Run and Return/ רצוא ושׁוב
Jay Smith
MAY 31 - June 28
Opening Reception on Arts Night Out
רצוא ושׁוב (ratzo v’shov) is a Chasidic concept that emphasizes our dual desires and tendencies to “run” to the divine, to cleave to Gd and escape our earthly existence, and to “return” to our mortal bodies and material world, finding divinity where we are. As Rabbi Arthur Green describes it: “Opting for either world…can only lead to prolonging fragmentation. We see spiritual ebb and flow, moments of absence and moments of presence, as central to the human religious situation…can we step beyond conflict and see the thing as rhythm?” (After Itzik: Toward a Theology of Jewish Spirituality, 1971)
As a trans, American Jew living in a country and time where trans bodies are under threat, and where Jews are implicated and engaged in extreme violence, Jay Smith seeks to explore the pull towards and push from their tradition. Smith’s illustrations grapple with their relationship to Judaism, naming explicitly the comfort, healing, and wisdom that their tradition has gifted to them, while at the same time bearing witness to the tradition being twisted to justify death, exclusion, and alienation. They seek to reclaim their tradition from extremists and cultivate protective Jewish magic for their community: trans Jews in diaspora. Their work asks the questions: what does it mean to run to Gd when we are responsible for immense suffering, and what does it mean to return to our own bodies when they no longer feel safe?
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Jay Smith (they/them) is an illustrator, clinician, and Judaism enthusiast. They have no formal arts education and credit their grandmother Sylvia with teaching them to paint at an early age. Their artwork reconstructs traditional Jewish ritual for a contemporary audience, and creates protective spells for trans bodies and spirits. They currently reside on Nipmuc/Pocomtuc land in so-called Florence, MA with their partner, Clare, and two cats, Gene and Charlie.