
DATE: Sunday, April 20, 1997                TAG: 9704210228

SECTION: DAILY BREAK             PAGE: E1   EDITION: FINAL 

SOURCE: BY TERESA ANNAS, STAFF WRITER 

                                            LENGTH:  136 lines

WITH EMERGENCE OF NEW RITUAL, ARTIST'S SEDER CUP RUNNETH OVER

VIRGINIA BEACH artist Linda Gissen made her first piece of Judaica many years ago, when her daughter was 5 and wanted a Star of David pendant.

``I looked around and couldn't find anything that I liked,'' Gissen said. ``They were all very gaudy and heavy, not feminine. So I made my own.''

Decades later, Gissen is an internationally known sculptor of Jewish ceremonial objects for the home and synagogue. And she is still thinking of her daughter, and of the other women in her life.

She was among 78 Jewish women artists from Israel, the Netherlands, Canada and all over the United States who were invited to create Miriam's Cups for an exhibit in downtown Manhattan.

Those cups are on view through May 22 at Hebrew Union College, a school for clergy in the Reform movement of Judaism.

The show, ``Drawing From the Source: Miriam, Women's Creativity and New Ritual,'' includes a wide range of interpretations of the Miriam's Cup, a new ritual item intended for use during Passover Seders. The idea has evolved over seven years through the practices of a New York feminist Jewish group call Ma'yan, and is just now becoming known to a broader circle.

``It's women wanting to be more inclusive,'' said Ruth Silverman, Ma'yan's special events director. ``And our exhibit is one way of getting the word out.''

Gissen had little trouble settling on a design for her cup.

``The more research I did on Miriam, and on what she stands for and her place in history, it just seemed so appropriate that the cup should be intergenerational. And that it should be well-like.''

Her cup consists of a slim bronze female figure holding up a clear glass goblet. The figure is peering into and through the goblet, which is decorated with painted enamel figures of women dancing in a circle. These are generations of women, hand in hand.

``The Bible talks about how Miriam led the women in dance after they crossed the Red Sea to freedom.

``It just seemed to all fit together.''

While not everyone can get to New York for the show, locals can see a copy Gissen made on display at her second-floor studio at the d'Art Center in downtown Norfolk, where she has her glass studio and a showroom. At home in her garage, she works metal with an oxyacetylene torch.

She's pleased to contribute to a new twist on the ancient tradition of the Seder - a symbolic meal that takes place on the first two nights of Passover, celebrating the Jews' escape from slavery in Egypt.

``Most ceremonial practices and activities are part of an evolutionary process,'' Gissen said. ``I think it's absolutely wonderful to be included in the start of a new tradition, which I think will especially help women and girls to feel that they have a significant place in Judaism.

``I think it's important that the young boys at the table see the Miriam's Cup next to the Elijah's Cup. They're going to start asking questions: Who was Miriam? Why was she here?''

So, what exactly is a Miriam's Cup?

To begin, it's named for Miriam, a prophetess who lived in ancient Israel and is associated with water, women and the survival of the Jewish people.

She was the sister of Moses, and saved her baby brother from drowning in the Nile. Mystical and rabbinic texts describe how a legendary, magic well existed in association with Miriam; the well followed the Israelites through the desert, and dried up when Miriam died, wrote Ma'yan program director Tamara R. Cohen in the exhibit catalog.

Ma'yan's interest in Miriam grew out of community feminist Seders organized by the group in recent years. ``Miriam was different from all the Biblical women who came before her,'' Cohen wrote.

``Miriam reached beyond her family. She was a leader. When Miriam looked at the women of Israel, she did not see a scattered mass of individuals. She did not see only potential mothers and wives. Miriam looked at the women who had crossed the Red Sea and she saw a community, a holy community.''

A Miriam's Cup was used for the first time in 1990 in Boston, as part of a Rosh Chodesh, or a new moon ritual, Cohen said.

The widely used Elijah's Cup is filled with wine and set in the center of the Seder table. It awaits the arrival of Elijah, a Biblical prophet who symbolizes hope for the future. Miriam's Cup is about ``sustaining us as we journey through the wilderness,'' Cohen said.

``I don't know if the women who are using it take themselves seriously enough, as making history. But it deserves that kind of attention. It's an important moment in Jewish history.''

Miriam Brunn Ruberg, director of Jewish education for the United Jewish Federation of Tidewater, said she suspects awareness of the Miriam's Cup is not yet widespread among South Hampton Roads' 18,000 Jews.

``This is the first year I'm hearing about it,'' Ruberg said.

She hasn't decided if she'll have one on her family's Seder table. ``I was going to talk to my husband about it. And talk about how we might incorporate it.''

Rabbi Lawrence Forman of Ohef Sholom Temple in Norfolk has decided to include a Miriam's Cup this year in his home and temple Seders.

``Now that we're living in a very gender-sensitive and egalitarian world, Miriam is achieving some kind of parallel recognition (with Elijah) in her role in the continual battle for freedom for all people,'' Forman said.

``Miriam's Cup expresses the feminine thrust for freedom that breaks through the external layers of overgrown ritualism, which is like an undergrowth that's choking the life out of the new plant that modern Judaism expresses.''

What exactly will he do with the cup during Seder?

``We have to create it. It hasn't been done. It hasn't been spoken about a lot, or written about in journals.

``The exciting part is: Now we have the ritual. Now we have to create the substance and content for the ritual to come alive.''

He was considering filling the cup with wine. Then Forman paused.

``I just thought it through: Water is appropriate for the Miriam's Cup. You know why? She rejoiced and sang and celebrated the release of freedom from Egyptian slavery, so water becomes symbolic of release of affliction.

``Also, it symbolizes the tears shed in slavery, and the emergence into new life, a rebirth into freedom.''

Gissen also will be celebrating with a Miriam's Cup this year - most likely, one of her own making.

``It will take the women out of the kitchen, and seated at the Seder table, where they belong,'' she said.

``Traditional women very often spend so much time cooking and cleaning and preparing the meal that they are exhausted by the time Seder happens.''

A Miriam's Cup wouldn't give them more energy, ``but it will give them recognition. I think it will also have a wonderful influence on the men and boys, for them to recognize the significance of the women. That they, too, have a very important place.'' ILLUSTRATION: Color photo

LINDA GISSEN

This Miriam's Cup by Linda Gissen of Virginia Beach is on view in

New York.

Graphic

Call: (212) 580-0099

WANT TO GO?

What: ``Drawing from the Source: Miriam, Women's Creativity and

New Ritual,'' a show of 78 Miriam's Cups

Where: Hebrew Union College, Jewish Institute of Religion, 1 West

4th St., New York City

When: through May 22

Hours: 9 a.m. to 6 p.m. Monday through Thursday, and 1 to 5 p.m.