While much of our work at Atiq involves drawing from the roots of our tradition to create totally new forms of material culture, we had a lot of fun this High Holiday and Sukkot season doing two very old school Jewish crafts: Making Rosh Hashana cards and Simchat Torah flags.
Rosh Hashana - the Jewish New Year - is a special opportunity to connect to dear ones near and far and wish them a happy new year. From this developed the custom of sending Rosh Hashana cards, a sweet tradition that has for the most part migrated to New Year’s email and phone calls (or text messages!). As you probably know by know, we’re all about tactile meaning making and connecting, so we loved getting to re-center the snail mail version of this practice.
Simchat Torah is much less well known than Rosh Hashana, but packs a serious punch in terms of experiential and joyful Jewish holidays. Simchat Torah flags are one of a number of traditions (along with bags of candy, and a circular dance party) designed to include children as an essential part of the celebration. We were honored to be a co-sponsor this year at Urban Adamah’s annual Sukkot Farm Festival celebration, a gathering that draws a wide range of lovely Bay Area adults and children. Those who found their way over to our table could try out some heirlooms from our collection from previous events, learn about Simchat Torah - a new holiday for many - and spend some time creating a flag! For folks who were excited to go a bit deeper and get some further inspiration for their imagery, we shared a selection of Talmudic teachings about things in nature that the Torah is compared to, including (but not limited to!) a fig tree, trees in general, and water! Check out the source sheet below if you’d like to learn more, and share your thoughts with a friend - in what ways might the Torah be like a fig tree, like any old tree, or like water?
