Essays and Articles
Reflections on Hebrew letters, Jewish thought, and what it means to carry words on the body.
Texts by Gabriel Wolff and Anna Shraer
Gabriel WolffAnarchism and the Desert
From the Anarchists Against the Wall to a studio in Berlin, on freedom, the collective, and why the desert still creates space for clarity.
Gabriel WolffAbstract Prayer
On praying in a language stripped of meaning, and why abstraction may be one of the most primal concepts in Jewish thought.
Gabriel WolffThe Blue I Did Not Choose
On blue, tekhelet, and a culture that may have chosen this color for me long before I ever did.
Gabriel WolffTattoo design, or tattoo art?
People call what I do “tattoo design.” This is why what I make is closer to art.
Gabriel WolffThe Tattoo That Wasn't Supposed to Exist
Rabbi Marshal Klaven's PhD thesis, and the two-thousand-year Jewish argument about tattoos that most of us never knew existed.
Gabriel WolffGender and Hebrew Tattoos
Why we're so fixated on getting your gender right, even though, last we checked, we are not your obnoxious redneck uncle.
Gabriel WolffHebrew Tattoos and Jewish visibility
A few thoughts about Jewish visibility, and how it shapes our self-perception and collective identity.
Gabriel WolffAren't Hebrew Tattoos cultural appropriation?
Why Jewish tattooing is definitely cultural appropriation. And why that's a misleading claim. And why Shakespeare is pissed.
Gabriel WolffThe Venice Biennale and diversity
A few thoughts on the Venice Biennale, and how diversity is becoming an oppressive, limiting discourse.
Gabriel WolffBut aren't tattoos a sin? Aren't you all going to hell?
Why Jewish tattooing is definitely a sin… and still, probably, a good idea.
Gabriel WolffPassover, and what is freedom?
So what is that Freedom we celebrate in a few days? A question that probably has a different answer each generation.
Gabriel WolffWhy we give Ma'aser
On tzedakah, ma'aser, and what it means to make giving part of an ordinary life.
Anna ShraerEthics and Hebrew Tattoos
On coherence, respect, and why a Hebrew word never begins with the person who chooses to tattoo it.
Anna ShraerIdentity, Belonging, Diaspora
A paradox at the heart of Jewish diasporic life: distance can erode identity, and it can just as easily intensify it.
Anna ShraerInk and Trauma
What tattooing over trauma has in common with tattooing over a scar: pain that was imposed becomes something chosen.
Anna ShraerLanguage, Storytelling and Poetry
In Hebrew, gender is grammatically inescapable. What that reveals about language, translation, and the strange work of finding words that can hold a life.
Anna ShraerThe Written Word as Homeland
How Hebrew letters create an encounter with Ein Sof, the Infinite that resists containment even as it draws us toward it.