The Sparks Project

The Sparks Project, an artistic collaboration between poet Daniel Y. Harris and artist Lisa Rose, began in 2001, inspired by these lines from The Zohar - the seminal work of Jewish mysticism:

A blinding spark flashed within the Concealed of the Concealed.

The intention of The Sparks Project is to create a body of "Sparks" - artworks comprised of a poem and an image coalesced to reveal a unique interpretation of the same idea (an interpretation possible only through the collaborative process). Each Spark honors the inner voice and genius of the Zohar’s author, Moses de Leon, as well as the continuum of strong literary voices which predate him and are influenced by him. Most of the Sparks of The Sparks Project are directly inspired by concepts and lines extracted from The Zohar.

Thank you

This project would not be possible without the encouragement, guidance, inspiration, support, and scholarship of Dr. Daniel C. Matt.

 Daniel C. Matt is a leading authority on Jewish mysticism.He received his Ph.D. from Brandeis University, and for over twenty years served as Professor of Jewish Spirituality at the Graduate Theological Union in Berkeley,California.

Dr. Matt has published six books, including: the best-selling The Essential Kabbalah (translated into six languages) and Zohar, The Book of Enlightenment

"...The Zohar (The Book of Splendor/Enlightenment) written by the Castilian literary genius Moses de Leon between 1280 and 1286 in North-Central Spain, is the single most important literary achievement of the Western esoteric tradition. It is written as a magical epic poem and evocative commentary on the Hebrew Bible that is reminiscent of Job, Dante's Divine Comedy, Milton's Paradise Lost, and at times, by virtue of its inventiveness and psychological profundity, Shakespeare's Hamlet."

Adapted and excerpted from "The Night Moses de Leon Died"
by Daniel Y. Harris published in Issue #15 of In Posse Review

More about The Zohar...