LOG
Tu BiShvat Seder--New & Improved!
I am excited to tell you that my Tu BiShvat seder is available this year in book form! You can find it here. If you give it a review, no matter what you say, and you let me know, I'll send you a little gift. Be sure to include your address when you contact me.
My goal for the Spring is to publish another book on my piece: The Journey of the Soul, the Journey of the Mourner: A Map. I'll have more to say about that when it becomes available in May, ready for the 2018 Chevra Kadisha conference in Maryland, where I will be a speaker.
This past year my artistic talent was devoted to a big project: developing eight new borders for the Reform Movement's life cycle certificates. You can see all eight of them, mixed in with some by other artists. Two sample details are displayed in this post.
My wish for you this secular New Year, is that you are as busy doing things that quicken your spirit and add your unique light to the world.
Many Blessings, Rabbi Me'irah
The Heart of the Stranger
But Passover seder doesn't just leave us with the story. It also instructs us as to how we are to orient ourselves as a result: with identification with the oppressed.
The Heart of the Stranger
Long ago, the story of a slave rebellion and escape to freedom, a happening of epic proportions, got written down in a scroll. That story of oppression and trauma and miraculous redemption also got inscribed in the psyche of the Jewish people. The ritual of the commemoration of that event, the Pesach seder, has been an effective teaching tool throughout countless generations. But the Passover seder doesn't just leave us with a story. It also instructs us as to how we are to orient ourselves as a result of that ancient experience: we are to identify with the oppressed.
There are several ways that one might adjust to trauma: numbness, rage, retribution; but our Torah constantly reminds us to follow the way of empathy, compassion and advocacy for the most vulnerable. This new illumination, "The Heart of the Stranger," serves to remind us of this orientation. The quote comes from Exodus 23:9, and is but one of many admonitions to care for the stranger, the fatherless and the widow.
Click here to purchase a print. 30% of the profits will be donated to the ACLU.
I am embarking on a series of social justice illuminations. "The Heart of the Stranger" is the second, along with "Tzedek Tzedek Tirdof." I am soliciting verses for this series, so write to me with your suggestions. If I use yours, you will get a free 8.5" square print.
Blessings, Rabbi Me'irah
Passover Gifts
On the evening of April 10, all over the world, Jews will sit together, eat ritual foods, and retell our story of freedom and self determination. The Passover story, along with the receiving of the Torah on Mt. Sinai, is a foundational pillar of Judaism. We are enjoined to teach the story of the Exodus to our children, so I would like to celebrate with you with the following two gifts.
My first gift for you is this depiction of Miriam, Moses' older sister, watching him in his little ark that his mother Yocheved carefully made for him, on the Nile. Look at the picture for a few seconds, and see where your eye is drawn. What else matches that shape in the picture? How do we know that this is Miriam and not Pharaoh's daughter? Click here to download the PDF. Print it out and laminate it to make a Passover placemat.
This second image depicts the ritual foods that remind us of the story of Pesach. Color them in, and look in the Haggadah to find the symbolic meaning of each item. For those with Hebrew skills, match the Hebrew name with the item. Click here to download.
We've crossed the winter solstice...can Tu b'shvat be far behind?
Tree with Roots in Heaven
In our secular New Year, we "start over," looking forward to fresh beginnings.
That theme also runs in the holiday of Tu b'Shvat, the "birthday of the trees" that we celebrate on the 15th of the Hebrew month of Shvat, which, this year, occurs on the evening of Feb. 10.
The days are lengthening, and soon the sap will run freely in the trees again. This holiday has a deep symbolism of the returning of Spring after winter, and also a renewal of the Divine flow of the life force, or "shefa" from Heaven.
And from the ground the Lord God caused to grow every tree that was pleasing to the sight and good for food, with the tree of life in the middle of the garden….and the tree of knowledge of good and evil. Gen 2:9
Detail: Tree with roots in Heaven reaching into this world, surrounded by the life flow, or "shefa."
To the Kabbalists, that tree in the center of the garden of Eden was a tree "with its roots in Heaven," the emanations of God in the symbols of the Sephirot. Critical to Kabbalistic thinking is that what we do here as humans on earth can stimulate or impede the Divine flow. When we do mitzvoth, with careful awareness as to what we are doing, God rejoices--overflows, as it were, and the Divine flow runs freely.
I am working on a Tu b'Shvat seder, hoping I will have a 'beta' copy for this year. In the meantime, you might want to enhance your seder with giclee prints or fabric banners of this "Tree with its Roots in Heaven," or its companion, "The Four Worlds."
You can order "Roots in Heaven" here
You can order the "Four Worlds" (see below) here
The Four Worlds
Fabric Banners for Sukkot!
Erev Sukkot occurs less than a month away, on October 16. There is nothing quite so magical and tranquil as easing off the Yamim Nora'im, the Days of Awe, sitting in a beautifully decorated sukkah and seeing the stars through the patchy thatchy "roof." It's a time to decorate with fruits and vegetables, especially the Shivat Minim, the Seven Fruits of Israel: wheat, barley, grape, fig, pomegranate, olive and date palm.
It's also a time to invite our ancestors to join us. So I am incredibly pleased to let you know that I now am able to offer you designs printed on water resistant fabric to decorate your sukkah! In fact, you can get ANY IMAGE printed on fabric that is listed under the "ArtPrints" button on the HOME PAGE.
The colors are bright and beautiful, the print precise and articulate. These will make a really memorable sukkah for your home or community.
The two banners pictured here are the "Fruits of Israel" and "Abraham the Meditator." But try some others! (Pomegranates, All Precious Fruits, Burning Bush, Individual Fruits of Israel for example!)
Check the "Fabric Option" under the variant: size/gold embellishment/fabric.
ORDER BY OCT. 6 TO GET YOUR SHIPMENT BY EREV SUKKOT.
The water proof fabric banners are $125 each.
