In 1999, I was commissioned by the Jewish Theological Seminary in New York to create artwork for the area outside their library. The physical space, a stairwell ascending to the library, inspired me to paint the Gathering at Mount Sinai, depicting the multiple ascents of Moses to receive the written word. The work is a 12 x 12-foot mural, comprised of 13 separate oil-on-canvas panels. The central painting depicts Mount Sinai. Featured around it, in a circle representing the cyclical movement of faith and doubt, and good and evil, are the Ten Commandments, the 10 plagues, and the 10 slain rabbis martyred under Roman rule. It would be this work that sparked in me the rekindled interest in the written word of the bible that propelled me to illuminate the Pentateuch in its entirety.