters of Light in Jerusalem rejoice in its rebirth.

The sculpture Letters of Light was initiated and commissioned by David Blumberg, past-chairman of the Board of Directors of the National Library of Israel.