The threads that bind us.

Carol Perlmutter does beautiful work with cloth including tallit and chuppot. This is what she says about her work.

I was a journalist, and a non-religious rationalist, from my teen years through my mid-thirties. I started quilting a decade ago to save my sanity during a long illness. Completely unexpectedly, quilting became something more than a distraction. It became a powerful vehicle for developing my spirituality, and exploring my Jewish heritage.

Quilting has a power to enrich people's lives on many levels. Not least is that it can be a form of prayer or meditation. Even while the cabinets fill with fabric (!), the creative process empties and focuses the mind, Grasshopper, which allows us to make higher connections---to memory, to our best selves, to others, and maybe even to G-d. (Also, to e-bay, for more stuff, and to i-kea, for bigger cabinets.)

Both the process and the product of quilting dovetails beautifully with Jewish ritual and history. As in most cultures, Judaism involves an abundance of beautiful and thought-provoking textiles, whether for daily use, holidays, or lifecycle milestones. Learning about the history and meaning of these textiles has been one of the most fascinating and fun parts of my journey.

Tamar- Smart Woman. Smart Choices.

The name Tamar means ‘date palm’, a name that suggests strength, food, shade, and life. Fiber artist Judy Zoelzer Levine thinks of Tamar as being "righteous and strong." I think Judy is fabulous!














From the Website Eyshet Chayil: Immediately after Yosef was sold the Torah begins to tell us about the life of Yehuda. We learn that Yehuda left his brothers and went to live in another city. He made this break from his family to have time to meditate and think about his actions. In this city he meets a woman, Illith, the daughter of a Canaanite man named Shua. Together they had three sons: Er, Onan and Shelah.
In the year 2225, when Er was seven years old, Yehudah decided it was time for him to marry. He chooses as a wife, Tamar, who according to many Mefarshim was a descendant of Noach’s son Shem. Mizrachi says that she was the daughter of Shem’s first born son.

Tamar was very beautiful and Er did not want to mar her beauty in anyway. Thinking that pregnancy would make her ugly, he began practicing a form of birth control that is completely against Halacha. It was as a result of this sin, the spilling of his seed, that Er died at a young age.

Soon after Er died, Yehudah approached his second son, Onan, and asked him to marry Tamar and perform the rite of Yibbum with her. Yibbum is performed in situations when a man dies without having children. In these situations, an unmarried brother will marry the widow and according to Rashi a child from that union will be named after the dead brother. Yehuda told Onan that if he consents to marry her it must be strictly for that reason, simply to perform the mitzvah.

Onan agreed to marry Tamar. However, he committed the same sin as Er. The Chumash says he did it because he knew the child would not be his. Sifsei Chachomim explains that according to Rashi not only would the child be named after the deceased, but would also be considered as the child of the deceased. READ MORE HERE.

Tu B'Shevat

I can recall as a child bringing home forms from Hebrew School. We were encouraged to buy trees to plant in Israel. Buying a tree to plant in someone else's backyard (Israel) is a very Jewish thing. We buy them for weddings, bar mitzvah's, funerals- everyone can always use a tree. Really.

Politics aside, I like to believe that the Israelis have built in Israel something that no other country, no other people could do. What was once a barren dessert now blooms with flowers. Israelis are known as farmers- flowers, trees, fruit, vegetables. I like to think that my little trees have contributed to that development.

On February 3rd- the fifteenth day of the month of Shevat- we will celebrate Tu B'shevat- essentially it is a Jewish Arbor Day. As part of my celebration, I would like to focus on trees in Jewish Art here in the Journal.




Today's beautiful works are from Jeanette Kuvin Oren . Jeanette creates in quilts and fabric but designs as well in mosaic and stained glass. The Hebrew in the piece below says Etz Chaim- tree of life.