Category: Tree

  • Eucalyptus

    Eucalyptus

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    by

    hershel
    in

    Eucalyptus Eucalyptus globulus When I was attending woodworking school in Northern California in the mid 1980’s I’d pass a grove of eucalyptus trees on my way to class each day. I still remember the trees’ wonderful aroma in the fog and rain and the way they shed their blueish bark in long strips. Recently my…

  • Piñón

    Piñón

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    by

    hershel
    in

    Some of the mezuzahs I make still the bark attached and others don’t. But why? In the winter, when the tree is dormant, there is no activity in the cambium, an area one cell thick right below the bark. The sap is not yet rising.  But during the rest of the year, the tree is…

  • My Mulberry Tree

    My Mulberry Tree

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    by

    hershel
    in

    As a very young child, I adopted a sapling and named it George. It is not uncommon for children and adults to form close relationships with trees. We think of them as people, not to take away their “treeness” but to have them as our relatives and equals. The mulberry tree in this story never…

  • The Ginkgo Branch

    The Ginkgo Branch

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    by

    hershel
    in

    In late October of this year I was contacted by a man living in Chicago named Ezra. He had purchased one of my mezuzah cases in 2013. Now he had a special request. He mentioned a recent rough spot in his life. “It was difficult, but I thought about my Bubbie who was stripped of…