'Twelve Tribes' is one of the three Tabernacle Trilogy drawings created in 1984-85 and was provoked by my beginning studies in the Book of Exodus. I was particularly drawn to the detailed chapters that described the divine inspiration, design and construction of The Ark of the Covenant. Here, framed by excerpts from the text, are the standards representing the Twelve Tribes of Israel, their designations written in a form of pre-Canaanite Hebrew. These in turn flank a representation of the keruvim or cherubs that were to rest on the ark's cover. This series of drawings would contribute to my understanding when, twenty years later, I would write and illustrate 'Between Heaven & Earth: An Illuminated Torah Commentary' (Pomegranate, 2009).