This is one of my first papercuts, inspired by two inscriptions from my home area and Berlin, where we lived up to recently.
The central theme is the blessing from Deuteronomy 28.6:
בָּרוּךְ אַתָּה בְּבֹאֶךָ וּבָרוּךְ אַתָּה בְּצֵאתֶךָ
Translations:
- “You shall be blessed when you come, and you shall be blessed when you depart.” (Source of translation here).
- “Gesegnet bist du bei deinem Kommen und bei deinem Gehen”
The blessing was widely used as a House Blessing in Central Europe, but is now somewhat superseded by the “Home Blessing” (see below). Two examples show their use as inscriptions either above a main house entrance or above a door in a home:
- Moses Mendelssohn displayed it in his house above the entrance into the main room in his house in central Berlin. It was either painted on or carved into a wooden door lintel. Mendelssohn’s house has long gone, but the famous paining, depicting Lavater and Lessing visiting Moses Mendelssohn by Moritz Daniel Oppenheim from 1856 has preserved the memory. The painting is now located at the Magnes Collection of Jewish Art and Life.
- Presence of Jews in my home area on the German-French-Luxemburg border goes way back. Jews were known to live in Roman Trier (Treves) in the 4th century CE. This was before the European Migration Period and Germanic invasions, when it was – as Augusta Treverorum – the Roman capital of the prefecture of Gaul. During the last centuries, acculturation produced the amalgamation of Jewish and local customs. An outstanding example is a German-Hebrew inscription on the stone door lintel, dating from 1858, of a traditional house once built and occupied by a Jewish family. It depicts the local tradition of marriage stones, displaying the same of husband and wife of the house owners, the date the house was built, and Deuteronomy 28: 6 in Hebrew. The street – In der Gass, Herchweiler – was mainly inhabited by Jewish families until the Holocaust and was also the location of the now destroyed synagogue. The inscription is now protected as a cultural monument as the German-Hebrew inscriptions have become rare.
Formerly Jewish owned house. Complete view. © S M Funk, 2013, CC BY-ND 
Formerly Jewish owned house. View of door lintel with Hebrew-German inscription. © S M Funk, 2013, CC BY-ND
I personally prefer Deuteronomy 28: 6 as a House / Home Blessing to the Birkat HaBayit (ברכת הבית), which has become quite popular. It exists in several varieties including:
Blessing for the home:
Let no sadness come through this gate.
Let no trouble come to this dwelling.
Let no fear come through this door.
Let no conflict be in this place.
Let this home be filled with the blessing of joy and peace
However, Birkat HaBayit actually does not show the typical structure of Jewish blessings and seems to be of modern origin.
Prominent traditional symbols that I used for this papercut:
Menorah: The seven-branched candelabrum is the most ancient, exclusively Jewish symbol. Ashkenazi papercuts generally depict the flames of the outer six branches leaning inward to the central branch. The outer six flames point – according to the Babylonian Talmud – to the Divine Presence.
Stag: The deer is the Ashkenazi rendering of the gazelle, which is – together with lion, vulture and leopard – one of the Four Animals from Ethics of the Fathers 5: 23: Be strong as the leopard, swift as the eagle, fleet as the gazelle, and brave as the lion to do the will of your Father in Heaven. The Four Animals are the most widespread animal motifs in Ashkenazi tradition albeit the vulture is replaced by the local eagle and the gazelle by the local deer.
Griffith: Cherubs protecting the Ark of the Covenant are represented in Jewish art as griffin, although it is not clear why they were shown as bird-faced, winged lions. In any case, the motif of griffin is widespread, for example in the Joachimsthaler Synagogue in Berlin, where they are shown with a lyre (I used it as inspiration).
Lyre: Several psalms sing G”d’s praise accompanied by musical instruments including the lyre.
Columns and arch: The two columns flanking the entrance of the porch of Solomon’s temple have become to symbolize the temple as a whole, whether they support an arch – as in my papercut – or not. Moreover, the arch symbolizes several meanings such as the Gates of Heaven. Many central European synagogues depict (depicted) Psalm 118.10: “This is the gate of the LORD; the righteous shall enter into it.” / “Dies ist das Tor zum Herrn, Gerechte ziehen durch es hinein“.