Listen: The First Friend of the Gaon and Tzaddik Rabbi Eliezer Berland shlit"a

The artist Baruch Nachshon from Kiryat Arba recounts in an interview on the Rav's line about his acquaintance with The Rav shlit"a at the age of 14..

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Baruch Nachshon was born in 1939 in the city of Haifa. He began painting while still young. He performed his military service in a Nahal core group at Kibbutz Lavi, where he engaged in shepherding. The open spaces of nature where he walked with the flock connected him to the roots of the Jewish people and to the Godly nature that greatly influenced his works.

In his childhood, a deep bond was formed between him and the artist Shlomo Narani, the only student of Cézanne. Upon completing his IDF service, Nachshon began his professional studies with Narani. Narani greatly appreciated Nachshon's works and saw him as his spiritual heir.

Nachshon began his connection with Chabad Chassidut while still in his youth. This connection stemmed from his love for the melodies (niggunim) characterizing Chabad Chassidut. In 1965, Nachshon merited a private audience (Yechidus) lasting three hours with the Lubavitcher Rebbe in New York. The young artist utilized this opportunity to share with the Rebbe his deliberations regarding the art of painting in the world in general, and regarding the role of the Jewish artist in particular. The Rebbe granted Nachshon an annual scholarship for art studies in New York and said: "The art of painting has not yet reached its tikkun (rectification) in the world for many generations. Your soul descended to the world to rectify the world of painting," and blessed him that he would merit to do so. Despite the difficulty of this task, Nachshon dedicated himself with self-sacrifice to praise the wisdom of the Creator through visual means.

Immediately after the Six Day War, Nachshon and his wife Sarah, together with six other families, renewed the Jewish presence in Hebron, which had been empty of Jews since the events of 1929 in which the Jews of Hebron were massacred.

Nachshon opened a gallery near the Cave of the Patriarchs in Hebron. During that period, Nachshon visited the homes of Arab residents to obtain local, rooted, and different perspectives through which to paint the city. During one of Nachshon's visits to the Cave of the Patriarchs, he met an elderly Breslov Chassid. The latter advised him to read Psalms for forty consecutive days in order to merit significant revelations. Nachshon did as the old man commanded, and after forty days, he saw a vision of the heavens opening, and beheld visions that would influence his future creations. Since then, Nachshon experienced similar experiences of visions, and therefore the opening heavens are a recurring motif in his works. "The heavens opening—means seeing beyond the realistic world, a sight touching upon things beyond the screen of reality," in Nachshon's words.

Nachshon's art relates to a wide variety of subjects and gives birth to a wide variety of styles. He paints to mark and emphasize the presence of the Creator's will in His world, and to rest the Creator's presence in the world. Nachshon paints what he sees through his eyes, as an artist possessing supreme spiritual inspiration, and in order to convey those visions to the world, each of Nachshon's paintings can be researched deeply like a holy book containing information about: the act of Creation, this world, and the futuristic world. In some of the works, visions of the world in the future are presented with our final Geulah (Redemption), a world entirely of peace and joy, full of good and light. A world where the revelation of supreme kindness is revealed to all, until the coming of the righteous redeemer.

Nachshon's paintings provide a window to that fascinating world of what the future holds for us, when the work of humanity reaches the end of its path—to absolute perfection.