ARTWORK BY MORDECHAI ROSENSTEIN

THE GENESIS SERIES

One of a kind works on canvas and paper

In The Beginning… |  Light   |  Aleph Taf

Genesis

48×48| Acrylic on canvas

Private Collection

In the kabbalistic imagination, creation begins from a single point.. Yud is that point: the tiniest letter holding all potential. Rosenstein doesn’t spell this out. He lets the viewer be drawn in, ring by ring, until the letter appears.
Perhaps Rosenstein brings us to a threshold: between the infinite and the finite, the unknowable and the knowable, the formless and the first emergence of form. The Yud is already something. Beyond it lies the mystery of what came before.     And from it—

In the beginning… 

As the majestic introduction to the series, Genesis represents a breathtaking departure from Mordechai Rosenstein’s celebrated commercial body of work, offering an uncompromised window into his personal, artistic soul.

 

In the painting “Genesis”, Rosenstein draws us into the mystery of creation—not as a finished world, but as something still coming into being.  Nothing has fully settled into recognizable form. Everything seems to be moving, separating, coalescing.

 

Darkness surrounds an immense field of fiery red-crimson—encircling a swirling, vortex of deep blues, emerald greens, and turquoise. Then at the absolute center of this cosmic storm, emerging from a luminous white core of pure potential, rests a shimmering, solitary, golden Yud (י).

 

Visually, the painting relates to the mystical concept of Tzimtzum—the primordial contraction of infinite light to create space for our universe—or the explosive moment the first divine word fractured the eternal silence.

 

Geometry of Genesis

2021

36w x 36h| Acrylic on canvas

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In the beginning… We see the Divine represented by a primordial point – a golden light resembling the beloved Yud present across Rosenstein’s work. Beyond the light,  color and matter appear to emerge in expanding fields: white and turquoise give way to turbulent blues and greens, contained within an immense ring of red-orange energy and, beyond it, darkness.

Ra’ah V’Hitkin Tzurat Halvana | Forming of the Moon

48×48| Acrylic on canvas

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רָאָה וְהִתְקִין צוּרַת הַלְּבָנָה.
“He called to the sun, and light shone; He saw and established the form of the moon.” 

The Fourth Day

2015

24w x 36h| Acrylic on Canvas

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This blessing Baruch atah Adonai Eloheinu melech ha’olam oseh ma’aseh bereishit is recited upon witnessing major natural wonders such as lightning and powerful earthquakes – to express awe, gratitude, and reverence when encountering the raw power and beauty of the natural world.

 

God Named the Sun

2018

48w x 48h| Acrylic on Canvas

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This blessing Baruch atah Adonai Eloheinu melech ha’olam oseh ma’aseh bereishit is recited upon witnessing major natural wonders such as lightning and powerful earthquakes – to express awe, gratitude, and reverence when encountering the raw power and beauty of the natural world.

 

B’reishit Magnifique

2018

34w x 48h| Acrylic on Canvas

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In Hebrew thought, biblical analysis, and Kabbalistic tradition, the relationship between the letters Shin (ש) and Alef (א) directly represents the spiritual dynamics of creation, divine energy, and the origins of life as detailed in the Book of Genesis.

When combined, Shin and Alef spell the Hebrew word Esh (אש), meaning “Fire”

• The Spiritual Dynamic: In Jewish mysticism, Alef represents the silent, unmanifested source of God (Elohim), associated with air and spirit. Shin represents movement, passion, and consumption, associated with fire.

• Relationship to Genesis: Genesis begins with light and the division of elements. Esh (Fire) requires air (Alef) to burn. The coupling of Shin and Alef symbolizes the transformation of God’s raw spiritual energy into physical creation—acting as the “divine spark” or eternal flame that sustains the universe.

 

Oseh Ma’Aseh B’reishit

30 x 22| Gouache on paper

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This blessing Baruch atah Adonai Eloheinu melech ha’olam oseh ma’aseh bereishit is recited upon witnessing major natural wonders such as lightning and powerful earthquakes – to express awe, gratitude, and reverence when encountering the raw power and beauty of the natural world.

 

THE GENESIS SERIES

II: Light

Spark | Yehi Or

2019

24w x 36h| Acrylic on Canvas

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This blessing Baruch atah Adonai Eloheinu melech ha’olam oseh ma’aseh bereishit is recited upon witnessing major natural wonders such as lightning and powerful earthquakes – to express awe, gratitude, and reverence when encountering the raw power and beauty of the natural world.

 

Smoldering Yud

2019

28 x 30 | Gouache and shellac on paper

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This blessing Baruch atah Adonai Eloheinu melech ha’olam oseh ma’aseh bereishit is recited upon witnessing major natural wonders such as lightning and powerful earthquakes – to express awe, gratitude, and reverence when encountering the raw power and beauty of the natural world.

 

Smoldering Yud

2019

28 x 30 | Gouache and shellac on paper

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This blessing Baruch atah Adonai Eloheinu melech ha’olam oseh ma’aseh bereishit is recited upon witnessing major natural wonders such as lightning and powerful earthquakes – to express awe, gratitude, and reverence when encountering the raw power and beauty of the natural world.

 

Smoldering Yud

28 x 30| Acrylic on Canvas, mixed media

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This blessing Baruch atah Adonai Eloheinu melech ha’olam oseh ma’aseh bereishit is recited upon witnessing major natural wonders such as lightning and powerful earthquakes – to express awe, gratitude, and reverence when encountering the raw power and beauty of the natural world.

 

THE GENESIS SERIES

III: Aleph Taf

Smoldering Yud

28 x 30| Acrylic on Canvas, mixed media

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This blessing Baruch atah Adonai Eloheinu melech ha’olam oseh ma’aseh bereishit is recited upon witnessing major natural wonders such as lightning and powerful earthquakes – to express awe, gratitude, and reverence when encountering the raw power and beauty of the natural world.

 

THE CHAZZAK SERIES | The Final 18

One of a kind works on canvas and paper

2020–2024 | Mordechai Rosenstein’s Final Series

What became known as The Chazzak Series began during the isolation of the COVID-19 pandemic, when the rhythm of Mordechai Rosenstein’s life changed almost overnight. For decades, he had traveled the country—usually by train—sharing his art, teaching, telling stories and connecting with Jewish communities. Suddenly, all of that stopped. Something changed in his painting, too.

After Rosh Hashanah 2020, Rosenstein began working entirely in black and white. He later said the decision had not been conscious, but came to believe it reflected a world that, during the pandemic, had become a place of “little color and joy.” The works were bold and intricate, and looking back, they also seem to reconnect with his earliest artistic roots and the influence of his teacher, Abstract Expressionist Franz Kline.  By the fourth painting, vaccines had arrived and Rosenstein felt a renewed sense of optimism. He wrote, “I felt the need for color as we will again be carried ‘On Eagles Wings.’” With On Eagles Wings, color entered the series for the first time. Over the next several years, it never stopped evolving.

After the brutal attacks of October 7, 2023 in Israel, Rosenstein was deeply moved by the resilience of those who refused to surrender to despair. His response was more color, more illumination, more life. In some of the final works, including Tikvah (“Hope”), familiar Hebrew letterforms seem almost unable to contain the energy within them—breaking into countless smaller shapes filled with brilliant color, pattern and light.

These late paintings don’t feel like the work of an elderly artist suddenly becoming wild. They suggest something more interesting: an artist, late in life, becoming free enough to reconnect with something that had been inside him all along. The abstraction and experimentation of his youth began to merge with the Hebrew letters, geometry, symbolism and extraordinary use of color he had developed over a lifetime. Rosenstein continued creating while living with leukemia, which he had been diagnosed with several years earlier. He loved life, and at nearly 90, he was still experimenting, still changing, still moving forward.

His final painting centered on the words “Chazzak, chazzak, v’nitchazek”—“Be strong, be strong, and let us be strengthened”—the words traditionally proclaimed upon completing a book of Torah. No one knew while he was painting it that these would become the final words of his artistic life.

Mordechai Rosenstein died on July 9, 2024. That final painting gave the Chazzak Series its name—and an extraordinary coda to a career spanning more than five decades.

A series that began in isolation and black and white ultimately became a celebration of strength, resilience, hope—and life in full color.

Tikvah | Hope

36 x 36| Acrylic on Canvas

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This blessing Baruch atah Adonai Eloheinu melech ha’olam oseh ma’aseh bereishit is recited upon witnessing major natural wonders such as lightning and powerful earthquakes – to express awe, gratitude, and reverence when encountering the raw power and beauty of the natural world.

 

Ahavah | Love

48 x 36| Acrylic on Canvas

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This blessing Baruch atah Adonai Eloheinu melech ha’olam oseh ma’aseh bereishit is recited upon witnessing major natural wonders such as lightning and powerful earthquakes – to express awe, gratitude, and reverence when encountering the raw power and beauty of the natural world.

 

Mondrian Shalom | Peace

2021

48 x 36 | Acrylic on Canvas

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This blessing Baruch atah Adonai Eloheinu melech ha’olam oseh ma’aseh bereishit is recited upon witnessing major natural wonders such as lightning and powerful earthquakes – to express awe, gratitude, and reverence when encountering the raw power and beauty of the natural world.

 

Tzedek | Justice

36 x 36 | Acrylic on Canvas

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This blessing Baruch atah Adonai Eloheinu melech ha’olam oseh ma’aseh bereishit is recited upon witnessing major natural wonders such as lightning and powerful earthquakes – to express awe, gratitude, and reverence when encountering the raw power and beauty of the natural world.