Perfect for gifts, events and study, these MITZVAH CARDS convey many of the core spiritual practices of a meaningful Jewish life. Note: Name of each mitzvah appears in Hebrew with transliteration and inspiring explanation and where in Torah, etc. the practice is derived. $18/deck - 54 beautiful, professionally printed cards in a matching box.
BUY NOW $18/deck
MITZVAH CARDS are great for families, schools, camps and also make excellent bar mitzvah or bat mitzvah gift or table favors; consider giving together with matching companion volumes Mitzvah Stories: Seeds for Inspiration and Learning and New Mitzvah Stories for the Whole Family.
Bulk discounts for non-profit organization/bookstore/trade and Jewish events are available, inquire via an email to rebgoldie@gmail.com. Note: Mitzvah Cards are presently being translated into Hebrew, French, Russian, Spanish, and Dutch by professional volunteers.
Each card has a pomegranate illustration based on the Talmudic saying
"Every Jew is as full of mitzvot as a pomegranate is full of seeds."
Examples:
There are dozens of ways to use MITZVAH CARDS, here are ten ways our innovation team recommends:
1. You can draw one card weekly for reflection, study & practice.
2. Discuss each with a friend or teacher.
3. Invite your guests at dinners and events to each draw a mitzvah card, and then raise questions, or share a related mitzvah story or teaching.
4. Sort the cards by mitzvot you keep, those for further learning, and mitzvot you aren’t ready to take on. (Great way to know where to focus your spiritual development and learning going forward).
As a family, class, or group, create a learning order and plan for each mitzvah in your "want to learn/do more cluster"--you might consider sources and stories for study and discussion, flash mobs, news story clipping and social media sharing, and other ways to draw attention to the need for more focus on the mitzvah in our world, art projects and events, and much more. [Groups can give points for great ideas and award books from the Mitzvah Stories series to winners. This applies to other activities below as well.]
5. Sort them into two piles--mitzvot that are behaviors to engage in (mitzvot assei), and mitzvot that are behaviors to refrain from (mitzvot lo taasei). Share why you think so and examples of when one of each might apply. Invent a skit to show how one of these mitzvot could change someone's life.
6. Mitzvah Card decks are also meaningful and memorable party favors and afikomen (finding the matzah at Passover) gifts. Mitzvah Cards make a great hostess gift when going to someone's home for a Shabbat, holiday, birthday or confirmation dinner or event. ORDER NOW
7. Sort the cards by the traditional Jewish mitzvah categories:
--Beyn adam l'makom, between you and God
--Beyn adam l'teva, between you and the natural world (consider sub-categories: causes I support with tzedakah, causes I support with my personal careful approaches to the environment, recycling, etc.), causes I promote using social media, causes I wonder about and want to discuss, causes I would like us to support as a school, camp or family...
--Beun adam l'chavero, between you and others (consider sub-categories: my schoolmates, my family, my neighbors, etc.)
--Beyn adam l'atzmo, between you and yourself
Find one that you have had a good, memorable experience with and share with a partner.
Find one you would like to better appreciate and invite people to share ideas about what that mitzvah means to them.
Either write the name of your mitzvah in indelible ink on a strip of cloth to wear on your wrist this week or in lipstick or water-soluble marker on your mirror at home as a reminder, or open your cell phone if you have one and use the screen saver format that allows you to write words on your screen to put a minder message to yourself to come up on your screen each time you turn it on.
8. Does your community hold a Mitzvah Day? Make a deck available to whomever completes all the mitzvah opportunities! Sell Mitzvah Cards and their companion books as a fundraiser at your Mitzvah Day to benefit one of the causes. We'll give you the gift shop/institutional discount rate to do so.
9. Keep a basket of mitzvah cards to draw as folks enter for services, have them draw one and discuss with someone sitting nearby as an ice-breaker and to deepen in awareness of the range of mitzvot.
10. Put out three empty baskets or bowls and fill them as follows (great for a party, class or family dinner or gathering:)
a. Take five minutes to write out identities of people you know or want to know, "Uncle, coach, delivers our mail, janitor, cousin, retired nun, journalist, filmmaker, etc. on blank business cards or strips of paper.
b. Take five minutes to write out things people do on another batch of cards or strips of paper:
plays football, paints watercolors, expert at knitting, grows spices, flies a plane, plays violin, etc.
c. In another fish bowl sprinkle a full deck of mitzvah cards.
Now make lines in front of the three bowls. Whoever picks a card from the bowls next to yours, sit together as a team and come up with a 3 minutes talk about ways to apply the mitzvah you drew to the combined identity of the "person" you drew.
Also consider ordering these companion volumes
"Exceptional, vibrant anthology":
1. Mitzvah Stories: Seeds for Inspiration and Learning Goldie Milgram & Ellen Frankel [Eds] with Peninnah Schram, Cherie Karo Schwartz, Arthur Strimling and 60 contributing authors!
Honored by the National Jewish Book Awards!
2. New Mitzvah Stories for the Whole Family
Includes new, contemporary mitzvah stories from across the full spectrum of Jewish practice, for sharing across the generations. Study guides included.
Ask about bringing our Mitzvah Stories storytelling events, workshops and in-service trainings to your community, Contact: Rabbi Goldie Milgram
With the green hyperlink below you can use a credit card to order your Mitzvah Cards retail via Amazon or write rebgoldie@gmail.com for discount rates for bulk orders.
Reclaiming Judaism is a Federal 501C-3 Non-Profit chartered both in New York and Florida.
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