“In a generation of emptiness and confusion, the source of the true light, the holy Torah, stands out even more – particularly with the strengths we have accumulated for the New Year.” Meet Rivky Shimon, an artist who has built a new unique strengthening program using guided imagery to establish greater connection between body and soul.
PAINTING – A TOOL FOR SPREADING CHASSIDUS
When Rivka Shimon was a young girl, she innocently asked her father, the chassid Rabbi Dovid Goldstein, of blessed memory, if her life’s dream to be an artist would interfere with her Avodas Hashem. Her father gently explained to her that G-d created nothing unnecessary in His world. Furthermore, art is a tool designed to provide spiritual strengthening and spread Yiddishkeit. After receiving this answer, Rivky realized that involvement in the field of art is more than an enjoyable hobby, rather it is an important shlichus to prepare the world for the imminent Redemption.
Sweet memories fill Rivky’s mind as she recalls the Chassidic atmosphere of her childhood home in Bnei Brak. Her father learned in the Central Lubavitcher Yeshiva – “770” during the early days following the Rebbe Rayatz’s arrival on the shores of the United States, and he even was privileged to go in for yechidus. The instructions of the Chabad rabbanim always came before his own personal desires, even his daily activities were saturated with Chassidic feeling. Rivky felt a sense of pride when she told how her father had accepted a personal shlichus to help the bachurim, serving as an attentive ear while tending to their material needs. As the daughter of a chassid so strongly connected to the Rebbe, Melech HaMoshiach, warm Chassidic feeling courses through her veins and her soul, expressing itself in all her artistic productions.
ART AS A PROFESSION
When she completed her elementary school studies, one of her teachers approached Rivky’s mother to recommend that her very talented daughter should begin learning in an official art course. With the encouragement of her art teacher, she began an inner spiritual journey of more than four years, during which Rivky revealed the treasures hidden within her soul. Her drawings were many and varied, both regarding the material used to make her artwork and the types of pictures she produced, including drawings of some spectacular landscapes, stunning flowers, and portraits of rabbinical figures. The more she believed in her artistic abilities, the realism to her drawings (“realistic training” style) became more intense.
After her wedding, Rivky established her home in New York. She worked as an art teacher, and her driving aspirations led her to found and run an art school – Rivky’s Art Workshops – over a period of thirty years. This institution was situated in Boro Park and later in Monsey, and hundreds of students learned there, boys and girls, men and women, “from the ages of six to ninety six”, as she put it.
Two years ago, Rivky moved with her family to live in Tzfas, as have many artists drawn to the magical atmosphere of this holy and picturesque city. As soon as she got there, there was a big demand for her art classes, and she taught both groups and individuals according to a special program she had developed. Rivky explains that drawing classes are not a “copying factory”: while students learn various art techniques, she encourages personal creativity and production. She combines brain exercises based on the “Brain Gym” approach, boosting movement between the right frontal lobe, directing important cognitive skills, and the left frontal lobe, involved in controlling expression. Personal creativity is a “brain exercise” that strengthens the brain stem and its muscles, thereby reinforcing the powers of the soul.
DARKNESS HIGHLIGHTING THE LIGHT
A few years ago, Rivky began working as a special “doula” using the art of guided imagery. Through her experience, she emphasizes the possibility of overcoming fears and giving birth calmly by connecting to certain images symbolizing liberation.
Rivky explains that art studies represent a range of metaphors belonging to the spiritual realm, particularly in the generation of the Redemption. For example, it is a mistake to think that a sun brings light when drawn as part of a picture. On the contrary, just as drawing a stronger shadow increases the influence of the opposing “light.” Similarly, in our times, in a generation of emptiness and confusion, the source of the true light, the holy Torah, stands out even more. Now, particularly with the strengths we have accumulated for the New Year, we will become stronger in activities designed to hasten the Redemption. ■
A Chassidic saying that constantly stays with me:
“Tracht gut vet zein gut” (Think good, it will be good). “When a person thinks positively, even when he ‘falls’, he understands that he is going through a trial that will strengthen him and eventually bring him closer to his objective.”
Food for thought:
“Contemplating on the amazing beauty of the world that G-d has created for us arouses profound love for the Creator.”