"I'll Love You Forever, Honey" Painting

This scene is inspired by Kiddushin 70b & Bava Batra 3b from the Talmud, featuring King Herod, after he mellifies the body of the young Hasmonean princess. She commits suicide after Herod kills her entire family, and it was rumored he consumated the marriage after she had been mummified. Herod kills all the Sages, apart from Bava Ben Buta, whom he tests, after pricking his eyes out with procupine quills. The Sage speaks nothing bad about the king, stating, “For a bird of the sky shall carry the sound, and that which has wings shall tell the matter”. Seeing how wise the Sage is, Herod regrets killing all the Sages and asks how he can remedy his actions. The Sage encourages him to build the temple, describing, “For the mitzva is a lamp, and the Torah is light” (Proverbs 6:23), should go and occupy himself with the light of the world, the Temple, as it is written with regard to the Temple: “And all the nations shall flow [venaharu] unto it” (Isaiah 2:2). In this painting, the princess is layered with actual beeswax and honey encaustic. The patterns of the border were inspired by the archeological floor remains found at Jerusalem’s Temple Mount and other building sites commissioned by Herod.