Standing in front of three photos of the same lake scene, one tinted orange, one blue and one green, Rick Rovak is quick to explain the deeper meaning of his work to a curious observer. 

“This is about introspection, how you see things,” he said. “You and I can see the same thing and see them differently.”

Thanks to Congregation Shaare Emeth, Rovak’s piece is being seen by a lot of different people. “Autumn in the Park” is one of 13 works, each by a different artist, on display in the temple now, illustrating 10 middot, or Jewish virtues.  

The congregation is one of 28 around the country chosen by the Institute for Jewish Spirituality for a $7,000 stipend to put on a  Tikkun Middot Project designed to promote moral qualities in a Jewish framework.

“The idea behind the grant is to try and create an atmosphere in the congregation where the learning of middot, the spiritual and ethical qualities, permeates the community,” Rabbi Andrea Goldstein said. “In the writing of the grant, they asked us to really think about ways that go beyond sitting in the classroom trying to learn about things.”

That provided a perfect opportunity for the Reform temple to showcase its members’ artistic abilities.

“I was intrigued to think of how many artists might be hidden in the congregation,” Goldstein said. “They are all different. We have someone who works with glass. We have painters, sculptors, photographers. We have a bookbinder who created a book from scratch.”

The results were on display during a Nov. 22 reception and Havdalah, with many of the artists on hand to talk with attendees. 

And each piece illustrating its respective midah has been prominently displayed for a full in a series that started in September and will run through June.

Ann Mayer Eisen’s work demonstrated this month’s concept of anavah, or humility, with a canvas print displaying eight chairs. On each chair is a wire ball of varying sizes. Eisensaid it was inspired by a talk given by Goldstein.

“Humility isn’t just being meek and small and humble,” said Eisen, a graphic designer who generated the print on her computer. “It is filling the right space at the right time. Sometimes, it is appropriate to be small. Sometimes, it is not.”

People must modulate their how dominating they are in a conversation, she said.

“If you are too meek, others will overcome you,” Eisen said. “If you are too loud, you will block out other voices.”

Artist Tsila Schwartz of Olivette said her work in marker and watercolors is  less colorful and more restrained than it might have been because she created the piece in Israel earlier this year during a stressful time.

“It wasn’t a good summer,” she said. “I hope it doesn’t reflect the feeling that was in Israel this summer with the war. I had the television on. You were seeing the soldiers who got killed.”

Schwartz’s piece will be highlighted during February, which is dedicated to the midah of kavod, or respect, dignity and honor. The timing of the display in the same month as Tu B’Shevat, inspired her to use the imagery of a tree with branches arranged like a menorah.

“I did it like a pomegranate tree, which is a very symbolic tree,” said Schwartz, who makes ketubahs professionally. 

“At Rosh Hashanah, we bless the pomegranate and we say, ‘Let’s be full of deeds like the pomegranate is full of seeds,’ ” she said.

Rovak’s lake scene demonstrates Hitlamdut, which is not a midah but rather a “learning stance” designed to promote introspection about the middot. 

“It prepares you for studying all the various middot,” he said.

Rovak, who is retired from the shoe business and works with nonprofits, sells some of his photography for use in hospitals and office buildings. He said that if he sells this one, he will give the proceeds to the temple.

“They said they’ve had several requests,” he said.

Julie Eastlund’s work is a small box filled with rocks and surrounded by cardboard cutouts of small rock stacks she’s  created in journeys around the world from Machu Picchu to the Hawaiian Islands.

“The one thing that kept blinking in my head was these rock structures, these cairns that I made when I go on vacations,” said  the Olivette homemaker whose signature midah was seder, or order. “The thing about these is that they help you become present. When you are making a rock tower, you have to pick your stones. You can’t be anxious. You have to slow yourself down, to breathe, to be able to find that sweet spot where the next one can be balanced.”

The rocks in the center are for viewers to build their own cairn.

Eastlund said she is happy that the temple took part in the Tikkun Middot Project. 

“I love it,” she said. “I think that the fact that each person had such a different interpretation of the middot they were given is fantastic. There is so much here to see and talk about.”