Challah Cover, Continued, and learning from the Life of Sarah

It is said that when Sarah was 100 she was like 20 and when she was 20 she was like seven. Always beautiful and pure in heart.  She was righteous, faithful, and the one ADONAI chose to be the woman who would bring forth Abraham`s seed!!

As I was making the challah cover (yes! another post about the challah cover), you saw that I wrote Sarah`s name, and through different layers that led to my name through the generations, in embroidery thread.

 I had all the names done.  When I looked at everything I was pleased how it came out. I was able to write the names in Hebrew.  But then I saw a mistake in my name, Shayndel.  The `nun` which is the letter that sounds like the `n` in Shayndel looked like a `vet`.  The horizontal lines were way too long for a `nun`.  I wondered how I missed that when I drew the under-lines with the pen.  The purple pen lines were easy to see, and yet I completely overlooked it or..., or maybe just liked the overall balance and chose not to notice.  When I  finished sewing,   it looked more like `Shavdel`, as the `vet` has a `v` sound.  But still I thought, I `ll just leave it.

I had no idea how to make changes in embroidery and I figured to chalk it up to a mistake that I could live with.

Then I shared the pictures and the posts with my Hebrew teacher, asking her to let me know if there were any other glaring mistakes in my writing.  She reminded me about the nikkudot, the `vowels` and dot marks used in Hebrew.  I had kept some--the dot over the letter sin in “Sarah” and the one over the letter shin in Shayndel but left out others.  She pointed out that inconsistency of leaving them on some letters and removing them from others.

Oh, and she agreed about the `nun`.  To her it looked like another Hebrew letter, a `khaf`.

correcting the `nun` in `Shayndel`

I have been learning from my Hebrew teacher about the importance of each letter in Hebrew, and about being thorough and clear in our reading and writing and study of each letter.  She is very gentle and didn`t say `you should change it` but somehow I realized after that correspondence that it wasn`t `right` to leave the mistakes.  I would use the challah cover on Shabbat and week after week I would see that I knew I had mistakes, and I left them.  Not only that, but I saw something about myself.  How easily I am willing to just `leave my mistakes`.
Let me just clarify, there is nothing wrong with mistakes, it is a good thing, as it is good to acknowledge we made a mistake and then learn from it.  But here was something else.  I knew I made a mistake, and I knew that I needed to correct it, yet I was avoiding making the correction.

I am learning through Torah and through studying God`s word and through my Salvation  that we want to strive to be more holy as He is Holy, more righteous as He is righteous.  And to just plainly be honest with ourselves because when we know we are not being true to ourselves, then we are not being true to Him.

If I was to learn anything from Sarah, it was this attention to `right-ness` or right-eous-ness.  The `me` before walking with God would have definitely left it.  I liked how it looked, I liked the dots there, I didn`t mind that the nun wasn`t right, I would take artistic license.  But the new and recreated `me` in Messiah Yeshua  realized as the day went on that I couldn`t leave it knowing it was not right.  I would have to risk what would happen to the whole thing and if need be I would have to scrap the whole challah cover if I `ruined` it,  as  experience.    I just needed to find out how to change it.  I went to the fabric store where I bought the thread and the nice salesperson heard me out and said that I probably needed a `ripper`.  Oh dear, that sounded severe, a ripper!!! But I said, ok please show me.  And she took out a sample ripper.  It was actually more gentle than it sounded, it was small and hand-sized,  had a nice metal point and a sharp part in the curve that could neatly tear the threads and take them out.

Ok, I will take it! I said!!  So now I had my ripper, I went home and looked at the cloth, said a prayer and blessing, and went to work!! I took out the letter that wasn`t a `nun` and carefully checked the shape of the `nun` and redrew it.  I made the correction!!

This story goes on and on, as I looked up the meaning of the Hebrew letter `nun`. It means `Messiah`!! There in the middle of my name was the letter that represents Messiah!!  And I was going to let it be another letter and not correct it!!! Wow!! I am sure that only by making the mistake was I able to come back and see the `nun` for what it was.  It also has other meanings and significance such as: servant, if you look at it`s shape bent over as a servant; it also represents a fish.  As the 14th letter of the Hebrew alphabet it is associated with King David`s reign and much more about the `nun`.  It then lead me to looking up all the letters and to deepen my understanding of my Hebrew name, and most of all of what it means to have Messiah and His Holy Spirit live in us.  He is the one who is Counselor, He is our Righteousness!! He came to earth as a servant and to teach us to serve others!! He always existed even before Abraham and yet He is also of the seed of Abraham, the source of all Life, He is Life!! ...And this leads us into the next parsha, as we will see Isaac spending time at wells.  Wells of Living Water that were dug by his Father Abraham!!

To be continued....

Avraham

Finished the letters for Avraham!

For He remembered His holy word
to Abraham His servant.
So He brought forth His people with joy,
His chosen ones with singing.
He gave them the lands of the nations,
so they inherited the labor of the peoples
so that they might keep His statutes
and observe His laws.

                           Halleluyah!                          

 

   ---Psalm 105 42~45

Challah Cover in Progress---From Sarah to me and to you

 `Sarah` and `Avraham`.  Using my new Challah Cover,  still in progress!!

From Sarah and Abraham, to Isaac and Rebecca. The pink thread that you see at the bottom is spelling the first letters of my name, Shayndel!!

The seeds scattered around the challah.  from this angle the Challah Cover and the layers of the generations reminded me of the tent of Abraham!!  The challah cover like a house for the bread.  Lechaim, to life, to Lechem (bread), to Yeshua!!

`Shayndel`

.   

`Yitchak` and `Rifka`, on blue and on pink, `Sarah` and `Avraham` on white above, challah cover in progress on the tatami ...

Shabbat Shalom!
It became Shabbat and my challah cover is still ... in progress!

 I had an idea (see post below for Part 1!) and it kept getting new layers and look what happened.. Sarah and Abraham led.. in thread... to me!!

As I was sewing I saw I had left a place in the white cloth that was under the names Abraham and Sarah.  I didn`t exactly know what or if anything would go in that space.  I made the blue layer for Isaac, the pink layer for Rebecca.

Then I looked at the tatami floor where I was stitting, the golden color picking up on the gold color thread around Sarah`s name. 

 I realized that what all the parashiot are about is not just to study the portions intellectually and look at `history` but rather at the living Torah and our places in it through what God shows us in each time we read it, including what came before, what is to come and where we are now!!

Through this parsha I saw the thread that connects us to our forefathers and mothers!!
 The letters added to the bottom are my name, in Hebrew letters, Shayndel!

 I saw that Sarah is the beginning of our line of women, who brought forth the promise of ADONAI of descendants through the seed of Abraham!!  Look at all those seeds...through Isaac, then Jacob, to his sons who made up the tribes of Israel ...to King David, to  Messiah Yeshua.  And through Him that seed were multiplied and sent to nations... and continues to multiply... all the way and continuing in....yes, in us....

I am sharing my excitement in some ways as a diary of my first year studying the Torah,  and this journey through the parsahiot...and also in the hope that my excitement in learning can connect you with yours as we find out who we are in Yeshua, in God the Father.  Each week there is another layer of new things to learn as we continue to study His word, to walk in Faith, hear His call and return to the living Torah!!

 I do hope that perhaps there is someone who is reading this has not yet chosen to walk with God, and will hear His call.  And that even now, this very day your eyes will be open to Yeshua.  Salvation is for everyone who calls on the name on the LORD.  The seed of Abraham is so huge in number that his descendants are as many as the stars in the sky...At the end of this Shabbat, when we look up at the stars as it becomes night, we can think of the taste of the wine (or grape juice in my case!), Yeshua the vine, and Father Abraham who left everything behind to walk into the plans God had for him that he could not yet even see!!! And remember, Sarah was 90 years old when she gave birth to a son, fulfillment of a long-awaited promise.

For nothing will be impossible with God.

----Luke 1:37

  May we give thanks to ADONAI for our forefathers and mothers!  For their Faith that encourages us in ours.
And for His Torah!!
We are only (already!) in the fifth week, hope you will join in reading the portions if you have not yet already.  You can find the list of weekly readings here.

Shabbat Shalom!
May ADONAI  bless you and keep you!  May He shine His face upon you and give you SHALOM (Peace).   (from the Aaronic Blessing, Numbers 6:24~26)

Bring us back to you, ADONAI, and we will return.  

Renew our days as of old.   ---Lamentations 5:21 TLV

A remnant will return,
even the remnant of Jacob,
to the Mighty God.

--Isaiah 21

Life of Sarah--Challah Cover in progress!

`Yitchak` and `Rifka`, on blue and on pink, `Sarah` and `Avraham` on white above, challah cover in progress on the tatami

Above, `Sarah` in gold colored embroidery thread, below:  sewing the letters for `Avraham` in the center, and the outline for `Sarah` completed.  In progress, still thinking about whether to fill in the letters, or leave them as outlines. 

Now Sarah`s life was 127 years --- the years of Sarah`s life.

---Genesis 23:1

The Life of Sarah parsha (Torah Portion) tells us in the first lines that Sarah lived to the age of 127.
After that in this Torah Portion, we read that she died in Hebron, and the parsha talks about Abraham purchasing the burial place for Sarah and the transaction is described.  After this, a main
part of the portion is about Abraham sending his trusted servant to Canaan to find a wife for Isaac, who we know will be Rebecca.  There is a eulogy and Abraham weeps over Sarah, but none of the parsha actually talks about Sarah`s life, as you might expect from the title.  And yet it is called the Life of Sarah.

When I delved into the pages I thought, hmmm, what kind of challah can I make to express something about this parsha and about Sarah.
Then I got the idea to make a Challah Cover! At first I thought it like a gift, a Mazel Tov (congratulations) to Isaac and Rebecca.  But as I meditated about how to make it, I started to see back to the title this Parsha.  We know this is about the LIFE of Sarah, even though it doesn`t plainly talk of her life.  The words the life of Sarah is even repeated again at the top of the parsha.

So I realized that Sarah`s name would be at the top and centered of the challah cover.

As I practiced writing all the names in Hebrew--- Izchak, Rifka, Sarah, Avraham, I started to layer them in cloth to express that Sarah lives on through her descendants, and through the great woman, mother---from Sarah came Jacob, and the twelve tribes of Israel--, prophet, and wife that she was.  And is as she lives on through the Torah and in our lives.

It is my first Challah Cover!! It is so exciting to learn to write the Hebrew names of my ancestors using thread as I make it.  There is something so beautiful to see each letter as it emerges on the cloth, and to think about Sarah as the mother, Matriarch of the Jewish people and of all the Seed of Abraham!!

Stay tuned, I still have a day before Shabbat and will hopefully have the challah cover ready.

Many blessings and Shalom!!♡

Shayndel

Then ADONAI appeared to him at Mamre`s large trees while he was sitting in the entrance of his tent during the heat of the day.  When he lifted up his eyes to see, suddenly, three men were standing right by him.  When he saw them, he ran from the entrance of his tent to meet them and bowed down to the ground.  Then he said, "My Lord, if now I have found favor in your eyes, please do not pass by your servant.  Please let a little water be brought so you can wash your feet, and make yourselves comfortable under the tree.  And let me bring a bit of bread so that you can refresh yourselves---then you can pass on---since you have passed by your servant.

--Genesis 18:1~5 TLV

As we leave one week and approach the next parsha, I am just lingering a little over the the scripture above, where God appears to Abraham.  It is the first and `title lines` of the parsha we just finished, Vayera.   Vayera means `and He appeared.`

Exiting the fourth Shabbat, it`s like once again going out from the `tents` of the special and holy time of Shabbat and back into the week.

Shabbat is about that separation that God makes, when he made the seventh day as holy.*

*When we leave each Shabbat after sundown of Saturdays, there is a special Havdalah ceremony for the end of the Shabbat, when it becomes dark, to mark the distinction between the departing sacred day and the ordinary weekday. This is a blessing called the Hamavdil, the blessing over the separation of different things: 

Blessed are You, Lord our God, King of the universe,

Who separates the holy from the profane, 
light from darkness, Israel from the nations,

the seventh day from the six days of labor.  
Blessed are You, Lord our God,

Who separates the holy from the profane.

Shavua Tov!♡

Have a beautiful week!

The next Parsha is Chayei Sarah,  life of Sarah.

The readings are:  Genesis 23:1 ~ 25:18, 1Kings1: 1~31, Matthew 1:1~17

Seeds, Salt and a Zucchini Challah

塩 = Shio = Salt!  When you use zucchini in a yeasted bread, it is good to add salt first to the zucchini so it takes out the extra moisture and will make a smooth dough. 

The angel of ADONAI called to Abraham a second time from heaven and said, "By myself I swear--it is a declaration of ADONAI---because you have done this thing, and you did not withhold your son, your only son, I will richly bless you and bountifully multiply your seed like the stars of heaven, and like the sand that is on the seashore, and your seed will possess the gate of his enemies.  In your seed all the nations of the earth will be blessed---because you obeyed my voice.

---Genesis 22:15~18

Plans for A Salt and Sesame Challah! It became a Zucchini Challah!


There is so much in this parsha, and this is only the smallest taste.

Note to readers, if you are just joining in to reading the blog, recently I started　studying Torah and from that,  my newest endeavor is thinking of creative challah to go along with the Torah portions!!

I planned to made a Salt and Seeds challah for the Parsha Vayera!
But the most unexpected events happened.
When I went to buy coarse salt to use on the challah for the `Salt`, a fire alarm sounded in the department store food floor where I was, and I couldn`t buy the salt.  The people in the store all had to be evacuated!  So I gave the salt back to the saleswoman, evacuated with everyone and stood and looked over the scene as the fire engines came in and the whole area was roped off. 

The fire started from grilled yakitori---meat on skewers.  I couldn`t help but think to the parsha for this week, which includes where Isaac was almost sacrificed as a burnt offering, but was spared by ADONAI in a great test of Abraham`s faith. 

I was holding a package of salt when the alarm went off.  As lately I am always thinking of the weekly parsha and the upcoming Shabbat, I couldn`t help but be doubly alarmed.  Not only that all this was happening in our local department story, but that it was on Friday afternoon.     The store would be closed for at least all of Friday afternoon and Saturday for investigation and clearing the smoke and assessing any damage.  Thankfully all the smoke was extinguished and people were able to get out safely. So I will leave that part of the story for a moment, and go back to the challah, as I mentioned it was Friday afternoon and it made me reflect on a lot of things and especially to be extra thankful as we were getting ready to enter to the Shabbat.

 I don`t have a Salt and Sesame Challah to show you, and as you can see instead I made a Zucchini Challah, using a gift of a zucchini that I was given by the mother of one of my students the day before.  In a way, there was still `salt and seeds` because I had to use salt (the `regular` salt which I did have at home) to take some of the moisture from the zucchini to use it in the dough. And seeds because zucchini have a lot of seeds.

So here is what I was thinking about with salt and seeds and the parsha!:

We always have a choice to obey or dis-obey God`s commands.  The salt and the seeds on one loaf are reminders of that.

God gave Lot`s whole family the chance to be saved from the destruction of Sodom.
He gave one command as they were fleeing, `don`t look back`.
Lot`s wife did not obey God`s command through the angel.  She looked back and was turned into a pillar of salt.

God gave Abraham a son when he was 99!  Isaac was born to him and to Sarah! 
God promised Abraham that through his `seed` he would become a nation and bless all the nations.   Abraham believed in the promise.
But then God asked Abraham to sacrifice his one and only son.  How could it be?  What looked like the only way to continue his seed, and yet now he was asked to make such a sacrifice!!
And Father Abraham obeyed!  His response revealed his Faith,  his complete obedience to God.

God blessed Abraham for his obedience, spared Isaac, provided a ram,  and promised again that his seed would multiply.

We know this scene also sets the stage and shows us  to the time when God himself would actually sacrifice and not spare HIS one and only son, Yeshua.  And in His death we all have life!

We can`t know sometimes why God is asking us to do something, and it is not for us to know as His ways are so much greater than ours!!

Seeds and salt, salt and seeds, everyday we have a choice to be the salt, to spread the seeds, by walking in Faith in God`s ways and commands.  The other choice is to disobey, turn the other way from His voice.  We may not actually become a pillar of salt, but by not walking in His ways, our lives are thwarted and ..

Can you see how they could make a good tasting challah and give us a lot to chew on in this parsha of Vayera!!!

Every good gift and every perfect gift is from above, coming down from the Father of lights, with whom there is no variation or shifting shadow.  By His will, He brought us forth by the word of truth, so that we might be a kind of firstfruits of all He created.  ---James 1:17~18

And if you belong to Messiah, then you are Abraham`s seed---
heirs according to the promise.

---Galatians 2:29 

God Bless you!

Shabbat Shalom!

Challah-mission!

Do not neglect to show hospitality to strangers -- 

for in doing so, some have entertained angels without knowing it.      

---Hebrews 13:2

Challah-mission.  That`s supposed to be something like `Inter-mission`!

Like an intermission,  to take a little time to invite you to rest, have some challah,  in the middle of the excitement of reading about Abraham! 

 It is also a chance to practice one of the characteristics that Father Abraham is noted for!

What might that be?!
Yes!
Hospitality.

I just learned that in Hebrew the word for hospitality is Hachnasat Orchim.
In Japan we call it omotenashi!

In the opening scene of the parsha this week, Abraham is entertaining guests with Sarah in their tent.   The scripture above from Hebrews refers to that meeting.  I loved finding out that connection, and so many other things about this parsha.   The `men` that Abraham and Sarah showed hospitality to were three angels with three very important missions. ＊These are the readings! 

VaYera  and He appeared   Gen. 18:1~22:24, 2Kings 4:1~37, Luke 1:26~38, 24:36~53

Enjoy the Challah,  take some time in the tents,
Shavua tov ! Have a great week!!

So Abraham hurried into the tent to Sarah and said, "Quick! Knead three measures of fine flour and prepare bread loaves!"  Then to the herd Abraham ran and took a young ox, tender and good, and he gave it to the servant, who prepared it quickly.  Then he took butter and milk and the young ox that he had prepared and set it before them.  
While he was standing by them under the tree, they ate.

---Genesis 18: 6~8


＊For a clear and lively telling about this parsha, including the missions of the three angels,  HERE is an article geared towards children which I found very welcoming. 

An-Pan Challah and Lech Lecha Parsha!

I will make your seed like the dust of the earth so that if one could count the dust of the earth, 

then your seed could also be counted.    

---words of ADONAI to Abram, Genesis 13:16

Red Beans, challah, and the story of Abraham.

On first glance it might seem a stretch to see those topics together.

But as this is a blog about bread --challah in particular---, and my excitement of this first year studying Torah in Japan, it is a stretch that I hope can reach to your hearts!  Even the sound of an-pan challah and Lech Lecha parsha has a swirly ring to it.  Though none of the words might make sense to you yet.

With a sprinkling of my testimony,  added to a portion of  this week`s parsha about God`s promise to Abraham that his seed would reach the nations, I will attempt to roll it all into a post.  With the hope that you might get a taste of what this weeks parsha is about and that it might even give you an appetite to know more!  I might venture so far as to say the swirls in the red bean challah even remind me of a the map of the route Abraham took from his home in Ur of the Chaldees to the Land of Cannaan.  Going forth obediently ("Lech Lecha" means Go! Go forth, yourself!) as he walked continuously by faith in the word God spoke to him.

So please have some challah and lets see
where these strands tie together!

(to be continued)


Red bean challah

Flower Fridays

I saw this poster on the window of the flower shop where I often go to buy flowers on Fridays for the Shabbat.
It made me look twice, and it made me smile that someone was thinking of flowers on Fridays.

Seeing it there gave me a hopeful feeling, getting ready for something to come!!
Maybe it wasn't the intent of the poster to be referring to Shabbat, I know, it most probably wasn't, but that's o.k.

 In these weeks of reading about Abraham we are reminded of God's promise that His seed will be multiplied in ALL the nations, and so we know that day will come!!  In this weeks parsha we read again how "In your seed all the nations of the earth will be blessed" (Genesis 18:18).    May we sing a new song to ADONAI and believe for that time when His great SHALOM and the name of YESHUA will be known throughout the lands.   I envision this lively scene on our city streets of Japan, on Fridays as people in Japan start to celebrate the Shabbat:   while the challah is rising, and we go out to buy flowers....we  greet each other with   シャバット　シャローム！! (Shabbat Shalom)  as we scurry to the flower shops in  preparing for the Shabbat and welcoming Messiah YESHUA in the nations!!

シャバット・シャローム（安息日おめでとう）

Shabbat Shalom!

  

Then many nations will go and say:

"Come, let us go up

to the mountain of ADONAI,

to the House of the God of Jacob!

Then He will direct us in His ways, 

and we will walk in His paths."

---Micah 4

 

A Challah for Abraham

Then ADONAI said to Abram,
"Get going out from your land,
and from your relatives, 
and from your father`s house,
to the land that I will show you.
My heart`s desire is to make you into a great nation, to bless you,
to make your name great so that you may be a blessing.

                                 ---Genesis 12:1 ~2 

So Abram went, Just as ADONAI had spoken to him.   (verse 4).

As I was meditating on this weeks parsha, I wanted to make a challah that somehow would have a connection to Abram.   The idea of a red bean challah came to me, at first  because in Japan people make red bean rice to mark a special day, a celebration, and for congratulations.  And indeed Abram becoming Abraham and walking in faith with ADONAI to carry out this command to go to a new land and make a great nation,  is a blessing to celebrate!!

Then as I was making it, more things started to connect and I realized indeed a Red Bean Challah for Abraham was indeed fitting!  And filling!

This post is in progress so please enjoy some of the challah and see you a little later on this Lech Lecha Shabbat!

 Shabbat Shalom!!

Lech Lecha,  L`chaim!!

シャバット・シャローム 
（安息日おめでとう）

God saw that the light was good.    ---Genesis 1:4

 The world is beginning to look like it came out of the Torah!

This morning I looked out the window and the sun at that moment through the trees looked like a day out of creation!
Well, of course it should be that way, the world is the Torah!
 God breathed and created everything, so everyday of course is a day out of creation!! But I never thought of it that way until very recently!!

There is a cycle of Torah just like there is a cycle of seasons.
This is something I never knew or thought of before this year, and I am already well into the seasons of life, so even though it is an eternal cycle, for me its new!

If its new for you,  I hope you will enjoy this time of the new start too whether you are just starting like me or a seasoned traveler through the Torah or even if you are just not knowing what I am talking about, please come along and enjoy the challah and rest in each Shabbat.

I have an idea to make the blog a place to share challah and testimony, scripture and sketches, while reading through this first year of the cycle of parashiot!

Starting with Genesis (and satsumaimo challah, see post below!)
We`re already
 in the third week!

Repentence and returning are from the root `Shuv` in Hebrew.
Surely the LORD is not just calling me back , He is calling us back, to His Torah.

This past few years have been a great turning back and returning in my life.
I can actually feel the momentum as I am turning back to God.
Moving onto His calendar which is calibrated by His Shabbatot, and corresponding to the readings of the Parashiot.    It`s movement and at the same time feels like everything stands still in a way too because He is doing the turning and bringing us into a cycle that has been repeating since the beginning.  He is the Aleph and the Tav, the beginning and the end!(Aleph is the first letter of the Hebrew alphabet, Tav is the last letter of the Hebrew Alphabet).

All the things that happened in the Bible and it`s teachings seem closer, as we make them a focus of our lives.   Where we are now then reconnects with Torah, the word of God, with God Himself. 

This week readings were from Noah, down the genealogical line through Shem
to Abram, who we know will become Abraham,
the father of all the line leading to Messiah and through to us!

Noah built the Ark with all his dedication and truly a one-track mind only obedient to what God asked Him to do, and rose above the floodwaters to safety.
Studying the Torah is similarly the way to stay afloat, to be brought to safety, and to live in God`s word, amidst the floodwaters of our day.

Noah`s day once seemed long ago, but now it seems near, as the words we read are the same Word Noah lived.  What it means to be righteous is the same as it was then, and God is the same today as He was yesterday and forever more!! 
Not only is the Word of God relevant to life,
It is Life!

And look at this, in Hebrew the word used in scripture for the Ark that Noah built is `Tevah`.*
I found out Tevah also means `Word`.
Just like Noah was lifted up on the floodwaters and kept safe in the Ark, we too are lifted up from the floodwaters of daily life and kept afloat by living in His Word!! It is the `ark` that protects us, that is our place of safety, that is our Salvation, just as Yeshua is the Word become Flesh, and is our Salvation!! Halleluyah!!

The picture below is of the harvest--season vegetables and fruits--- I received in exchange for challah this past Shabbat!!  Its funny I started with the purple potato (satsumaimo) to make the bread, entered into Shabbat with two loaves (see two posts below), and went out of the Shabbat with a mountain of seasonal produce!!

It was a great and fun surprise and reminds me how when we enter into God`s Shabbat it is a delight, full of surprises, as we keep our eye on Yeshua.

For "Everyone who calls upon the name of the LORD shall be saved."  ---Romans 10:13

God Bless you and have a great week!  Oh, and it`s Friday already, so time to get ready to enter a new Shabbat!

This weeks Torah portion is Lech LCha.

Aleph 
Blessed are those whose way is blameless, who walk in the Torah of ADONAI

Tav
I long for Your deliverance, ADONAI, and Your Torah is my delight.

---Psalm 119, verse 1 and verse 174 

(all the verses in Psalm 119 are `numbered` by starting with letters from each letter of the Hebrew Alphabet.  You can read the whole Psalm here! )


Shabbat Shalom! 


*more on the word for ark, `tevah` on Messianic Revolution blog 

Declare His Greatness from the Challah-tops!

Taste and see how good ADONAI is.

Blessed is the one who takes refuge in Him.

Psalm 34:9 TLV

♡ 

シャバット・シャローム（安息日おめでとう）

Shabbat Shalom!

Satsumaimo Challah and Noah

The changing colors of fall!  The excitement of the new Shabbat cycle (see posts below)! 
From the creation, already into the second Shabbat and the reading from Noah.

I had an inspiration this Shabbat to try making a satsumaimo challah! 

Satsumaimo is a kind of potato grown in Japan.   It has a purple skin that is both majestic and rustic.

Can you see how the satusmaimo powder in the dough makes a beautiful purple and a royal color.
It was very thrilling to mix it into the white flour!

Delight in the colors of fall.
Give praise to our Maker!
This weeks Torah study continues in the book of Genesis, the Parsha is "Noah (rest)".  

These are the genealogies of Noah.  Noah was a righteous man.  He was blameless among his generation.  Noah continually walked with God.    ---Genesis 6:9

Noah was the only righteous man who walked on the earth, blameless in the sight of the LORD.  Look what happened to the rest of the people who inhabited the earth, who were not walking with God.  They were wiped out by the flood.  God promised that He will not destroy the world again through a flood, and He put His rainbow in the sky as a sign of the covenant between Him and the land.

But that doesn't mean we are to strive any less diligently to live a life of righteousness. 

Today too, how much do we even think about "righteousness"? How do we know what it even means?  The voice of righteousness has even been removed from our culture and we see division and people turning to so many things, but how many people in their daily lives today turn to the Torah and "walk continually with God" as in God's eyes Noah did.

To be honest, I confess that until I was brought to Salvation in Yeshua and became a believer just a little over two years ago, I never even considered what it meant to be righteous.   Once I met Him through Yeshua and repented my sins---no one can come to the Father except through the Son,  I saw with open eyes for the first time how He is Holy, He is Righteousness.  

We still struggle with sin even after receiving Yeshua, but as we work out our salvation daily there is a desire to be righteous because He is Righteous.  We desire to be Holy, as He is Holy.

May we live in His Torah! And Delight in the colors and the life and expressions of His creation all around us as we continue reading from the book of Genesis this week!  

Delight in the Shabbat!

This week's Torah Portion:  Noach  Noah(rest)  Genesis 6:9 to 11:32

Haftorah:  Isaiah 54:1-55:5

Brit Chadashah:  Matthew 24:36-46

Taste and see that the Lord is good.  Blessed is the one who takes refuge in Him.  --Psalm 34:9

Shabbat Shalom!!

シャバット・シャローム 
（安息日おめでとう）

  Leaving off  this post with beautiful purple sapphire and a passage from this weeks Haftarah portion (which contains sapphires!). 

May you be blessed as we remember God's everlasting kindness, and compassion
in the words of ADONAI our Redeemer, from Isaiah 54: 7 to 13, to Jerusalem His beloved, may we receive them as words to all who return to Him, may our children be taught by ADONAI,  and in His great SHALOM!

"For ADONAI has called you back
like a wife deserted and grieved in spirit,
like a wife of one's youth that is rejected,"
says your God.

For a brief moment I deserted you, 
but I will regather you 
with great compassion.
In a surge of anger
I hid My face from you a moment,
but with everlasting kindness
I will have compassion on you,"
says ADONAI your Redeemer.

"For this is like the waters of Noah to Me:
for as I swore that the waters of Noah
should no more cover the earth,
so I have sworn that
I will not be angry with you,
nor will I rebuke you.
Though the mountains depart
and the hills be shaken,
My love will not depart from you,
nor will My covenant of peace be shaken,
says ADONAI who has compassion on you.
Afflicted one, storm-tossed, unconsoled,
behold, I set your stones in antimony,
lay your foundations with sapphires,
make your pinnacles of rubies,
your gates of crystal,
and all your walls of precious stones.
All your children will be taught by ADONAI.
Your children will have great shalom.

--Isaiah 54:6〜13

Song of Praise--from Isaiah 42--Welcome Yeshua!

 Sing to ADONAI a new song

His Praise from the end of the earth,

islands and their inhabitants

Let them shout for joy from the top of the mountains.

Let them give glory to ADONAI and declare His praise in the islands.

--Isaiah 42:10, 11, 12

He`s coming again!! ♪

We welcome you Yeshua in Japan!!

ハレルヤ！！