Part 3 of the Raisin Cakes Trilogy--A Sonnet, A Challah-cast and a Recipe!

He brought me to the banquet house

and His banner over me is Love! 
Song of Songs 2:4

Dear Friends, for those who have been wondering will there be a third in the series of Victorious Raisin Cakes posts, I am happy to tell you that yes, there is, and Here it is!! With a wonderful "conclusion":  The raisin cakes became Heart-shaped!
And another verse revealed.
His Banner Over us is Love!!

So without further ado, in this post you will find three  expressions of Raisin Cakes:

A Sonnet, a Challah-cast, and a Recipe! 

1.
This special guest sonnet was written by one of our fellow faith bloggers, thank you David from Grace Notes for this beautiful sonnet!!  I was so blessed to receive it, and am honored to share it here.  Readers you can see more of David's verse at http://dcbverse.blogspot.com/

RAISIN-CAKES

The vine had budded, blossomed and produced
Its grapes; they had been picked, and dried and pressed
And brought to David’s men, where they conduced
To show the graces Abigail expressed.
So some were given to the Egyptian slave
In his distress, so that his soul grew strong;
As brought back from the frontier of the grave,
He led against those who did David wrong.

Thus David, when he came to celebrate
The ark of God borne to a settled place
Gave with the bread and wine, to show his joy,
A raisin-cake as token of God’s grace.

And now sustaining food from the True Vine
Through grace and pressure may be yours and mine!

Genesis 40 10-11
1 Samuel 25:18
1 Samuel 30:12
1 Chronicles 16:3
John 15:1

2.
My Challah-Cast part 3 on the Raisin Cakes can be seen here, with new insights, and waving a banner,  as we count up to Shavuot! Enjoy and may we all be strengthened as we continue to encourage one another!!





3. 
Recipe for Shayndel's Heart-Shaped Victorious Raisin cakes!! 

based on the recipe here from Nazarane Israel for Cinnamon Matzah


 
This Recipe is for 12 Heart-shaped Raisin Cakes !!

3 cups flour
1 1/2 teaspoon cinnamon
3/8 teaspoon cloves
3/8 teaspoon nutmeg
3 tablespoons sugar (note: I use a kind of sugar we can find here in Japan called Ten-sai Tou, it is a healthy sugar made from radish (I think that is the base!) and is gentle on the stomach!  Use your preferred type of sugar if you cannot find Ten-sai Tou where you are
3/4 teaspoon salt
3 tablespoons grapeseed oil
  2 cups water (approx.)

1/3 cup of raisins

Preheat oven to 200 degrees C (390~400 degrees F)
Prepare baking sheets with waxed paper.

Mix together flour, spices, sugar, and salt.
Mix in the grapeseed oil.
Add water gradually and mix until it makes a soft and kneadable dough.  

Fold in the raisins!

Roll out onto a floured surface.
Roll out in to a large thin circle or oval.
Cut in half and then divide into "pie-shaped" 6ths on each side, so you have 12 pieces total from the "circle".
Separate each piece and shape into a heart by hand.
Line on baking sheets.
Bake for 28 minutes, turning the baking sheet once in the middle

Serve with delight, en-joy!

Shabbat Shalom!!

♡

Shayndel

Breakfast with Yeshua

"Come, have breakfast." None of the disciples dared ask Him, "Who are You?"--knowing it was the Lord.  John 21:12 (TLV)

(photo:  Sea of Tiberias (Galilee), taken last May around this time!  story of post to follow!! Just holding the place for Him!)

♡

adding on this journal entry:
Breakfast at the Galilee Encounter
John 21 "Come, have breakfast".

On the last day at the Galilee I decided to have breakfast down by the water.  All the other days of the tour I always loved being with the tour and had breakfast with everyone in the dining room, but this day I saw out the glass doors to and felt called to bring my tray and sit out overlooking the Sea of Galilee.
I encountered "a man" when carrying my tray to go out of the hotel breakfast room.  He took my tray and he escorted me out of the doors and I showed him the spot and he brought me down along with the placemat and accoutrements (fork, silverware, etc).  He set everything up for me and I thanked Him. I told Him his heart was like God.
and spontaneously said that I love Him and all the people of Israel.

He said, "We love you."

I think he was Yeshua, or as Andrea said when I told her the story, God the Father!


Adding on again for my notes and reflection to remember:
When I posted this it struck me that this occurred during the count of the Omer, and I was able to figure out the calendar day, from looking at my journal of the trip, and looking at my Omer counting notes, and indeed it was just a few days before Mem B'Omer, thus it was within the 40 days of when Yeshua appeared to His disciples!!  It excited me to think that even more this really could have been a visit from Yeshua there on the Galilee for that moment , a manifestation of the LORD in the form of the man from the hotel who seemed to just have appeared and escorted me to the sea!!!  Also just to note the way He said "We" I felt like it was Yeshua, and he was referring to Himself, the Father , and the Holy Spirit!! At the same time the simple meaning that "We" referred to the people of Israel also gave me much joy in my heart!  Thank you Yeshua for that wonderful exquisite breakfast with You!!

💙💙💙sapphire hearts with glistening sea

Omer and Emor and Sapphire!!

  וּסְפַרְתֶּם לָכֶם, מִמָּחֳרַת הַשַּׁבָּת, מִיּוֹם הֲבִיאֲכֶם, אֶת-עֹמֶר הַתְּנוּפָה:  שֶׁבַע שַׁבָּתוֹת, תְּמִימֹת תִּהְיֶינָה

And ye shall count unto you from the morrow after the day of rest, from the day that ye brought the sheaf of the waving; seven weeks shall there be complete;  
                                                                                                            Leviticus 23:15

We just finished the Parsha Emor (note of posting delay!:  I wrote this draft some days ago, now as I am posting it   already we are finishing the book of Leviticus!!) in which the "moadim", or set appointed times of the LORD are outlined.  I love this parsha.    I should make a t-shirt,  that says , "I love the Moadim!!!" or "Lev 23!" (for Leviticus 23, the chapter they are outlined!!) .  

God's appointed times--Moadim, starting with Shabbat--- give so much meaning to our lives and to the whole cycle of connecting us back and forward until we are just moving in His eternal cycle!! I find the Moadim are like "cogs" on a wheel that click into place for it to move, and  it is  as though we "click" into place into His eternal time more and more as we connect with each of the modadim!!  As we are counting up from Passover to Shavuot, each day of counting of the Omer is a way of bringing more of the divine into "temporal" time! Or another way, we spiral up a little each day on the rungs of  "temporal" time into His heavenly purposes for us.

I was reading in one of my recent favorite "go-to" Parsha devotionals called "Parsha in Pink",  a weekly devotional for women about the weekly Torah readings, and in her discussion of  this week's parsha Emor,  the author writes about counting the omer .  She writes that the Hebrew word for "you shall count" comes from the root of the Hebrew word "sapphire", and that in Jewish teachings it is taught that the  tablets of the 10 Commandments were written on stones not of drab grey as I once imagined but on tablets made of Sapphire!!! (note in this passage "luchos" means "tablets")

The word "u'sfartem---and you shall count" (Vayikra 23:15) comes from the root word sapir--sapphire, the material that the second set of Luchos were made of.  Our souls are compared to sapphire, which loses its luster when it becomes dirty.  As a result of our sins, our souls also lose some of their light, their gleam.   The message of the word "u'sfartem" is that by counting we must "polish" our souls so that we can be untarnished in time to experience the revelation of Matan Torah (Noam Elimelech, Mareh Yechezkel).                   from Parsha in Pink, p.144

Reading this about the tablets being made of Sapphire really sparkled my spirit to a glistening excitement!!!  Below is a scripture with "sapphire" that has always intrigued me and I even found I highlighted in my first Bible!!  It is about sapphire under God's feet!!  Which comes write before a scripture about the giving of the tablets.  When reading about the possibility that the tablets are made of sapphire, suddenly this scripture came even more alive!!! Could it be that He made the tablets from the sapphire of the throne room?? To me it makes all the sense in the Heavens!! We may not know until we get there, but I find this so intriguing.  Here is the verse that I highlighted years ago (around 6 to be exact!)  in my first Faithgirls bible.  I will just point out again the letters for "sapphire" in blue!

י  וַיִּרְאוּ, אֵת אֱלֹהֵי יִשְׂרָאֵל; וְתַחַת רַגְלָיו, כְּמַעֲשֵׂה לִבְנַת הַסַּפִּיר, וּכְעֶצֶם הַשָּׁמַיִם, לָטֹהַר

Exodus 24:10 and they saw the God of Israel; and there was under His feet the like of a paved work of sapphire stone, and the like of the very heaven for clearness.

As we count may we ask the Holy Spirit to look for those areas in ourselves that we need to "polish" as we prepare to meet with and experience the revelation at Shavuot that we are coming up to in only a few remaining weeks.  In this chapter in the devotional she also speaks of the preparation in coming up to meeting our beloved as we "detox and beautify our spirit and soul so we can stand under the chuppah* with splendor and grace."(Parsha in Pink, p. 144  ) (*chuppah referes to the bridal canopy at a Jewish wedding)

As we have been talking about this preparation for the wedding with the Beloved (see posts and Challah-cast below!), may we sparkle and shine more and more like the sapphire as we count up to that day!!!  I hope this season of Shavuot will be a time when the Bride of Yeshua can truly come together as one in Him.  This devotional book was written by a Jewish author, and her words about preparing as the bride are exactly what I encounter from the believers of Jesus in the church.  The beautiful thing is  that we are all His bride.  I pray that separation will break down this year as He reveals Himself to us in these days-- when remember, He was revealing Himself to His disciples in this period between Passover and Shavout.  I find it poignant and beautiful,  as someone who is both Jewish and a believer in Yeshua, to see how all together we are His bride!

So there shall be one flock, one Shepherd. John 10:16b

Love and Blessings and Happy Counting!
Today we are entering in day 31 (ooh, see how many days ago I wrote this draft! Today we are actually at day 38!!) , of the counting of the Omer.

So teach us to number our days,

so that we may get a heart of wisdom.    Psalm 90:12

Love,
 ♡
Shayndel

hebrew word review notes:
Luchos means "tablets"
chuppah refers to the wedding canopy that the bride and groom get married beneath in a Jewish wedding.

Shabbat and the Beloved-- an unexpected sequel to the Raisin Cakes!

This was an unexpected sequel!! I hadn't expected the raisin cakes to continue into the next Shabbat, but that is the beauty of studying Torah with the Holy Spirit guiding.   From my raisin cakes adventure, He led me to the scripture in Song of Songs,

Sustain me with raisin cakes for I am weak with love.

Song of Songs 2:5

It is a Jewish tradition to read the Song of Songs before the Shabbat or on the eve of Shabbat, and there are many beautiful "wedding" associations with the Shabbat and that special and appointed time with our King and Beloved.  Actually I love this tradition of reading it on Friday evening of Shabbat.  When I got to that line this time,  it was exciting to have the "actual" real life connection to the raisin cakes on the Shabbat table! So from there the exploration continued and if you are ready for part 2, please enjoy the newest "Challah-cast" below!! And thank you so much for watching and commenting on Part 1! I am so blessed by your watching, and love hearing what spoke to you.  I hope they might be an encouragement for those who watch, and in turn I am so encouraged by what you share and when it "expands" into a discussion!!.

Meanwhile, amazing already a whole week has gone by since this part 2!!
If you are reading on the parsha cycle, this week we are already nearing the end of the book of Leviticus, in parsha Emor.

And now,  will there be a raisin cakes part 3?! Or will we be making challah again soon?!
Stay tuned!!

And counting!!  Today is 30 days of the Omer.

Blessings and Shabbat Shalom!!  Love ♡ Shayndel


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Challah Journal--Victorious Raisin Cakes- a Challah-cast, and looking at the Haftarah!

Unleavened and Victorious Raisin Cakes, in the week of Parsha Shemini

They brought in the Ark of the LORD and set it up in its place inside the tent which David had pitched for it,         from 2 Samuel 6:17

And he distributed among all the people --the entire multitude of Israel, man and woman alike-- to each a loaf of bread, a cake made in a pan, and a raisin cake.  Then all the people left for their homes.

2Samuel 6:19

Reading the Haftarah of in the Parsha Shemini.   Did anyone else notice the raisin cakes?!

I know, you probably paid more attention to David Dancing! That's one of my favorite too!!

Or you may remember the tragic part where Uzzah touches the Ark of the Covenant when they were bringing it back to Jerusalem, and he is struck down for his disobedience. 

So how is it that those raisin cakes have such an attraction for me?  I think its the expression of "victory" and the way King David had them given out to all of Israel in celebration of his victory for the LORD in bringing back the Ark to safety.   I just love that how he shares the victory by giving out bread to the entire multitude of Israel! How king-ly and how neighbor-ly! And it reminds me of one of my favorite scriptures, "Taste and see that the LORD is good". 

The angel of the LORD camps around those who fear Him 
and rescues them.
Taste and see how good the LORD is;
happy the man who takes refuge in Him!   Psalm 34:8~9

As we await the time of Shavuot and count up the Omer to that day of great Revelation, why not proclaim His victory with "Victorious Raisin Cakes".

 Here is the link to the recipe (below)!
I hope you might enjoy it,   and enjoy watching the Challah-Cast ( also below)

Blessings and Happy Counting the Omer!
When I wrote this post draft it was day 19 of the Omer.
And today (when I am finally posting it! ) we are already in the third week of counting the Omer!

Blessed are You, LORD our God, King of the Universe, who has sanctified us with His commandments, and commanded us concerning the counting of the Omer.

Today is twenty-six days, which is three weeks and five days of the Omer.

Recipe note:  This recipe base can be found HERE, it is the recipe if you scroll down for "Cinnamon Matzah", I made  variations--- mainly the addition of raisins! As well as using Grapeseed oil in place of butter, and "tensai-to" , a Japanese kind of healthy sugar, for the "sugar".   And I baked them (the recipe says to pan-fry).  They came out delicious and very aromatic from all the spices!!  I hope you might try it.  

Blessings  in all the areas of your life for you and your loved ones, may we see new victories all around us and for health and deliverance for all people.    Blessings and Love,  In Messiah Yeshua♡Shayndel