Snippets — judaica

Names are supremely important in Judaism. The Creator's name ~ indicated by the Hebrew letters yud-hey-vav-hey in the Torah, the tetragrammaton ~  is so sacred we don't really know how to pronounce it at all. So, some say "Hashem" (the name) in its place or simply Adonai (Lord). Particularly observant Jews will often write G-d to express the deity, avoiding the whole word which is never to be defaced or erased. When Moses asks God who He is, God says cryptically, "Ehyeh asher ehyeh," which means something like "I will be what I will be." In the Torah , the...

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...

While we often hear the word “mitzvah” used to mean a “good deed,” it really means “commandment” and there are 613 of those in the Torah. One of the Big Ten is “keep the Sabbath,” and we do that by sanctifying the time and setting aside our normal work. We get out the fancy kiddush cup and candlesticks, set a pretty table, and serve up special foods. Would it be the Sabbath if we had frozen fish sticks on a paper plate, with wine in plastic cups? Yes, but we could do the commandment more fully by making it beautiful—hiddur...

Editor's Note: The "Torah cozy" described below is called a bein gavra, which means "between the people." Thank you to Mark Langer for helping. A dozen years ago, four women became adult bat mitzvah ~ banot mitzvah ~ at my synagogue, Congregation Micah. We all came to do that for different reasons... I was new to Judaism, one had a bat mitzvah as a child that was unfulfilling, one never had one, and one wanted to redo hers ~ and pick a new Hebrew name ~ because she had survived a deadly illness and wanted to rededicate herself to Judaism...

When asked to create a papercut for the Hebrew name "Meir," the challenge was on... how to "illuminate" with paper a name that means "creator of light?" In my head, I saw the blue of the daytime sky contrasting with the dark of night, and rays of fiery light bursting through the darkness. "Let there be light, and there was light." (Gen. 1:3) The recipient of this piece shares a name with one of the most revered sages of the Talmud, Rabbi Meir. It is thought that his name was given to him later in life for protection and because he...