In Jeremiah 23:29, the fire of God’s word is destructive, in parallel with the hammer, but we know that just as a hammer can be a tool of building, fire can be a source for calling, as in the burning bush, light, as in the pillar of fire that accompanies the Israelites during the Exodus, or worship, as in the multitude of burnt offerings found throughout our sacred texts. The words of Tanakh and the centuries of tradition that follow it can also serve these purposes.

The words of our texts are, themselves, beautiful. What began as doodles in the margins of my notes from liturgy classes are now an instagram feed of quotations, redrawn by me, from Tanakh, rabbinic literature, Jewish liturgy, and more. You can follow the account on instagram, @wordlikefire.

Below, you may find a sampling of those works.