Snippets — kim phillips
The creativity of Israel.
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On a hot, hot summer day in Jerusalem, I stopped into a Judaica shop on King George Street to get out of the sun. I didn't know that brief respite would lead to a career. Read more...The trees of life.
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One of my favorite bits of Torah is where it talks about how to treat trees during a war: "When thou shalt besiege a city a long time, in making war against it to take it, thou shalt not destroy the trees thereof by wielding an axe against them; for thou mayest eat of them, but thou shalt not cut them down." Read more...
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...