Snippets — betzelim elohim

Jewish papercut art: creating in service to the divine.

betzelim elohim hebrica jewish artist jewish papercut art jewish ritual item judaic art judaica kim phillips midrash tetragrammaton

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...

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In the image.

betzelim elohim hebrica in the image of god jewish art jewish papercut art kim phillips midrash mizrach no graven images shiviti

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...

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