Snippets — tetragrammaton

Hashem: The Hebrew Name

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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...

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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...

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