Rabbi Salem Amzalag

Artist: Daniel Avraham Haddad Year of Creation: 2025 Medium: Mixed media – markers and acrylic on canvas. Dimensions: 100 cm (Height) \ 80 cm (Width). About the Work: A Meeting of Roots This work is the fruit of a deep personal and ancestral journey of mine, which began with a digitization project of the Jewish cemetery in Marrakech, Morocco. This journey led to a stirring encounter during a trip to the village of Illigh in southern Morocco, from which my family immigrated to the Land of Israel; however, there are those who did not yet have the merit to immigrate, and I went to visit the graves and pray. The grave of my great-great-grandfather, Rabbi Avraham Amzalag ZT"L, father of my great-grandfather, Rabbi Salem (Shalom) Amzalag ZT"L, was where many loose ends that were never fully connected finally came together. The Artistic and Spiritual Layer: The painting seeks to bridge the generational gap. At its center stands the figure of my great-great-grandfather, crafted with reverence and esteem as a living link in an unbroken chain. The swirling background, composed of layers of words, textures, and lines, creates a blanket of memory that projects the figure into contemporary reality. The texts interwoven into the work are a Piyyut (liturgical poem) in honor of Rabbi Salem ZT"L, written by Rabbi Yaakov Shriki ZT"L. These words are not just text, but an echo of voices from the past resonating in modern reality. As a painter connected to tradition, this work is a visual expression of my identity as the next generation—preserving the memory and breathing new life into it through art.