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
Looking for a Tu BiShvat Seder?
I have completed the Tu bi-Shvat seder! Here is a sample.
It is Illustrated throughhout, with a Four Worlds spiritual focus.
For now, it is a digital download only, for a mere $7.00.
The tree has so many metaphors for our imaginations to go in many directions.
I wanted to focus this seder in the Kabbalistic fashion of "theurgy," the belief that what we do here on earth actually has the power to make waves in heaven! We can restrain the Divine Flow, or make it more abundant. That is what this seder is about. The artwork carries thematically from page to page, like a forest of trees. I hope you enjoy it. And write me your thoughts!
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
