Shalom Fan

Seek Shalom and pursue it.

---Psalm 43:15


Shalom be upon Israel!

---Psalm 128


Blessings and ....

Shalom! 

Torah Journey---Finishing the Book of Numbers, Fourth Challah Cover-in-progress!!

In His hand are the depths of the earth, 

the mountain peaks are His also.

The sea is His--He made it,

and His hands formed the dry land.

Come, let us worship and bow down.

Let us kneel before ADONAI our Maker.

For He is our God,

and we are the people of His pasture,

the flock of His hand.

---Psalm 95: 4〜7

In progress. Fourth Challah Cover.

In my first year of reading the Torah, I have been making one challah cover for each of the five books of the Torah.  

This week`s parsha is a double portion and the last readings in the Book of Numbers---  Tribes, and the Journey, Matot and Masai.

May what we are learning each week and each day in Torah become a part of the fabric of our lives of worship to our Maker!!  

Chazak! Chazak! V`nitchazek!*
 

Blessings and Shalom!

Love,

Shayndel

*Be strong! Be strong! And may we be strengthened.
This phrase is said after finishing each book of the Torah.
What does it mean and why do we say it?
This post on a blog I came across answers those very questions.

Roselike bounty

My Beloved is mine.  He fills all my needs and I seek from Him and none other.  He grazes me in roselike bounty.    --from Song of Songs, 2:16  ArtScroll Siddur version

I had an inspiration to make these rose cakes for dessert this Shabbat.
They are from a wonderful recipe HERE.  They are tarts made with dough for the `cups`,  filled with date paste,  rolled with sliced apples.  I made the recipe using challah dough in place of the sheet puff pastry for the `cups`.

After we delighted in a Shabbat meal with the rose cakes for dessert, I was reading the Song of Songs, and the verse above stood out because of the roses.

A prayer for today, from Song of Songs---- may we seek from Him and no other.  May He graze us in roselike bounty.
 
The roses look oh so bountiful and the tastes are delectable on Shabbat, even more so because it is Shabbat.

Delight in the Shabbat. 

Blessings and Love,

Shayndel

Link:  Apple Date Rose Tarts, recipe from Torey Avey.

Challah and Cherry Blossoms Variation:  I used challah dough to make the `cups` for the apple date roses, and rose hips tea for the `rosewater`.

Daily Bread Postcard

Shout for joy,
O daughter of Zion!

--Zephaniah 3:14 

＊

Before Shabbat service, a little girl was dancing so freely and joyously with a scarf, throwing it up in the air as she danced.  She inspired this drawing, and together with the scripture from Zephaniah I offer this postcard for this week`s Daily Bread Postcard!

May we be nourished by the word of God and shout for Joy, 

Rejoice in His Salvation

sing His praises from all the nations!

Shabbat Shalom!

Post-card Challenge 2! ポストカードのチャレンジ２！

 In June, I posted a "Post Card Challenge", inviting readers to color in a choice of postcards as part of the Daily Bread Postcard feature on Challah and Cherry Blossoms.   This is Part 2!
Please click here and here for the story and background.

 
 From that time, K-san, one of the `challengers`, colored in another postcard and showed it to me just the other day. 

She added cherry blossoms and Japanese patterns, and gave the line drawing new life in the way she colored it.  She added new elements and scattered blossom petals around the scene!!

I asked K-san if she could comment on the way she added the color and designs like the cherry blossom petals.  She said that "Mt. Fuji and cherry blossoms are the things that Japanese people love.  They are the treasures of Japan,  and express the soul of Japan."
 
I love how she made the  additions of the Cherry Blossoms and creative changes to the people`s clothes,  patterns,  and details,  and attuned the drawing that I started by bringing it closer to the Japanese heart!!

Thank you K-san for what became a fun collaboration!!  Thank you readers for encouraging my postcards ministry!

Stay tuned for another Post-card Challenge again!! I look forward to everyone`s participation!

About the drawing:
(You might recognize the drawing  from an earlier post, of the receiving of the Ten Commandments at Mt. Fuji!  My expression of celebrating Shavuot here in Japan.  I even made a Challah  of the same theme!  See Ten Commandments Challah  ( Here ).  )



ポストカードのコラボレーション！

六月の『ポストカードのチャレンジ』では、二人が参加してくれました。とても嬉しかったです！
記事の内容は{ここ} にクリックをして、読んで下さい！

その後、もう一回 K−さんがポストカードに色を塗ってくれて、この間私に見せてくれました。
とても素敵でした。日本らしい色と模様をつかって、楽しい感じになりました。

Kーさんは「富士山と桜は、常に日本人の心にあるものです。
　日本を象徴するシンボル、日本人がこよなく愛しているもの」と表現したかったそうです。

楽しい『コラボレーション』になりました！私が思っていたものより素敵な色を使い、デザインを付け加えてくれたこと、嬉しかったです。これからも、みんなさんと一緒にコラボレーションして、素敵なポストカード作りできるのを楽しみにしています。
　是非、『ポストカードのチャレンジ』　に挑戦してね！

Prayer after the Storm and a Vegan Challah this Shabbat

There was a big storm in our area this past week.  We were safe in the city,  but  parts of the surrounding areas of our Prefecture had much damage.  Even homes and lives were lost, and I understand that as of writing this people were still missing.  Thank you for keeping in your prayers the people and region in southern Japan that was struck hard by the storm and flooding. 

 

This Shabbat, maybe because of the heat, or because of the storm, or just to keep things simple, I had an inspiration to make a Vegan Shabbat meal.  I made a Vegan challah using this RECIPE.  And then I chose the dishes for a meal that also had no meat or eggs.  Both dishes had nuts.  The nuts made it `meaty` but without the meat.

I found some surprises in the way the colors and the ingredients went together in unusual ways, and just wanted to share some of them and the menu from the Shabbat.

The colors of grapeseed oil and rose salt surprised me as ingredients in the challah. It was an unusual mix and different from other dough recipes I have made,  and struck me as being a beautiful combination of natural ingredients.  And as you know I love pink, so the rose salt also had echoes of the color of cherry blossoms.






In THIS side dish with roasted carrots, the orange of the carrots and the pale green pistachios also was striking for their natural colors and how they came together with another unusual ingredient for the sauce, which is tahini..





While I was finishing making dinner, the doorbell rang.  It was a neighbor from my building. She brought us a watermelon!  It was so sweet.  I mean, the gesture was sweet, and also the watermelon too was sweet!
 
I wonder if it was also because of the storm that a neighbor wanted to reach out to one another.


 It really blessed our table!

Did you know there is a special blessing to say before eating a fruit?   I always try to remember to say it, but sometimes I forget.  Upon receiving the gift of fruit this Shabbat, I wanted to be sure to say it.   You can say it for any fruit from a tree.  It is:

Barukh ata Adonai Eloheinu melekh ha`olam borei p`ri ha`eitz.
Blessed are You, Lord our God, Ruler of the universe, who creates the fruit of the tree.

I am inspired by THIS POST --- `Come to the Table`---- on "Piles of Smiles", about inviting guests to share your table with.  This week it was just me, so I invite you to share in some of the vegan bounty.   My daughter and I have been enjoying the watermelon all week, there is still more.   Thank you for visiting, and Shavu`a tov.  Have a blessed week!

`You shall love your neighbor as yourself`   ---from Matthew 22:39

Cashew nuts and tofu, I added `renkon`, a Japanese root vegatable to this RECIPE HERE

In everything give thanks,

for this is God`s will for you in Messiah Yeshua.

---1Thessalonians 5:18

Daily Bread Postcard---Shabbat Shalom!

In the beginning was the Word.  The Word was with God, and the Word was God.  He was with God in the beginning.  All things were made through Him, and apart from Him nothing was made that has come into being.     ---John 1:1~3

Somehow what I wanted to express in this post-card was about how when I looked at the table and drew all the things on on it,  I was struck by how everything in the Shabbat observance points to Yeshua.    In the drawing, the Hebrew letters covering the challah spell Yeshua. 

All things were made through Him.  He was with God in the beginning, so too the Shabbat was made through Him.  

He is the Light!
He is the Vine! (we drink the grape juice, the fruit of the vine)
He is the Bread!
He is the Word!

 May we be imitators of Messiah Yeshua, walk as He walked, rest as He rested, heal how He healed, love as He loves!!  

Please LORD, teach us how to do all that, and may we be patient along the way as we learn what it means to do so!! May You touch the heart of someone who is  reading this , may Your presence be known to her, and may Your love and divine healing reach her.  May Your Light search deep into our hearts this Shabbat and  dissolve our dark places and as we rest in You.  All Glory to God, Hashem Yeshua, Amen!!

Blessings and Shabbat Shalom,

Lovingly,

Shayndel

Mt. Fuji and Cherry Blossom patterned `Shalom`

S H A L O M !

Shalom =  平安　=  Peace

主が御顔をあなたに向け、あなたに平安を与えられます。

民数記　６：２６

ADONAI turn His face toward you and grant you shalom!  --Numbers 6:26