Snippets — tetragrammaton
Hashem: The Hebrew Name
bar mitzvah gift bat mitzvah gift choosing a hebrew name gift for convert to judaism gift for jewish baby naming hebrew name hebrew names of god hebrica jewish papercut art judaic art judaica meaning of hebrew names tetragrammaton
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...
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...