Papercut in Honor of Aubrey Rubin

Becoming a Bat Mitzvah

The designs in this papercut draw from commonalities among designs from Pueblo Indian pottery, other Southwest Indian motifs, elements of Sephardic (Spanish/Jewish) and "Santa Fe" style found throughout the Southwest, and traditional Jewish symbols, especially those from the desert.

The bottom portion of the design is centered on the Sh'ma, the prayer that is watchword of Judaism, which both commands us to listen and declares the oneness of G-d:  “Hear O Israel, the Lord is God, the Lord is One.”  Here it is taken from Parsha Va'Eschanan, Deuteronomy 6:4.

After their years wanderings in the desert, the Israelites are about to enter the land which G-d has promised them.  To remind them that they have promised to love G-d and honor the Commandments, Moses evokes the powerful images of Mt. Sinai and repeats the words they heard at that place, which have been seared on their hearts. 

On the right is a desert yucca plant, transformed into a burning bush, raw and unformed, from which the words of G-d emerge. ["We have heard G-d's voice from inside the fire."]  Beneath it is a Shofar, which continues to command us to listen even today.  As the words take shape, they lead to the scroll of a Torah in a tic, an Oriental/Sephardic style case which is decorated with patterns common to both Navajo rugs and Moorish design from Spain in the 15th Century.  The Torah wears a crown taken from designs worn by Apache Crown Dancers in their special ceremony for young girls when they reach puberty.

Just as the Torah gave the Israelites a moral shape, the Israelites shaped the harsh desert into a fertile land, represented by an abundance of grapes and sacred corn, a tree of life to Indians, with 18 ripe ears growing next to the Torah.  Between the fire and the Israelites is a small pueblo, a permanent desert dwelling, with several ladders reaching upwards.

The bottom of the papercut is separated from the top by a wide band in the center which is a motif of clouds sending precious rain down to the mesas of the southwest desert.  Rising from the desert, amid two different half-revealed symbols of the Star of David, are pomegranates/squash blossoms, images of the earth, and birds flying upwards, symbols of the spirit.  They are surrounded by a band of flowing water and above them rise twelve holy mountains.  In the center hovers [Shaddai] one of the names of G-d, written twice to amplify its power.

In the heavens are the sun, moon and stars of the universe, held aloft by a rainbow arc, another image of the covenant, shown as the Sky God touching the earth and spreading a canopy of peace over the world.  The universe is seen through the doorposts of a gateway carved in Southwestern style, which is both a place where a mezuzah would be hung (another sign of the covenant repeated in the parsha), and a symbol of the threshold which separates the earthly world and the divine.

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