Getting Married and Joining the Army

"Shana Tova U’Metuka" ("May you have a happy and sweet year") to all my Jewish customers and friends who have just celebrated the holiday of Rosh Hashanah, the Jewish New Year. May this be a very happy, healthy and successful new year for you all and, in the words of the traditional blessing, "May You Be Written and Sealed for a Good Year".

"Our nephew is getting married" a friend wrote to me. "Would you have time to make a card for them if I get a picture of the couple?" Of course I'd make time!
I learnt that her nephew and his now wife are very young and adventurous and that they just came back from safari in South Africa. Therefore I showed them standing under the chuppah, the canopy beneath which Jewish marriage ceremonies are performed, and decorated it with a tiny flag of South Africa and an aeroplane. I added the flag of Israel amongst the flowers as well, since Israel is the couple's homeland.
The couple are dati, Modern Orthodox, so I gave the groom a big white kippah or skullcap to wear on his head. (In Orthodox circles, Jewish men usually wear kippot all the time, whether they are attending a religious service or going about their daily lives outside of the synagogue. Covering ones head is seen as a sign of yirat Shamayim, which means "reverence for God" in Hebrew.)

Rachel entered the Israeli Defence Forces (IDF) around the same time as my eldest son. After seeing the card I made for him, Rachel's mum asked if I could also make a card for her daughter.

I have shown Rachel with her long dark hair hanging loose (in reality, female soldiers with hair that descends past the collar of the uniform shirt must have their hair in a ponytail) and wearing her olive green army uniform and turquoise beret. She has gone into the Israeli Artillery Corps. New recruits go through four months of basic training, in which they learn basic infantry weaponry and drills. At the end of the basic training stage the recruits receive their turquoise beret, symbolising their acceptance into the corps.

The Hebrew greeting on the card says Giyus Kal. "Giyus" means "recruitment," "enlistment" or "induction". "Kal" means "easy".

Mum reported back that Rachel loved the card! 

* This post has been shared on the The Happy Now Blog Link- Up, Wonderful Wednesday Blog Hop, {wow me} wednesday, Little Things Thursday, Creatively Crafty, Thursday Favorite Things and All Seasons.