Letters of Light by Micha Ullman (b.1939), a Bezalel-trained sculptor, is an environmental work based on the Hebrew alphabet and inspired by Sefer Yetzira (The Book of Creation), the oldest known Jewish mystical text. Set in a spacious plaza next to the new National Library of Israel building, the work comprises two major elements: an expansive circle of 18 imposing, free-standing Hebrew letters sculpted in stone and an underground room at the circle’s center with openings in its ceiling through which sunlight projects the first letters of the Hebrew, Latin and Arabic alphabets on the room’s floor. To walk among these sculpted letters is to sense their primacy and creative potential and to intuit the centrality of the Hebrew language in the foundation of the State of Israel and in the mission of Israel’s National Library. (Image courtesy of Albatross Photos)