The Blood Libel Machine
7 min read
A Los Angeles contractor walked away from business to paint the story of Creation. His art carries an ancient Jewish idea: you can begin again at any moment.
Jewish tradition teaches that Creation is still happening. God brings the world into being again at every moment, and that means each of us can be made new, too.
This idea sits at the heart of the work of Israeli artist Igal Fedida, whose paintings present Creation, or Ma'aseh Bershit, as something ongoing, a constant invitation to start over.
For 22 years, Fedida has devoted himself to painting the story of Creation. Working from his studios in Israel and Miami, he uses metal, industrial materials, and rich color to translate ancient spiritual ideas into a modern visual language.
His paintings explore the mysterious moment before light existed and the transformation that followed when God said, “Let there be light.” Drawing on Biblical and Kabbalistic ideas such as the ten sefirot (the divine attributes through which, according to Kabbalah, God interacts with the world), the metal sheets, stones, glass and wood that Fedida uses as his canvas are filled with Hebrew letters, eyes, colors, and symbols, each chosen for its meaning.
“Darkness of creation is an entity of the form of potential. The raw potential of life, of ourselves,” Fedida explains.
The world moved from darkness to light, and our own lives hold untapped potential waiting to emerge the same way.
Fedida was born in Israel in 1970 to parents who had immigrated from Morocco in 1963. Through his mother, he descends from Rabbi Shlomo Bel Hench, a revered Moroccan tzaddik (holy, righteous man) buried in the Ourika Valley near Marrakesh.
According to Moroccan Jewish tradition, Rabbi Shlomo traveled from the Land of Israel to Morocco to raise charity for the Jewish communities back home. He was known for his righteousness and for stories of miraculous healing, and both Jews and Muslims still visit his grave to ask for blessings.
The connection is fitting. Rabbi Shlomo had a mission, and he spent his life spreading kindness and helping others. Generations later, his descendant is trying to give something to the world in a different language: art.
Fedida didn’t start out as an artist. For years he was a businessman and general contractor in Los Angeles. Then, about 22 years ago, something shifted.
“I think, in a way, it’s something that was given to me,” he says of his calling.
He realized that his personal contribution to tikkun olam, repairing and elevating the world, would come through his art. The decision went deeper than a career change. It was an act of reinventing himself, a living example of the very message his paintings now carry.
The spiritual root of his work is exemplified in a prayer recited every morning.
The blessing Yotzer Or (“Who Forms Light”), said just before the Shema, the central Jewish declaration of faith, was composed by the Men of the Great Assembly, the sages who shaped Jewish prayer more than 2,000 years ago. It says:
“And in His goodness, He renews every day, continually, the work of Creation.”
It’s a radical idea tucked into a familiar line. Creation is ongoing. The universe exists because God keeps renewing it, bringing the world into being fresh at every moment.
For Fedida, this is a way of life, not just a line in the prayer book.
“We can create and recreate ourselves at any given moment,” he says. “It’s just a matter of decision.”
He believes we often say these words about God renewing the world without thinking about what they mean for us. If the whole universe is constantly being remade, then we can be remade too.
That possibility comes with a demand. We have to look inward, figure out who we really are, and find the courage to act on what we discover.
Fedida links this idea to Lech Lecha, the Torah portion in which God tells Abraham to leave his land, his birthplace, and his father’s house, and set out for an unknown destination.
The words Lech Lecha can be read as both “go forth” and “go to yourself.” Abraham’s journey was more than a trip across borders. It was a journey toward his truest self and his divine purpose.
“If you go inward and discover yourself, you need to be courageous enough to act upon your story in life,” Fedida says.
Self-discovery, for him, is only step one. The bigger question is how our individual gifts can serve the wider human community.
Each of us has a story, a purpose, and something unique to offer. Those gifts come alive when we have the courage to act on them.
That’s what Fedida hopes every painting conveys. The colors, Hebrew letters, eyes, and mystical symbols are invitations to look deeper, reconnect with ourselves, and see that we are partners in the ongoing work of Creation.
We tend to believe our lives are defined by what’s already happened. We haul around old mistakes, missed chances, disappointments, and regrets as if they’ve sealed who we are.
But if God remakes the world every moment, yesterday has no final say over tomorrow.
The same power that creates a brand-new world every instant gives us the chance to make a new choice, change direction, fix what’s broken, and find strengths we never knew we had.
We can’t always erase the past, but we can decide what we build from it.
Fedida’s own path, from contractor to an artist devoted to the mysteries of Creation, shows that our deepest calling can surface at an unexpected point in life.
His view of darkness carries another lesson.
We usually see darkness as emptiness, failure, or hopelessness. Fedida sees it as potential, a space where something new is still taking shape.
Before the first light, there was darkness. That darkness was the moment just before illumination.
Our lives may work the same way. A stretch of uncertainty, failure, or loss can turn out to be the start of something we can’t yet picture.
Today’s darkness gives no real clue about what tomorrow holds.
And maybe the deepest point is this: renewal goes beyond becoming happier or more successful. It’s about discovering why we’re here and what our lives can bring into the world.
Fedida’s art reminds us that we’re active players in Creation, given the chance to bring more light, kindness, and meaning into the world.
The world is being created at this very moment. And with it comes a fresh chance for each of us to start over and say, “Let there be light.”
Visit Igal’s website at https://www.igalfedida.com
