Ending the Beginning, and my Second Challah Cover begins!

These are the tribes of Israel, twelve in all, and this is what their father spoke to them.  He blessed them, each one he blessed with a suitable blessing.  ---Genesis 49:28

"I am the Alpha and the Omega," says ADONAI Elohim, "Who is and who was and who is to come, the Almighty!"   ---Revelation 1:8

Amazing in the Parsahat cycle we are already finishing the last reading from the book of Genesis this coming Shabbat and going into Exodus after that.  Like the end of each Shabbat, its a little sad coming to the end of the readings of one book.  But at the same time a new one begins, and the cycle keeps on going.

And as we go from Genesis to Exodus,  I will start the second challah cover!!

The inspiration for this challah cover is the twelve sons of Jacob.  I started by laying out the squares to represent the twelve sons, the twelve tribes of Israel.

 In Genesis God created the heavens and earth and filled them with plants and trees and all the living creatures and the people, from Adam to Jacob and his sons.   God plans and purposes and lays everything out from the beginning.  If we skip ahead to the end, i.e. Revelation, the end of the whole book, and a new beginning,  there is the most beautiful description of the New Jerusalem, where each of the 12 gates of the city are inscribed with the names of the twelve tribes of Bnei-Yisrael. 
On the gates were inscribed the names of the twelve tribes of Bnei-Yisrael---three gates on the east, three gates on the north, three gates on the south, and three gates on the west.  ---Revelation 21:12~13.  As well as the twelve names of the the twelve emissaries of the Lamb on the foundations of the city walls.           Then the twelve names of the twelve emissaries of the Lamb are written on the twelve foundations of the walls of the city.  ---Revelation 21:14


The foundations of the Jewish people and tribes of Israel were set up in the book of Genesis.  All the way into Revelation the foundations of the city wall are decorated with every kind of precious stone, which are reminiscient of the twelve precious stones representing the twelve tribes that we will soon see in Exodus in the breastplate of Aaron.    To read about the precious stones on the foundations and the pearls on the gates of the New Jerusalem, and description of the streets of the city as pure as gold, please continue reading in the book of Revelation, from 21:15.

I am just starting the challah cover, it begins where the first challah cover left off! As that one expressed the Life of Sarah and went through the generations to Isaac, this one continues with the generations of Jacob, Joseph.  Who are the twelve tribes that are so precious in God`s heart and plan? In the parsha this week there is the special blessings by Jacob for each of his twelve sons before he dies. 

A fruitful son is Joseph,

a fruitful son beside a spring---

daughters walk along a wall.  

                     ---the first lines of Jacob`s blessing to Joseph, Genesis 49:22

To be continued....