Celebrating Ya’kov Agam: A Journey Through Kinetic Art, Jewish Heritage, and the Fourth Dimension of Time.

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Right to Left

The Hebrew of the Torah scroll is written from right to left Unlike the languages predominant in the resident countries of significant percentages of the Jewish populations through the centuries,…

The Hebrew of the Torah scroll is written from right to left

Unlike the languages predominant in the resident countries of significant percentages of the Jewish populations through the centuries, the Torah like modern hebrew is written and read from the right to the left. This means that the active reader must develop the skills of their eyes being able to read or track from right to left in addition to their normal left to right movement.

This functionality is stressed for attentive automobile drivers whose eye movements are encouraged to be on the lookout for unwarranted dangers. For non-british travellers in London, there are helpful hints at street crossings to lookout for cars coming from the direction that is not the expected one.

The right to left and left to right duality is exemplified in Ya’akov Agam’s

characteristic art works or agamographs. Such works differ when viewed from the right or left or front on. 

Table 2. 

This ability of dual directionality, and the  practice of eye movement right to left and left to right teaches us to see more about the world around us, and to even consider alternatives and alternate ways of viewing.