Video: SHTEIG Torah Automation by Ken Goldman

By SUDINmag

SHTEIG Torah Automaton by Ken Goldman from Elke Reva Sudin on Vimeo.

Shteig literally means to grow, as in spiritually, in Torah knowledge. In the automated piece by Ken Goldman, the motorized hands reflects the “dance of Torah learning”, the music of the beit midrash, and the spirit of the chevrutah, study parter dialogue. The spinning hands reflect the process of delving in study, the give and take that occurs, until the questions are defined and the answers are formed.

The process is a never ending circle, much like the spinning hands, wrapped in the humor of a machine doing the learning for us. Goldman pokes fun at the shteig motion common in yeshiva study remarking, “but what is Judaism without humor?”