Snippets — jewish papercut art
Connecting to Judaism through Art - Jewish Papercut Workshops
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Kim Phillips, artist at Hebrica Judaic Art, offers workshops in Jewish papercut art for synagogues, religious schools, Jewish day schools, and Jewish federation progams. Whether you'd want a 3-hour workshop, an elective mini-course, or weekend artist-in-residence program, a curriculum can be tailored to your needs. More on that here.
Jewish papercut art: creating in service to the divine.
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Many times, when I am doing my Jewish papercut art, the act of creating it becomes a meditation. The piece "B'tzelim Elohim" is based on a midrash that says that the four letters of the tetragrammaton - yud, hey, vav, hey - the unpronounceable name of God, actually make a human form when stacked vertically. As I was designing and cutting that piece, I was thinking, "What does this mean, b'tzelim elohim, really? What would happen if, when we saw another person, we believed we were seeing God? The same happens every time I do a piece of papercut art...
We will do, and we will hear.
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In parshat Mishpatim, as the Israelites prepare to receive the Torah, they say to Moses, "Na'aseh v'nishmah," we will do, and we will hear (Ex. 24:7). The "doing" part is pretty clear, considering the instructions about to come, but why does the text say "we will hear" after the doing? This has been a conundrum through the ages. After all, the "nishmah" part comes from the Hebrew root shin-mem-ayin, which has a meaning of far more than just the physical act of hearing. It also means to heed, to understand, to obey. How many times have you been asked to...
Learning to love lamed.
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A fellow convert to Judaism, in giving his "acceptance" speech to the congregation told us about a dream he had. Seems that, in the dream, his rabbi (also my own) had put him in charge of the Hebrew letter lamed. That's a lot of responsibility. Such a beautiful letter, extending above the line (Hebrew letters are oriented to the top line rather than to the base line), graceful, curved, female almost. Aside from its physical form, the Hebrew letter lamed is filled with meaning. The root, or shoresh, for the word lamed is actually lamed-mem-dalet; its root is inside itself....
In the image.
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The traditional Jewish notion of not making images comes from Exodus 20:4: "...you shall not make for yourself a sculptured image, or any likeness of what is in the heavens above, or on the earth below, or in the waters under the earth." After all, the Israelites had, just shortly before the Ten Commandments were handed down, made themselves a golden calf to worship and couldn't be trusted not to try it again. Certainly, through the ages, Jews regularly broke this commandment. There were even coins with various rabbis' faces on them! There were also work-arounds like micrography, making pictures...