Tap Root
6" x 9"
unfolds to 36" x 60"
The first, foundational root to emerge from every plant is the tap root. All the other roots extend from this primary source of nutrition and stabilization.
This primary root inspired me as I witness the world fracturing along ethnic, political and religious factions. Ultimately, we all come from one root and share the DNA which maps our kindred bodies.
Through time, we have been uprooted
for myriads of reasons: economic concerns, famine, war, religious or cultural intolerance.
As we were transplanted into new soils we transformed into hybrids of that original tree. Above ground, some of us are oaks, some are yews and some may be fig trees, but that foundational root unites us. Our roots intertwine and create a mass of solidarity, a ball of humanity.
As the daughter of Holocaust survivors, and a transplant to the United States,
I created this book as a portable reminder, made to be tucked into a breast pocket as we flee to our next destination, that we are all linked by
a tap root.
Many cultures have a catastrophic flood origin story. In Torah, Noah’s ark saves human and animal life, swaying for forty days and nights amidst the deluge.
God created a watery expanse above the realms and great waters below the realms. The wonder of these endless expanses of watery masses has a cosmic and immeasurable quality. Between them, God formed the space where our world exists.
The waters saved the infant Moses by concealing him in
an ark amongst the reeds. Miraculously, the baby is
found by Pharaoh’s daughter and raised in their Royal court to become a powerful sage and leader.