Rosh haShanah Cards

Linoleum block prints based on words were part of my child­hood. My father cre­at­ed three linoleum block print birth announce­ments for my two sib­lings and me.

In my mid­dle school print shop, while learn­ing how to use mov­able type, I also ven­tured into linoleum block print­ing. Stay­ing late after school, I print­ed a Chanukkah card that my par­ents sent out to rel­a­tives that year.

For many years, I’ve enjoyed how Hebrew let­ters in microg­ra­phy express the text’s mean­ing through the flow of the letters

While nei­ther my father’s birth announce­ments nor my Chanukkah card includ­ed microg­ra­phy, they intro­duced me to com­bi­na­tions of the print­ed word and image.

My inter­est in print­ing expand­ed dur­ing my col­lege years. I helped design many polit­i­cal leaflets and pro­duced a poster-sized month­ly Jew­ish com­mu­ni­ty cal­en­dar for Jew­ish youth in the Los Ange­les area. As a mem­ber of the edi­to­r­i­al board and lat­er as its edi­tor (since Win­ter 1970) of the jour­nal Davka, I learned even more about print­ing and pub­li­ca­tion. We also pro­duced a port­fo­lio of high-qual­i­ty repro­duc­tions of prints depict­ing the van­ished world of East­ern Euro­pean Jew­ry. This prac­ti­cal inter­est in print­ing turned his­tor­i­cal at HUC-JIR when I wrote my rab­binic the­sis on “The Rab­binic Per­cep­tion of Print­ing as Depict­ed in Haskamot and Respon­sa.”

Per­haps that involve­ment in print­ed images and words led me to dis­cov­er the linoleum block, cut­ters, paper, and inks in the art room of Camp Swig in 1996 while on rab­binic fac­ul­ty. I decid­ed to see if I could use those tools to express on paper an idea for a mizrach I had in my head. That effort turned into a Rosh Hashanah card that we sent out to fam­i­ly and friends in 1997, and came to be the first of many.

Every year since then I browse our Jew­ish texts for a pasuq that both touch­es me and lends itself to using its let­ters for a visu­al. Some­times the pasuq relates to some­thing hap­pen­ing in my life; in oth­er years the text relates to less per­son­al events occur­ring in the world. At first I reimag­ined clas­sic Jew­ish med­i­ta­tive images (the mizrach and the shiv­i­ti). Recip­i­ents respond­ed, and I began to real­ize that the cards were actu­al­ly art minia­tures. Then, for the first time, in 2003 I start­ed sign­ing and num­ber­ing the cards. Each year, the inside of the card includ­ed the tex­tu­al ref­er­ence and my own inter­pre­ta­tion of that verse as an expres­sion of hope for the com­ing year. I made no effort to explain my own think­ing about how the pasuq and its visu­al rep­re­sen­ta­tion devel­oped. Lat­er, I real­ized that the cards might be thrown away and lim­it­ed the use of the Tetragrammaton.

Over three decades, this process has devel­oped into a year-long med­i­ta­tive prac­tice: search­ing, imag­in­ing, design­ing, draw­ing, cut­ting, print­ing, describ­ing, then mount­ing the print on its card stock. Each URL imme­di­ate­ly below the image leads to a page on my Web­site where (since the year 2000) I have post­ed the images (more recent­ly with more exten­sive explanations).

All this effort results in a unique greet­ing for the start of each Jew­ish year. Address­ing and stamp­ing the envelopes and insert­ing the cards offers me an oppor­tu­ni­ty to think about each of the indi­vid­ual recipients.

Psalm 16:8 — 5757\1996

For a new year of peace

שִׁוִּ֬יתִי יְהֹוָ֣ה לְנֶגְדִּ֣י תָמִ֑יד

I am ever mind­ful of the divine presence

The image uses the first word of Psalm 16 verse 8 to form of a Shiv­i­ti, The shape is man­dala-like. The shin ש encir­cles the oth­er let­ters of the word and “hold above” the Tetra­gram­ma­ton, keep­ing the יהוה before the viewer.

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Psalm 113:3 – 5758\1997

May the new year bring bless­ings of peace from east to west…

מִמִּזְרַח־שֶׁ֥מֶשׁ עַד־מְבוֹא֑וֹ מְ֝הֻלָּ֗ל שֵׁ֣ם יְהֹוָֽה

From east­ern sun­rise to its set­ting, the name יהוה is praised.

The image uses the entire verse from Psalm 113:3 (מִמִּזְרַח־שֶׁ֥מֶשׁ עַד־מְבוֹא֑וֹ מְ֝הֻלָּ֗ל שֵׁ֣ם יְהֹוָֽה From east­ern sun­rise to its set­ting the name יהוה is praised.) using the text to form a Mizrach. The two מs out­line the rising/setting sun while the root of the word “shine”. The bulk of the verse reads from right to left as the sun’s coro­na while the Tetra­gram­ma­ton יהוה glows above. (The only paper I could find to print on hap­pened to be black con­struc­tion paper which worked per­fect­ly for the image.)

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Isaiah 45:7 — 5759\1998

May the year bring bless­ings of peace in both light and darkness.

יוֹצֵ֥ר אוֹר֙ וּבוֹרֵ֣א חֹ֔שֶׁךְ

I form light and cre­ate darkness

The image uses the first four words of Isa­iah 45:7 (יוֹצֵ֥ר אוֹר֙ וּבוֹרֵ֣א חֹ֔שֶׁךְ I form light and cre­ate dark­ness,) in the shape of the Yin and Yang sym­bol — light and dark­ness shift­ing from one to the other.

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Psalm 119 — 5760\1999

May the new year bring bless­ings of peace as we con­tin­ue on our way.

אַשְׁרֵ֥י תְמִֽימֵי־דָ֑רֶךְ הַ֝הֹלְכִ֗ים בְּתוֹרַ֥ת יְהֹוָֽה

Hap­py are those whose way is blame­less, who fol­low the teach­ing of יְהֹוָֽה

The image uses the text of the first verse of Psalm 119:1 ( אַשְׁרֵ֥י תְמִֽימֵי־דָ֑רֶךְ הַ֝הֹלְכִ֗ים בְּתוֹרַ֥ת יְהֹוָֽה Hap­py are those whose way is blame­less, who fol­low the teach­ing of the יהוה.) in the back­ground repeat­ed, row after row, as well as the “clover­leaf” (traf­fic pat­tern) in the fore­ground. While the verse includes the Tetra­gram­ma­ton, the card only uses the abbre­vi­a­tion: ה׳. I use the com­put­er fre­quent­ly to help devel­op the image; this is the only card that was print­ed using com­put­er-gen­er­at­ed images, and not a linoleum block print.

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Psalm 92:13 — 5761\2000

May jus­tice… and with it peace flour­ish in the new year.

צַ֭דִּיק כַּתָּמָ֣ר יִפְרָ֑ח

The right­eous shall flour­ish like a date-palm

Noam (then 14 years 0ld) helped with this card, cut­ting the two palm trees on the edges. The first half of the verse states (צַ֭דִּיק כַּתָּמָ֣ר יִפְרָ֑ח The right­eous shall flour­ish like a date-palm) The mid­dle tree is formed by the let­ters of the word צדיק (in which the final form of the צ is used: ץ to give the palm tree its trunk).

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Psalm 90:12 — 5762\2001

May we gain hearts of wis­dom, so that the year will be one of peace.

לִמְנ֣וֹת יָ֭מֵינוּ כֵּ֣ן הוֹדַ֑ע וְ֝נָבִ֗א לְבַ֣ב חׇכְמָֽה

Teach us to num­ber our days well, that we may obtain a heart of wisdom

The indi­vid­ual words of the psalm (לִמְנ֣וֹת יָ֭מֵינוּ כֵּ֣ן הוֹדַ֑ע וְ֝נָבִ֗א לְבַ֣ב חׇכְמָֽה Teach us to num­ber our days well, that we may obtain a heart of wis­dom.) rise from dark to bril­liant as the text reach­es חׇכְמָֽה wis­dom.

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Psalm 118:19 — 5763\2002

May acts of right­eous­ness in the new year open the Gold­en gates of Mer­cy and lead to a world of peace

פִּתְחוּ־לִ֥י שַׁעֲרֵי־צֶ֑דֶק

Open for me the gates of righteousness

I have long appre­ci­at­ed this psalm. I first learned it as a song sung by Shlo­mo Car­lebach on his record­ing “At the Vil­lage Gate” in the ear­ly 1960s. Many years lat­er, as a hos­pi­tal chap­lain I began to think of this as a “pas­sage­way psalm” for those mov­ing from life to death. Based on the first half of the Psalm’s verse, the three let­ters of the word צדק (right­eous­ness or jus­tice) form the out­line of the sealed open­ings of the gate. Known as the Gold­en Gate, or the Gate of Mer­cy, lead­ing from the Mount of Olives west­ward to the Tem­ple Mount, it is the old­est of Jerusalem’s gates and only one that is sealed. I was lucky to find gold ink in the art room at camp that year to extend the visu­al metaphor.

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Proverbs 3:17b — 5764\2003

May all our paths in the com­ing year lead us toward peace.

כׇל־נְתִ֖יבוֹתֶ֣יהָ

Her (Torah’s) paths

At the end of the Torah ser­vice, when the Torah is put back in the ark, the con­gre­ga­tion recites Proverbs 3:17 (דְּרָכֶ֥יהָ דַרְכֵי־נֹ֑עַם וְֽכׇל־נְתִ֖יבוֹתֶ֣יהָ שָׁלֽוֹם Her (Torah’s) ways are ways of pleas­ant­ness, And all her paths, peace.). The card has two images. The back­ground cut is based on a map of roads in the area of (what I thought was a town called) Peace Glenn, RI (the dot)… though I can­not find such a town in 2026. Print­ed over that is a (Torah) scroll with the phrase כׇל־נְתִ֖יבוֹתֶ֣יהָ, sug­gest­ing that the Torah’s paths lead to peace.

[Begin­ning this year, I start­ed num­ber­ing and sign­ing the cards.]

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Sifra to Psalm 18:11–12 and Siddur: Ma’ariv: Hashkiveinu — 5765\2004

May our efforts in the new year spread clouds of glo­ry as we build true taber­na­cles of peace.

ופרש עלינו סכת שלומך

Spread over us the shel­ter of Your peace

The phrase is recit­ed every evening as part of the evening bless­ings. I have long appre­ci­at­ed the phrase since I learned a par­tic­u­lar melody for the phrase. While many cou­ples have the Song of Songs phrase “I am my beloved’s and my beloved is mine.” (.אני לדודי ודודי לי) inscribed on the inside or out­side of their wed­ding rings. Deb­bie and I have ופרש עלינו inscribed inside ours. The phrase is, clear­ly, dear to my heart.

In 1995 I learned from Jef­frey L. Rubenstein’s arti­cle (Judaism 43 (Fall, 1994) “The Sym­bol­ism of the Sukkah”) some beau­ti­ful imagery about the sukkah that I inte­grat­ed into the book­let I pre­pared for my con­gre­ga­tion in Ramona, CA in 1997:

Rab­bi. Eliez­er says: God made us live in real sukkot.

Rab­bi. Aki­ba says: They were the clouds of glory.

God made dark­ness a per­son­al screen; dark thunderheads;

Dense clouds of the sky were God’s sukkah round about. [Psalm 18:11–12]

Can one, indeed, con­tem­plate the expanse of clouds;

The thun­der­ings from God’s sukkah? [Job 36:29]

Then Adon­ai will cre­ate over Zion and her assem­blies a cloud…

for over all the glo­ry there will be a canopy. [Isa­iah 4:5]

Bring on the clouds Adonai!

As blan­kets to warm us at night.

We wel­come Your moist canopy over us.

The cool blan­kets act like a cloud of dew in the heat of har­vest [Isa­iah 18:4]

Dur­ing which we share a Bib­li­cal Bouquet:

In the image, the “clouds” above are formed by the words ופרש עלינו “spread over us” while the three-sided booth is formed by the let­ters of שלום,

This has long been one of my favorite cards.

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Lamentations 3:52 — 5766\2005

May our endeav­ors release all that threat­ens to ensnare us, giv­ing wing to a world of peace, bless­ing and joy.

צ֥וֹד צָד֛וּנִי כַּצִּפּ֖וֹר

My foes have snared me like a bird

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In mem­o­ry of Faye (Faigie, Fan­nie (Avrunin)) Hurvitz
(ציפורה בת מאיר וחנה)
21^st of Tevet 5674 — 8^th of Tam­muz 5765
Decem­ber 20, 1913 (the win­ter sol­stice) — July 14, 2005

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This card was designed in lov­ing trib­ute to my moth­er Faye (Faigie, Fan­nie (Avrunin)) Hurvitz Tzip­po­rah (צִפּוֹרָה = ”bird“) bat Meir v’Ḥan­nah), died dur­ing the sum­mer of 2005.

The image of the card inverts the sim­ple mean­ing of the first half of the verse from Lamen­ta­tions: צ֥וֹד צָד֛וּנִי כַּצִּפּ֖וֹר (My foes have snared me like a bird). The dark “snare” at the bot­tom of the image is formed by the let­ter צ turned in var­i­ous directions:

Escap­ing the snare into the light blue (like birds), read from right to left and bot­tom to top, is the word צדוני.

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Leviticus 25:10 — 5767\2006

May our endeav­ors pro­claim lib­er­ty through­out the land, cre­at­ing a world at peace.

וּקְרָאתֶ֥ם דְּר֛וֹר

You shall pro­claim liberty.

5767 was a Sab­bat­i­cal year and the offi­cial procla­ma­tion of lib­er­ty would not occur until anoth­er two cycles of Sab­bat­i­cal years. In antic­i­pa­tion of the Jubilee I designed this image. The card shows the east­ern hemi­sphere turned 90º counter clock­wise (so that north is on the left).

The image below shows the hemi­sphere with north on top (in a more rec­og­niz­able orientation)::

The full image uses two words of the verse (as on the Lib­er­ty Bell): “וּקְרָאתֶ֥ם דְּר֛וֹר” “Pro­claim lib­er­ty” and the let­ters of the word “דְּר֛וֹר” (lib­er­ty) appear at the car­di­nal points of the compass.

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Psalm 118:5 — 5768\2007

Pro­duc­ing the card was dif­fi­cult this year, with all the changes and moves. The image itself is not as suc­cess­ful as I would have hoped. Avi­gail and Noam helped me come up with some­thing that would work. And then lat­er, after I’d made the cut I had anoth­er, bet­ter, idea that might work (for some oth­er year). Peri­od­i­cal­ly, (as in 2005) the text and the image relate to some­thing in my life. This one seems to reflect that as well. Based on the text: “מִֽן־הַ֭מֵּצַר קָרָ֣אתִי” “From the nar­row place I called out…” I sent off the col­lec­tion of a few hun­dred vinyl record­ings of Jew­ish inter­est that have sound “hid­den” in the nar­row grooves to the Dart­mouth Jew­ish Sound Archive. Then we left the nar­row­ness (at least in some respects v’haMeivin yavin) of South­ern Cal­i­for­nia, expe­ri­enced the nar­row­ness of the Nile Riv­er Val­ley, passed by the Straits of Gibral­tar, and set­tled in the nar­row canyons of Manhattan.

On the left of the image, the four let­ters מצר “strait” out of which the “cry” קראתי emerges to the right. 

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Psalm 118:22 — 5769\2008

In our efforts to build a world at peace, may we see the poten­tial in every stone.

אֶ֭בֶן מָאֲס֣וּ הַבּוֹנִ֑ים הָ֝יְתָ֗ה לְרֹ֣אשׁ פִּנָּֽה

The stone that the builders reject­ed has become the chief cornerstone.

We vis­it­ed the town of Rosh Pin­na (“cor­ner­stone”) in July of 2007. The stones of the walls of the illus­trat­ed build­ing have the let­ters of the Psalm “אֶ֭בֶן מָאֲס֣וּ הַבּוֹנִ֑ים הָ֝יְתָ֗ה לְרֹ֣אשׁ פִּנָּֽה” (The stone that the builders reject­ed has become the chief cor­ner­stone.) “carved” on them. The stone at the bot­tom front… the “cor­ner­stone” is miss­ing. (Odd­ly enough, there is anoth­er Rosh Pinah with a Jew­ish con­nec­tion in Namibia.)

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Leviticus 19:10b — 5770\2009

As we gath­er our share in the new year may we live in a world of plen­ty and of peace.

לֶֽעָנִ֤י וְלַגֵּר֙ תַּעֲזֹ֣ב אֹתָ֔ם

You shall leave them for the poor and the stranger

The image uses a por­tion the sec­ond half of the bib­li­cal text: “וְכַרְמְךָ֙ לֹ֣א תְעוֹלֵ֔ל וּפֶ֥רֶט כַּרְמְךָ֖ לֹ֣א תְלַקֵּ֑ט לֶֽעָנִ֤י וְלַגֵּר֙ תַּעֲזֹ֣ב אֹתָ֔ם אֲנִ֖י יְהֹוָ֥ה אֱלֹהֵיכֶֽם׃” (You shall not pick your vine­yard bare, or gath­er the fall­en fruit of your vine­yard; you shall leave them for the poor and the stranger: I יהוה am your God.) appear as a clus­ter of grapes on the vine (as well as a ten­dril lead­ing from the stem to the larg­er leaf above.

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Pirkei Avot 1:2 — 5771\2010

May we secure our world on a foun­da­tion of learn­ing, ser­vice, and deeds of loving-kindness.

עַל שְׁלשָׁה דְבָרִים הָעוֹלָם עוֹמֵד

The world stands upon three things

Shi­mon the Right­eous was one of the last of the men of the great assem­bly. He used to say:

“עַל שְׁלשָׁה דְבָרִים הָעוֹלָם עוֹמֵד, עַל הַתּוֹרָה וְעַל הָעֲבוֹדָה וְעַל גְּמִילוּת חֲסָדִים” (The world stands upon three things: the Torah, the Tem­ple ser­vice, and the prac­tice of acts of piety.)

In the cen­ter of the card a “globe” rests in a three-legged stand which serves as its foun­da­tion. The three-legged globe-stand can be stood with either side up. The three-legged stand is formed by the Hebrew let­ter ש. The line that demar­cates the east and west hemi­spheres is formed by the Hebrew let­ter ל. Beneath and above the globe the word עוֹמֵד (stand) appears.

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Genesis 1:1–2 — 5772\2011

May our efforts in the new year bring new cre­ation out of chaos.

בְּרֵאשִׁ֖ית בָּרָ֣א אֱלֹהִ֑ים אֵ֥ת הַשָּׁמַ֖יִם וְאֵ֥ת הָאָֽרֶץ׃ וְהָאָ֗רֶץ הָיְתָ֥ה תֹ֙הוּ֙ וָבֹ֔הוּ וְחֹ֖שֶׁךְ עַל־פְּנֵ֣י תְה֑וֹם וְר֣וּחַ אֱלֹהִ֔ים מְרַחֶ֖פֶת עַל־פְּנֵ֥י הַמָּֽיִם׃

When God began to cre­ate heav­en and earth—the earth being unformed and void, with dark­ness over the sur­face of the deep and a wind from God sweep­ing over the water.

Per­haps, by chance (or antic­i­pa­tion), our first grand­child (Amiel) was born a cou­ple of days before Rosh haShanah of 5772.Perhaps, by chance (or antic­i­pa­tion), our first grand­child (Amiel) was born a cou­ple of days before Rosh haShanah of 5772.

The large red image in the cen­ter uses the let­ters of the words “unformed and void” to form the shape of a fetus. The “head”, תהו is read from right to left. The “feet”, בהו is read from the bot­tom right clockwise.

Ran­dom­ly swirling around the “fetus”, all, and only, those let­ters that appear in the two vers­es appear.

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Psalm 130:1b — 5773\2012

May our voic­es reach up from the depths to achieve a world of whole­ness and peace.

Out of the depths I call You

The word ממעמקים is read from the cen­ter to the periph­ery. The root עמק is blueish gray, the let­ters that “decline” it ממ_ _ _ים are brown.

[Our daugh­ter-in-law Rachel’s moth­er died two weeks before Rosh haShan­nah that year.]

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Deuteronomy 30:13 — 5774\2013

May our efforts in the New Year bring a world of whole­ness and peace clos­er to us.

וְלֹא־מֵעֵ֥בֶר לַיָּ֖ם הִ֑וא לֵאמֹ֗ר מִ֣י יַעֲבׇר־לָ֜נוּ אֶל־עֵ֤בֶר הַיָּם֙ וְיִקָּחֶ֣הָ לָּ֔נוּ וְיַשְׁמִעֵ֥נוּ אֹתָ֖הּ וְנַעֲשֶֽׂנָּה

Nei­ther is it beyond the sea, that you should say, “Who among us can cross to the oth­er side of the sea and get it for us and impart it to us, that we may observe it?”

For many years as a con­gre­ga­tion­al rab­bi I read these vers­es dur­ing Yom Kip­pur and won­dered how it would appear as a card. The “sea” יָּ֖ם is blue-green. Spread over the “sea” is an open Torah scroll. The Torah Rollers (Atzei Chaim), using script let­ters instead of block let­ters spell לֹא “not” while the text that spreads over the area where the Torah’s text would be means “over.” Togeth­er, the image of the Torah scroll spans across the sea: “It is not ’on the oth­er side’.”

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Psalm 23:5b — 5775\2014

May our efforts in the New Year over­flow with good­ness and help cre­ate a world of whole­ness and peace.

כּוֹסִ֥י רְוָיָֽה

My cup overflows.

At Pesach time in 2014 our sec­ond grand­child Pele was born. I tru­ly felt that our cup had over­flowed with good­ness. The cup is formed by the let­ters כּוֹסִ֥י in brown. the blue let­ters spill and “over­flow the cup” to form the word רְוָיָֽה.

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Psalm 27–9a — 5776\2015

May the new year be a time of hon­esty with our­selves and full pres­ence with one anoth­er, bring­ing us clos­er to a world of whole­ness and peace.

אַל־תַּסְתֵּ֬ר פָּנֶ֨יךָ ׀ מִמֶּנִּי֮

Don’t hide Your face from me.

The word פָּנֶ֨יךָ “Your face” is in neg­a­tive space in the back­ground while the phrase אַל־תַּסְתֵּ֬ר מִמֶּנִּי֮ ”don‘t hide from me“ forms the spi­ral (read from out­side in) ”covers/hides“ it.

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Siddur : Kedushat haYom — 5777\2016

With puri­fied hearts may our hon­est efforts build a world of jus­tice and peace.

וטהר ליבנו לעבדך באמת

And puri­fy our hearts to serve you in truth.

Over­lay­ing the heart are large let­ters: nes­tled inside the ט which match­es the shape of the heart are the remain­ing let­ters togeth­er spelling “pure” טהר. In small­er let­ters, begin­ning at the bot­tom right are the let­ters the read: לעבדך באמת.

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Psalm 1:3 — 5778\2017

May we plant our­selves by sources of sus­te­nance and use those sources to build a world of peace and plenty.

כְּעֵץ֮ שָׁת֢וּל עַֽל־פַּלְגֵ֫י־מָ֥יִם

Like a tree plant­ed beside streams of water…

Most like­ly in response to the elec­tion the pre­vi­ous year, my thoughts turned to the old spir­i­tu­al-cum-protest song that we sang so often dur­ing the ’60s: “We Shall Not Be Moved.” (The song was more recent­ly sung and record­ed at the Shab­bat ser­vice hon­or­ing Dr. Mar­tin Luther King, Jr. on Fri­day, Jan­u­ary 15, 2016 by Con­gre­ga­tion Beth Israel’s (Port­land, OR) Kol Echad con­gre­ga­tion­al choir along with mem­bers of the NW Com­mu­ni­ty Gospel Choir.) I did what I could to depict the idea using the words them­selves. The green tree’s (שָׁת֢וּל) roots reach into the streams (עַֽל־פַּלְגֵ֫י) of water.

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Mishneh Torah, Blessings 10:16; on Genesis 9:11 — 5779\2018

May we strength­en our covenan­tal rela­tion­ships as we reflect and rein­force the love of a car­ing universe.

בָּרוּךְ אַתָּה יְיָ אֱלֹהֵינוּ מֶלֶךְ הָעוֹלָם זוֹכֵר הַבְּרִית

Blessed are You Adon­ai our God, Sov­er­eign of all space and time, who remem­bers the covenant and is faith­ful to Your covenant and keeps Your promise.

In advance of our daugh­ter Avigail’s wed­ding, she asked that I pre­pare a card as an announcement/save the date using the phrase זוֹכֵר הַבְּרִית “…who remem­bers the covenant.” The phrase comes from the bless­ing one recites on see­ing a rain­bow… a reminder of the covenant God makes after the flood to nev­er again destroy the earth with water.

The third cen­tu­ry Tiber­ian Rab­bi Yochanan, taught that there is an ide­al Jerusalem the qual­i­ties of which will be mir­rored by the earth­ly Jerusalem. He based this thought on Psalm 122:3, “Jerusalem built up, a city knit togeth­er.” The phrase “knit togeth­er” implied the unit­ing of the two cities as one. I expand­ed that thought to sug­gest that “heav­en­ly covenants” will reflect our earth­ly efforts, and so I added a mir­rored bow for that year’s card.

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Numbers 6:25 — 5780\2019

May the Breath of the cos­mos illu­mi­nate us and be gen­er­ous to us.

יָאֵר ה׳ פָּנָיו אֵלֶיךָ וִיחֻנֶּךָּ

May we be strong as lions (ארי)
full of awe (ירא) for the light that illumines (מאיר) us, reflects (מראה) from us,
and that others see (ראה) glowing within us.

Ana­grams and relat­ed words of יָאֵר.

There is a fuller expla­na­tion, but it’s quite extensive.

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Ezekiel 16:6 — 5781\2020

As the urgency of this New Year breathes its birthing, life’s blood and the waters of the seas flow, may Lilith, Eve, and Adam join togeth­er in The Gar­den, cre­at­ing one lov­ing fam­i­ly.

.וָאֹמַר לָךְ בְּדָמַיִךְ חֲיִי

I said to you: In your blood, live.

Antic­i­pat­ing Avigail’s due date, I designed and drew a man­dala shaped birthing amulet using a text based on ear­li­er Jew­ish traditions.

Those often includ­ed the phrase: “Adam and Eve… exclude Lilith” accom­pa­nied by the names of three ‘angels’ thought to pro­tect against Lilith: Sanoi, Sansenoi, and Sman­gelof (vari­ant spellings abound). I built on the 1972 fem­i­nist reimag­in­ing of the orig­i­nal Lilith nar­ra­tive in the Alpha­bet of Ben Sir­ah) by Judith Plaskow titled “The Com­ing of Lilith.”

Also, think­ing about the birth process, I recalled the verse from Ezekiel quot­ed above.

Gush­ing blood brings life, so “blood” and “live” need­ed a place in the amulet.

The Hebrew aleph (א), the first let­ter of Avigail’s name, formed the cen­ter of the amulet. Often con­sid­ered a silent let­ter, it is more accu­rate­ly the begin­ning of an exha­la­tion. Because steady focus and breath­ing are impor­tant in the birthing process, that place­ment made sense. As I con­tin­ued to exper­i­ment with the lay­out of the var­i­ous pri­ma­ry words in the amulet (Eve, Lilith, blood, live), oth­er words emerged. Adam appeared in one of the spokes. All of the words in the fol­low­ing list appear either in the spokes from the cen­ter out­ward or around the con­cen­tric circles.

א = breath, אדם = Adam, דם = blood, אחי = my fam­i­ly, חד = urgent, חי = life/live, ים/ימי = sea/seas, מים = water, חוה = Eve, לילית =  Lilith

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Pirkei Avot 1:6 — 5782\2021

May we judge every­one with the scale weight­ed to the positive.

והוי דן את כל האדם לכף זכות

Judge every­one with the scale weight­ed in their favor.

This print uses the word כף to form the shape of an old-fash­ioned bal­ance scale. The pans of the scale hold pos­i­tive and neg­a­tive rep­re­sen­ta­tions of the root of the word for inno­cence: זכה.

The con­stel­la­tion asso­ci­at­ed with the month of Tishrei (which begins on Rosh haShanah) is מאזנים, the bal­ance scale. We are gen­er­al­ly encour­aged to achieve bal­ance in our lives as the year begins.

It also sug­gests, as R. Joshua ben Per­ahia said (Pirkei Avot 1:6): “Judge every­one with the scale weight­ed in their favor” (והוי דן את כל האדם לכף זכות). And, R. Abra­ham Joshua Hes­chel taught “When I was young I admired clever peo­ple. Now that I am old I admire kind peo­ple.” [“Old”? Hes­chel died at the age of 65 and I was already 9 years beyond that when I cre­at­ed this card.]

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Pirkei Avot 3.1 — 5783\2022

May we use the knowl­edge of “from where we came”, and the tools we have to shape “where we are head­ed”… to build a world of inclu­sion & peace for all.

דַּע מֵאַיִן בָּאתָ, וּלְאָן אַתָּה הוֹלֵךְ

Know from where you come, and where you are going.

The peo­ple who fash­ioned the James Webb Space Tele­scope have enabled us to peer into the deep­est past of the cos­mos, pre­sent­ing a rich­er under­stand­ing of our ori­gins. Mean­while, Michal Shomer, in Israel, has fash­ioned a font that enables us to read Hebrew in a mul­ti-gen­dered man­ner offer­ing us a chance to shape a rich­er, more inclu­sive future.

The image on this year’s card is an attempt to cap­ture some of the glo­ry of an ear­ly pho­to­graph from the tele­scope depict­ing a group of five galax­ies, two of which are in the process of merg­ing. It also uses the Mul­ti-Gen­der Hebrew font laid out on a möbius strip with the first phrase דַּע מֵאַיִן בָּאתָ dis­played as a mir­ror image so that the entire phrase reads con­tin­u­ous­ly for­ward and back:

I imag­ine our task as con­stant­ly look­ing back­ward and for­ward as each phrase leads into the other.

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Deuteronomy 20:19 — 5784\2023

May we embrace the poten­tial of each gen­er­a­tion of seeds to trans­form the fields of our plan­et for good. May these seeds yield growth, bless­ing, repair, and peace.

כִּ֤י הָֽאָדָם֙ עֵ֣ץ הַשָּׂדֶ֔ה

Are trees of the field human?

In this year’s card the Hebrew let­ters that spell tree: עץ (in script form, with the ע invert­ed) depict the tree. Sim­i­lar­ly, the script of the let­ters that spell [grass­es of] the field: השדה por­tray the field.

A con­tem­po­rary view of this verse stress­es the sym­bol­ic nature of trees: “the anthro­po­mor­phic form of trees, which like peo­ple have roots (feet), a trunk (body), branch­es (hands), twigs (fin­gers), and leaves (hair).” (Prof. Shai Secun­da of Bard College)

This idea of human­iz­ing trees is at the core of the poem by award-win­ning Israeli poet Natan Zach titled “Tree of the Field.” Writ­ten after the 1982 Israeli war with Lebanon and set to music by Shalom Chanoch, it became a nation­al song of grief.

A num­ber of ren­di­tions of the song are avail­able on YouTube:

• Amer­i­can Can­tor Azi Schwartz
• Israeli singer Shalom Chanoch
• Israeli singer Nurit Galron

In prepar­ing this year’s card, I extend this metaphor. As the tree sym­bol­izes humans, the field rep­re­sents our nat­ur­al world, a sym­bi­ot­ic relationship.

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Genesis 32:29 — 5785\2024

May our strug­gles trans­form us and the world for growth, bless­ing, repair, and espe­cial­ly, for peace.

וַיֹּ֗אמֶר לֹ֤א יַעֲקֹב֙ יֵאָמֵ֥ר עוֹד֙ שִׁמְךָ֔ כִּ֖י אִם־יִשְׂרָאֵ֑ל
כִּֽי־שָׂרִ֧יתָ עִם־אֱלֹהִ֛ים וְעִם־אֲנָשִׁ֖ים וַתּוּכָֽל׃

Said he, “Your name shall no longer be Jacob, but Israel,
for you have striv­en with beings divine and human, and have prevailed.”

Aware of the strug­gles with­in the the Jew­ish com­mu­ni­ty regard­ing the role of Israel in Jew­ish life, I thought more deeply about how “Jacob” became “Israel.”

Return­ing to his birth­place in Canaan, Jacob encoun­ters a being. He emerges trans­formed and renamed Israel, one who wres­tles with the divine.

The two names form the image on this year’s card; one the mir­ror image of the oth­er. They entwine in strug­gle and embrace.

…and a word from pop­u­lar cul­ture.

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Psalm 97:11a — 5786\2025

As we seek to tend to our world in right­eous­ness, may the light sown with­in it shine with­in us as well.

א֭וֹר זָרֻ֣עַ לַצַּדִּ֑יק

Light is sown for the righteous…

The image on this year’s card uses the first three words of Psalm 97:11 in three fonts and colors:

• אור — Light: uses sil­ver in a font called Stam Ashke­naz CLM. [STaM (סת״ם)] is an acronym for: Sifrei Torah (ספרי תורה) Torah scrolls; Tefill­in (תפילין) worn dur­ing prayer; Mezu­zot (מזוזות) scrolls affixed to doorposts.]
• זרע — Sown like seeds buried in the earth: uses brown in a mod­ern script font called Dana Yad AlefAlefAlef.
• צדיק- Right­eous: uses blue in a tra­di­tion­al Euro­pean font called Yid­dishkeit AlefAlefAlef.

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Pirkei Avot 3:17 — 5787\2026

In the new year, as we increase sus­te­nance, may we increase learn­ing,
and, as we increase learn­ing, may we increase sus­te­nance…
lead­ing to a more inte­grat­ed, uni­fied, and bal­anced world.

.אִם אֵין קֶמַח, אֵין תּוֹרָה; אִם אֵין תּוֹרָה, אֵין קֶמַח

Where there is no bread, there is no Torah;
Where there is no Torah, there is no bread.

The image on this year’s card uses the word קמח (flour/wheat/sustenance) in script rather than block let­ters, to form an open Torah scroll, while the word תורה (learn­ing) has wheat “grow­ing” from the “crowns” of the letters.

When writ­ing a Torah scroll, Ashke­nazi scrib­al tra­di­tion places “crowns” on the let­ters ש ע ט נ ז ג צ (as well as the “final” let­ters ן and ץ). I’ve tak­en the lib­er­ty of hav­ing wheat appear as crowns grow­ing from let­ters that do not nor­mal­ly have them.

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In 2020, some­one in Israel to whom I mail hard copies of the card sent me a pho­to of a dis­play of the many cards they’ve received. I like see­ing them all togeth­er this way.

You can pur­chase repro­duc­tions of many of these cards for your own use at my Zaz­zle store.

©Mark Hurvitz
2021
last updat­ed 2026.09.20