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		<title>Snippets Blog</title>
		<link>http://www.hebrica.com/blog.cfm</link>
		<description>Judaica greeting cards, art and gifts, original designs in the Jewish papercut tradition.</description>
		<language>en-us</language>
		<copyright>Copyright 2013 Snippets Blog, All rights reserved.</copyright>
		<lastBuildDate>Thu, 24 Oct 2013 00:59:06 CST</lastBuildDate>

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		<title><![CDATA[ Honoring Teachers ]]></title> 
		<link>http://www.hebrica.com/blog_direct_link.cfm/blog_id/48837</link>
		<description><![CDATA[ Transmission of Jewish wisdom and tradition depends on teachers: rabbis, cantors, Jewish educators...theirs are the shoulders upon which we stand. Just as in the secular world, one teacher can open entire worlds to the student. My own teachers have shaped my life and informed my decisions, and I am eternally indebted to them.
Pictured here: &amp;quot;Get your self a teacher, make for yourself a friend.&amp;quot; (Pirket Avot 1:6)

To my rabbi and first teacher of Judaism, Rabbi Alexis Berk, kol hakavod.
Is there a teacher you&amp;#39;d like to honor with a gift? Click here.



... ]]></description>
		<category><![CDATA[ Gifts ]]></category>
		<author>info.hebrica@gmail.com (Kim Phillips)</author>
		<pubDate>Tue, 30 Apr 2013 08:29:00 EST</pubDate>
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		<comments>http://www.hebrica.com/blog_direct_link.cfm/blog_id/48837</comments>
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		<title><![CDATA[ Unlocking Torah with art. ]]></title> 
		<link>http://www.hebrica.com/blog_direct_link.cfm/blog_id/48604</link>
		<description><![CDATA[ As my rabbi likes to say, there are many keys that unlock Torah. One of those keys is art. For centuries, Jewish art was limited by a broad interpretation of Exodus 20:4, the commandment not to make any graven images. Certainly, to this day we do not illustrate our Torah scrolls, but megillot such as the Esther scroll, the book of Ruth, etc. may be decorated.
Other Jewish art has been, until recent times, mostly folk art like mizrachim and amulets, or simply secular art by artists who happen to be Jewish but not traditionally observant.
For bar or bat mitzvahs, the Torah portions they read are often remembered with special fondness for their entire lives. A second bar mitzvah at age 83 is a time to re-read the portion, a unique and sacred event. (Some day, we&amp;#39;ll see second bat mitzvahs; 70 years ago, women didn&amp;#39;t typically come to the Torah.) A papercut work of art based on the bar or bat mitzvah&amp;#39;s Torah portion will be a gift to treasure for a lifetime.
Let&amp;#39;s work o... ]]></description>
		<category><![CDATA[ Torah ]]></category>
		<author>info.hebrica@gmail.com (Kim Phillips)</author>
		<pubDate>Fri, 19 Apr 2013 09:48:00 EST</pubDate>
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		<comments>http://www.hebrica.com/blog_direct_link.cfm/blog_id/48604</comments>
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		<title><![CDATA[ Never Forget: Nashville Holocaust Exhibit ]]></title> 
		<link>http://www.hebrica.com/blog_direct_link.cfm/blog_id/48504</link>
		<description><![CDATA[ The Gordon Jewish Community Center in Nashville, Tennessee is hosting an exhibit of Holocaust art through April 2013. It includes two of my pieces, as well as paintings, ceramics, sculpture, and artifacts. This catalog, set to music, is a sampling of the art from the exhibit.
... ]]></description>
		<category><![CDATA[ Jewish Art ]]></category>
		<author>info.hebrica@gmail.com (Kim Phillips)</author>
		<pubDate>Fri, 12 Apr 2013 06:58:00 EST</pubDate>
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		<comments>http://www.hebrica.com/blog_direct_link.cfm/blog_id/48504</comments>
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		<title><![CDATA[ Making Passover Count: The Omer ]]></title> 
		<link>http://www.hebrica.com/blog_direct_link.cfm/blog_id/48250</link>
		<description><![CDATA[ My People
Part of the message of Passover is gratitude... for the freedom not only from oppression but also to be able to retell our story with family and friends gathered around the seder table. In the 49 days &amp;ndash; seven weeks &amp;ndash; after Passover, we count the days until Shavuot, The Feast of Weeks. It&amp;#39;s called &amp;quot;counting the omer,&amp;quot; for the unit of measure for bringing bikkurim, or the first fruits, of the grain harvest to the Temple for sacrifice... an omer of barley for Passover, and and an omer of &amp;nbsp;wheat at Shavuot. While Passover retells the story of the liberation of the Israelites from Egypt, Shavuot celebrates the giving of the Torah to them at Mt. Sinai.&amp;nbsp;
One may wonder how such an ancient ritual as counting the omer can resonate for us today, when there is no Temple in Jerusalem at which to make a sacrifice. Counting the 49 days is a mitzvah, a commandment, in the Torah (Lev. 23: 15-16) and traditionally observant Jews view it as an absolute obl... ]]></description>
		<category><![CDATA[ Holidays ]]></category>
		<author>info.hebrica@gmail.com (Kim Phillips)</author>
		<pubDate>Tue, 26 Mar 2013 13:19:00 EST</pubDate>
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		<comments>http://www.hebrica.com/blog_direct_link.cfm/blog_id/48250</comments>
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		<title><![CDATA[ Shabbat Hagadol: The Big Shabbat ]]></title> 
		<link>http://www.hebrica.com/blog_direct_link.cfm/blog_id/48166</link>
		<description><![CDATA[ This is the biggie, Shabbat Hagadol, the sabbath immediately before Passover. Why is it THE big one? As with anything in Judaism, there are multiple reasons. It celebrates the fulfillment of the first mitzvah for the Israelites, to offer a pascal lamb. We read about that in this week&amp;#39;s Torah portion, Tzav. Also, it is customary for rabbis to give extra long sermons on this Shabbat. In some circles, the haggadah gets a run-through, to familiarize us with the text and prepare us for the actual seder. &amp;nbsp;
Chag sameach and a great, big Shabbat Shalom!

Whatever you&amp;#39;re celebrating, Hebrica has cards and gifts to make it special.
... ]]></description>
		<category><![CDATA[ Holidays ]]></category>
		<author>info.hebrica@gmail.com (Kim Phillips)</author>
		<pubDate>Fri, 22 Mar 2013 08:40:00 EST</pubDate>
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		<comments>http://www.hebrica.com/blog_direct_link.cfm/blog_id/48166</comments>
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		<title><![CDATA[ Mazel Tov: It's in the stars. ]]></title> 
		<link>http://www.hebrica.com/blog_direct_link.cfm/blog_id/48067</link>
		<description><![CDATA[ Lately, we don&amp;#39;t talk much in Judaism about astrology. You may hear someone mention their &amp;quot;beshert,&amp;quot; the person they are destined to be with. And the phrase &amp;quot;mazel tov&amp;quot; is mostly used to say &amp;quot;Congratulations!&amp;quot; But &amp;quot;mazel tov&amp;quot; really means &amp;quot;good stars&amp;quot; or &amp;quot;good luck.&amp;quot;&amp;nbsp;
While the Talmud spends more time on the notion of free will and how we should it, there is also an acknowledgment that human beings do believe in fate. There is a very fine article about this in a recent issue of Tablet Magazine. The general idea is that doing mitzvot (fulfilling commandments) can change one&amp;#39;s destiny but, as with most things, the discussion itself is more instructive than any sort of firm answer.&amp;nbsp;
As it turns out, there is a connection between this week&amp;#39;s Torah portion, Vayikra, and the idea of fate, or chance. It comes in the drash (examining) of the word &amp;quot;vayikra&amp;quot; itself and the fact that a Torah scroll has t... ]]></description>
		<category><![CDATA[ Talmud ]]></category>
		<author>info.hebrica@gmail.com (Kim Phillips)</author>
		<pubDate>Fri, 15 Mar 2013 09:53:00 EST</pubDate>
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		<comments>http://www.hebrica.com/blog_direct_link.cfm/blog_id/48067</comments>
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		<title><![CDATA[ Making blessings count. ]]></title> 
		<link>http://www.hebrica.com/blog_direct_link.cfm/blog_id/47823</link>
		<description><![CDATA[ Shehechiyanu Blessing
You frequently hear &amp;ndash; at least where I live in the South &amp;ndash; the urging to &amp;quot;count your blessings.&amp;quot; It&amp;#39;s a reminder to be grateful for what you have received, presumably above and beyond what you may have earned or expected. In Judaism, we &amp;quot;make&amp;quot; blessings, and lots of them. Rabbi Meir of the Talmud said we should make 100 blessings a day... for waking up, for bodies that function, for washing of hands, for food, for the beauty of nature, for many, many things. There&amp;#39;s a bit of a formula for Jewish blessings&amp;nbsp;&amp;ndash;&amp;nbsp;click here&amp;nbsp;&amp;ndash; and most of them begin like this: &amp;quot;Baruch Atah Adonai, Eloheinu Melech Ha-olam...&amp;quot; Blessed are you, Adonai our G-d, Ruler of the Universe... The direction of the blessing is to its source.
One of my favorite blessings is the &amp;quot;Shehechiyanu&amp;quot; blessing:
Blessed are you, Adonai our G-d, Ruler of the Universe, who gives us life, sustains us, and who has brought us t... ]]></description>
		<category><![CDATA[ Blessings ]]></category>
		<author>info.hebrica@gmail.com (Kim Phillips)</author>
		<pubDate>Fri, 01 Mar 2013 05:36:00 EST</pubDate>
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		<comments>http://www.hebrica.com/blog_direct_link.cfm/blog_id/47823</comments>
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		<title><![CDATA[ Jewish Holiday Greetings: A Guide for the Perplexed ]]></title> 
		<link>http://www.hebrica.com/blog_direct_link.cfm/blog_id/47772</link>
		<description><![CDATA[ I&amp;#39;m often asked what&amp;#39;s the appropriate way for a non-Jew to greet &amp;mdash; or send greetings to &amp;mdash; a Jewish person. That&amp;#39;s easy...the same way we do to each other! Since most Jewish holidays are joyous occasions, it&amp;#39;s usually appropriate to say &amp;quot;Happy (holiday name)&amp;quot; as in Happy Chanukah or Happy Passover. For a bit of flair, you can say &amp;quot;Chag Sameach&amp;quot; which just means &amp;quot;Happy Holidays&amp;quot; in Hebrew (the &amp;quot;ch&amp;quot; indicates the chicken-bone-in-throat sound). Or you can lay some Yiddish on us with &amp;quot;Good Yontif!&amp;quot; That works for just about any holiday except Yom Kippur, Tisha B&amp;#39;av, or certainly Yom Hashoah, Holocaust Remembrance Day. Those are holy days, but not happy ones. On fast days, the proper greeting is &amp;quot;Tzom Kal,&amp;quot; or in English, &amp;quot;[May you have] an easy fast.&amp;quot;
Confused? More on the workings of Jewish holidays here.

One of the biggies is coming up: Passover. Send your greetings for a Good Yontif... ]]></description>
		<category><![CDATA[ Holidays ]]></category>
		<author>info.hebrica@gmail.com (Kim Phillips)</author>
		<pubDate>Tue, 26 Feb 2013 12:34:00 EST</pubDate>
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		<comments>http://www.hebrica.com/blog_direct_link.cfm/blog_id/47772</comments>
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		<title><![CDATA[ Yiddish Lives ]]></title> 
		<link>http://www.hebrica.com/blog_direct_link.cfm/blog_id/46077</link>
		<description><![CDATA[ I love Yiddish. Over 30 years ago, long before I had any idea I&amp;#39;d be converting to Judaism, I worked for a woman who happened to be Jewish. She asked me once, &amp;quot;How come you know more Yiddish than I do?&amp;quot; That&amp;#39;s easy. Johnny Carson. As a kid, I used to beg my mom to let me stay up late to watch the &amp;quot;Tonight Show&amp;quot; on our black-and-white console television. He had the funniest comedians, many of them Borscht Belt veterans ... Buddy Hackett, Sid Caesar, Totie Fields, George Burns, Groucho, Rodney Dangerfield, Joan Rivers, Sheckie Green, Milton Berle, Henny Youngman ... more on that here. Words like kvetch, schmutz, chutzpah, putz, kosher, kibbutz and shlep planted themselves into my personal dictionary. But Yiddish is more than a way of speaking, it is a way of thinking, a way of looking at the world through a lens of wry humor, skepticism, gentle (mostly) sarcasm, and sometimes resignation. Every language has a personality, and the personality of Yiddish is just... ]]></description>
		<category><![CDATA[ Yiddish ]]></category>
		<author>info.hebrica@gmail.com (Kim Phillips)</author>
		<pubDate>Tue, 05 Feb 2013 07:48:00 EST</pubDate>
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		<comments>http://www.hebrica.com/blog_direct_link.cfm/blog_id/46077</comments>
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		<title><![CDATA[ Shabbat Shirah, A Sabbath of Song ]]></title> 
		<link>http://www.hebrica.com/blog_direct_link.cfm/blog_id/45845</link>
		<description><![CDATA[ This Shabbat is chock-full of celebration: it&amp;#39;s Tu B&amp;#39;shevat, the Jewish New Year for Trees, a time to be creative and appreciative of the earth&amp;#39;s gifts. It&amp;#39;s also Shabbat Shirah, the Sabbath of Song, when we read Parsha B&amp;#39;shalach (Ex. 13:17 - 17:16). This is where we find the Song of the Sea, Shirat Hayam, sung by the Israelites after crossing the Red Sea to escape Pharoah&amp;#39;s troops. It is a central moment in Judaism, representing liberation from bondage and freedom to worship freely. The Exodus from Egypt was crucial in getting the Israelites ready to receive the Torah at Sinai, and Mi Chamocha (who is like you) resonates today.&amp;nbsp;
The haftarah with Parsha B&amp;#39;shalach is from the Book of Judges and includes the Song of Deborah, which celebrates the Israelites&amp;#39; victory over the Canaanites. It is believed to be one of the most ancient parts of the Hebrew bible &amp;ndash; Deborah lived more than a thousand years before the Common Era &amp;ndash;&amp;nbsp;and is the ... ]]></description>
		<category><![CDATA[ Holidays ]]></category>
		<author>info.hebrica@gmail.com (Kim Phillips)</author>
		<pubDate>Thu, 24 Jan 2013 22:05:00 EST</pubDate>
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		<comments>http://www.hebrica.com/blog_direct_link.cfm/blog_id/45845</comments>
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		<title><![CDATA[ Tu B'shevat: Making a Minor Holiday a Big Deal ]]></title> 
		<link>http://www.hebrica.com/blog_direct_link.cfm/blog_id/45575</link>
		<description><![CDATA[ We all know the Big Three &amp;ndash; Passover, Rosh Hashanah, and Yom Kippur&amp;nbsp;&amp;ndash; holidays that even the casually observant among us tend to celebrate. The others, like Shavuot, Simchat Torah, and Sukkot may be &amp;quot;minor&amp;quot; to some, because the commandments and requirements associated with them aren&amp;#39;t so strict or specific; if work isn&amp;#39;t prohibited, we may go about our business and miss the beauty of these holidays. (Technically, Chanukah is a &amp;quot;minor&amp;quot; holiday, but its proximity to Christmas has turned it into a bit of a competition with the surrounding dominant culture.)&amp;nbsp;
As much as anything, Jewish holidays sanctify time and keep us aware of the natural rythyms of life. As the earth is unfolding its leaves in the springtime, out comes the matzah, and even newbies like me will eat gefiltefish; with enough horseradish, anything is possible. We come together around the table to retell our story and to celebrate the freedom to do that. A hint of a chill i... ]]></description>
		<category><![CDATA[ Holidays ]]></category>
		<author>info.hebrica@gmail.com (Kim Phillips)</author>
		<pubDate>Sun, 13 Jan 2013 08:06:00 EST</pubDate>
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		<comments>http://www.hebrica.com/blog_direct_link.cfm/blog_id/45575</comments>
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		<title><![CDATA[ What's your name? ]]></title> 
		<link>http://www.hebrica.com/blog_direct_link.cfm/blog_id/45555</link>
		<description><![CDATA[ The names (shemot) of God are a source of much curiosity and scholarly study. This week&amp;#39;s Torah portion, Va-eira, continues the theme of the importance of names in Judaism; read two very fine commentaries here. We do not attempt to pronounce the tetragrammaton, yud-hey-vav-hey, found in the Hebrew bible but say, instead, Adonai (my lord); traditional Jews will write only G-d out of respect. There are many other names for God in both the bible and in Jewish mysticism: Hamakom (The Place), Hashem (The Name), Hakadosh (The Holy One), Elohim (God), and many more. The literal meaning of the name El Shaddai is the subject of some debate. When I converted to Judaism, I didn&amp;#39;t take the customary route of choosing one of the matriarchs...Sarah, Rebekah, etc... but chose Devorah bat (daughter of) Ezra instead. Found in the book of Judges, Devorah was a strong woman, and she had three jobs! Ezra, the scribe, was credited with writing down the Torah &amp;ndash; it had been transmitted orally t... ]]></description>
		<category><![CDATA[ Torah ]]></category>
		<author>info.hebrica@gmail.com (Kim Phillips)</author>
		<pubDate>Mon, 07 Jan 2013 08:07:00 EST</pubDate>
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		<comments>http://www.hebrica.com/blog_direct_link.cfm/blog_id/45555</comments>
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		<title><![CDATA[ Come, Go in Peace ]]></title> 
		<link>http://www.hebrica.com/blog_direct_link.cfm/blog_id/45408</link>
		<description><![CDATA[ The hauntingly beautiful melody of Shalom Aleichem is traditionally sung to the ministering angels on Shabbat, asking them to &amp;quot;Boachem l&amp;#39;shalom&amp;quot; &amp;ndash; come in peace&amp;nbsp;&amp;ndash; and &amp;quot;Tzeitchem l&amp;#39;shalom&amp;quot;&amp;nbsp;&amp;ndash; go in peace.&amp;nbsp;Bless your visitors with peace, in their coming and their going, with original papercut art&amp;nbsp;&amp;ndash; made for an inside office door&amp;nbsp;&amp;ndash;&amp;nbsp;click here to order.




Hear Itzhak Perlman play Israel Goldfarb&amp;#39;s melody here:

Here are the words, in transliteration and translation...
Shalom aleichem ~ peace unto you
malachei hashareit ~ ministering angels
malachei elyon ~ messengers of the most high
mimelech mal&amp;#39;chei ham&amp;#39;lachim ~ of the supreme king of kings
hakadosh baruch hu ~ the holy one, blessed be he.


	Boachem l&amp;#39;shalom ~ come in peace
malachei hashalom ~ messengers of peace

	malachei elyon ~ messengers of the most high
	mimelech mal&amp;#39;chei ham&amp;#39;lachim ~ of the supreme k... ]]></description>
		<category><![CDATA[ Prayer ]]></category>
		<author>kim@getlucid.net (Kim Phillips)</author>
		<pubDate>Fri, 28 Dec 2012 08:43:00 EST</pubDate>
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		<comments>http://www.hebrica.com/blog_direct_link.cfm/blog_id/45408</comments>
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		<title><![CDATA[ Eshet Chayil, A Woman of Valor ]]></title> 
		<link>http://www.hebrica.com/blog_direct_link.cfm/blog_id/45337</link>
		<description><![CDATA[ Recently our synagogue family, and the world, lost a great friend, Teri Simon. She was a Jewish songwriter and teacher and mother to three. Our cantorial soloist, and Teri&amp;#39;s best friend, Lisa Silver, wrote a special setting of &amp;quot;Eshet Chayil&amp;quot; and asked me to do a papercut for Teri; she gave it to Teri just hours before she passed away. The papercut illustrated the program at Teri&amp;#39;s funeral.&amp;nbsp;
Every soul is unique and everyone has talents, whether they enjoy a large audience or not; Teri&amp;#39;s talents did. She wrote a weekly blog for three years about her &amp;quot;adventures in the Land of Lung Junk,&amp;quot; as she liked to describe the progress of her illness. She was clear-eyed about what the future held, and she talked about it with unbelievable grace and humor. Actually, it wasn&amp;#39;t so unbelievable if you knew Teri. She turned those weekly blog posts into two books. If you know someone who is struggling with a big life issue (doesn&amp;#39;t have to be cancer) and wan... ]]></description>
		<category><![CDATA[ General ]]></category>
		<author>info.hebrica@gmail.com (Kim Phillips)</author>
		<pubDate>Fri, 21 Dec 2012 07:46:00 EST</pubDate>
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		<comments>http://www.hebrica.com/blog_direct_link.cfm/blog_id/45337</comments>
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		<title><![CDATA[ A woman's place. ]]></title> 
		<link>http://www.hebrica.com/blog_direct_link.cfm/blog_id/45154</link>
		<description><![CDATA[ Whether the Exodus story is metaphorical or historical, its message is one of fairness and, for its time, equality. While the Israelites are wandering in the desert, a certain Zelophehad dies. He has only daughters &amp;ndash;&amp;nbsp;Mahlah, Hoglah, Milcah, Tirzah and Noa&amp;nbsp;&amp;ndash; who aren&amp;#39;t in line for any inheritance. But the daughters successfully petition Moses and the elders for their share of the Promised Land. Otherwise, the name of Zelophehad would have been lost, and his daughters would have been forgotten.
In the pararabbinical class of 2004-05 at Hebrew Union College in Cincinnati, there was a very special bat mitzvah. One of the ladies in our class had grown up in an Orthodox setting and had never had the opportunity to come to the Torah as a fully responsible adult. She decided, in her fifties, it was finally time to claim her rightful place in Judaism and to become a bat mitzvah. As it happens, the Torah portion of the week was Pinchas, the one with the account of Zelo... ]]></description>
		<category><![CDATA[ Torah ]]></category>
		<author>info.hebrica@gmail.com (Kim Phillips)</author>
		<pubDate>Sun, 02 Dec 2012 17:05:00 EST</pubDate>
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		<comments>http://www.hebrica.com/blog_direct_link.cfm/blog_id/45154</comments>
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		<title><![CDATA[ The light of the season to you. ]]></title> 
		<link>http://www.hebrica.com/blog_direct_link.cfm/blog_id/45030</link>
		<description><![CDATA[ It&amp;#39;s easy to get caught up in &amp;ndash; or lost among &amp;ndash; the shopping and celebrations all around us.&amp;nbsp;Once I asked my sixth-grade Hebrew class to say what Chanukah meant to them. One kid enthusiastically offered, &amp;quot;It means I&amp;#39;m getting an iPod!&amp;quot; I chuckled under my breath, but I worried, too, whether the message of freedom that Chanukah conveys was being lost in the annual retail extravaganza.&amp;nbsp;
Chanukah is about light... not just the glow of the candles that increases each night, but the metaphorical light of freedom to be ourselves. It&amp;#39;s also about the enlightenment of the universal promises that Judaism offers to the world: justice, peace, compassion, and equality.
This year, send a Chanukah gift with real meaning with Jewish papercut art. Click here to shop.
... ]]></description>
		<category><![CDATA[ Holidays ]]></category>
		<author>info.hebrica@gmail.com (Kim Phillips)</author>
		<pubDate>Mon, 26 Nov 2012 07:21:00 EST</pubDate>
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		<comments>http://www.hebrica.com/blog_direct_link.cfm/blog_id/45030</comments>
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		<title><![CDATA[ Perfecting Peace ]]></title> 
		<link>http://www.hebrica.com/blog_direct_link.cfm/blog_id/44893</link>
		<description><![CDATA[ On this day of prayer in Islam, and the Sabbath eve for Jews, people on both sides of the border between Israel and Gaza are terrified. The peace between these neighbors is, on a good day, fragile.
In Hebrew, peace is &amp;quot;shalom,&amp;quot; and it comes from the root shin-lamed-mem that carries the meaning of wholeness, completion. In Israel, when you are ready to settle up in a restaurant, you say, Efshar leshaleim? &amp;quot;May I pay?&amp;quot; or, more literally, &amp;quot;Can we complete this?&amp;quot; When you ask someone how they are, you say, Mah shlomcha? (to a man) or Mah shlomeich? (to a woman: &amp;quot;What is the state of your wholeness?&amp;quot; Perfection is shleimut. A common get-well wish is refuah shleimah, a complete healing.
However we each feel about the conflict in Israel, human suffering knows no geography and no political party. On this Shabbat, may we contemplate wholeness, peace, and perfection instead of war and blame. Salaam aleikum, and shalom aleichem. Shabbat shalom.
Gratitud... ]]></description>
		<category><![CDATA[ General ]]></category>
		<author>kim@getlucid.net (Kim Phillips)</author>
		<pubDate>Fri, 16 Nov 2012 11:16:00 EST</pubDate>
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		<comments>http://www.hebrica.com/blog_direct_link.cfm/blog_id/44893</comments>
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		<title><![CDATA[ In the Shuk ]]></title> 
		<link>http://www.hebrica.com/blog_direct_link.cfm/blog_id/44850</link>
		<description><![CDATA[ Hebrica will be participating in the first-ever &amp;ndash; and soon to be annual &amp;ndash; Micah Holiday Shuk at Congregation Micah on Sunday, November 18 from 9:00 am to 1:00 pm. Everyone is invited to come shop among the offerings by Micah artisans... from art, jewelry and wearables to greeting cards and the now-classic Micah Mensch Munch. I&amp;#39;ll be selling my Jewish art and Jewish greeting cards and demonstrating how to create Jewish papercut art. See you at the Shuk, just in time for Chanukah!&amp;nbsp;
Logo for the Micah Holiday Shuk designed by Kim Phillips.
... ]]></description>
		<category><![CDATA[ General ]]></category>
		<author>info.hebrica@gmail.com (Kim Phillips)</author>
		<pubDate>Wed, 14 Nov 2012 08:06:00 EST</pubDate>
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		<comments>http://www.hebrica.com/blog_direct_link.cfm/blog_id/44850</comments>
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		<title><![CDATA[ Mazel Tov - Congratulations - New Jewish Greeting Card ]]></title> 
		<link>http://www.hebrica.com/blog_direct_link.cfm/blog_id/44798</link>
		<description><![CDATA[ What&amp;#39;s &amp;quot;mazel?&amp;quot; In English, we say, &amp;quot;Thank your lucky stars...&amp;quot; Mazel is luck, fortune, the stars, and you can have good mazel or bad mazel.&amp;nbsp;The rabbis of the Talmud were a bit conflicted on the idea of mazel. The length of one&amp;#39;s days, and number of children come from mazel... from the stars above, so to speak. Elsewhere the rabbis say that we are not subject to mazel.&amp;nbsp;
To say &amp;quot;Mazel Tov!&amp;quot; is really a blessing, a wish, an acknowledgment of a simcha, a joyous occasion.&amp;nbsp;
Send your congratulations with this Jewish greeting card that&amp;#39;s really a little party in an envelope. Order here.
... ]]></description>
		<category><![CDATA[ Occasions ]]></category>
		<author>kim@getlucid.net (Kim Phillips)</author>
		<pubDate>Fri, 09 Nov 2012 07:38:00 EST</pubDate>
		<guid isPermaLink="true">http://www.hebrica.com/blog_direct_link.cfm/blog_id/44798</guid>
		<comments>http://www.hebrica.com/blog_direct_link.cfm/blog_id/44798</comments>
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		<title><![CDATA[ It is a tree of life. ]]></title> 
		<link>http://www.hebrica.com/blog_direct_link.cfm/blog_id/44733</link>
		<description><![CDATA[ Sales of this card benefit Hurricane Sandy relief efforts. Click here to buy, and details below.
In May of 2012, there was a 1,000-year flood in Nashville, my home town. Because it is a hilly place, some people were devastated and others were high and dry. I live in a little bedroom community laced with creeks and rivers, and the destruction was shocking. I have one friend who lost both her home and her business on the same day. The most striking thing about the tragedy was the way the more fortunate among us lept into action to help their neighbors. The middle school became a command center where food, supplies, clothing and hot meals were collected and carried out to victims of the flood by volunteers. A local contractor rebuilt a main road and bridge that had washed away, cutting off an entire section of town, with his own equipment and no thought of compensation. A giant tree came down across our road, and it magically disappeared, courtesy of a kind neighbor with a chain saw. The... ]]></description>
		<category><![CDATA[ General ]]></category>
		<author>kim@getlucid.net (Kim Phillips)</author>
		<pubDate>Sun, 04 Nov 2012 14:27:00 EST</pubDate>
		<guid isPermaLink="true">http://www.hebrica.com/blog_direct_link.cfm/blog_id/44733</guid>
		<comments>http://www.hebrica.com/blog_direct_link.cfm/blog_id/44733</comments>
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