A prayer and Comfort for those who mourn in Zion

Besorah for the Brokenhearted

The Ruach of Adonai Elohim is on me,
because Adonai has anointed me
    to proclaim Good News to the poor.
He has sent me to bind up the brokenhearted,
    to proclaim liberty to the captives,
and the opening of the prison to those who are bound, to proclaim the year of Adonai’s favor
    and the day of our God’s vengeance,

 

to comfort all who mourn to console those who mourn in Zion,
to give them beauty for ashes,
    the oil of joy for mourning,
    the garment of praise
        for the spirit of heaviness,
    that they might be called oaks of righteousness,
    the planting of Adonai,
    that He may be glorified.

Isaiah 61:1~3

Dear Father,

It was on Shabbat.  It was on International Holocaust Remebrance Day.  It was on the Shabbat of reading about the night that You set your people free and started the Exodus from Egypt.  We join our hearts with Israel and remember the 7 victims of the terrorist attack that took place on that night outside a synagogue in Jerusalem on that Friday night, even there was a boy only 14 years old, the all too young Asher was among the victims that night who was heinously killed.  We pray for your comfort to all who mourn and thank You that You are the One who consoles those who mourn in Zion.  

We pray for comfort for all the families of the 7 victims, complete healing for any that survived the attacks, and protection from any more attacks and cessation of these acts of terror.

We pray for both Jew and Arab, Christian and Moslem,   for a healing of the hatred and the pulling out of the root of evil that would cause a young 21 year old in the prime of life, a life that was given by You dear Father, to use this precious gift of life and carry out such a horrendous act to go out and intentionally kill, to intentionally destroy, and to have such a hate that was taught through generations even specifically against the Jewish people. 

We repent, LORD, that we have seen many years of such hate growing and perhaps could be doing much more.  Especially to pray for Israel as your word says, may we take no rest until you make Jerusalem a praise in all the earth.  You are the God who is `Zealous for Zion` and to restore your people to the land.   Could it be that this is a wake up to the Body of Messiah as well.  We ask you open our spiritual eyes towards Jerusalem and  help us to know how to pray so we can act ahead of the evil and close doors which have been open to allow such rampant acts of hate.  May our forgiveness and reconciliation between one another bring about a greater release of forgiveness and reconcilliation and healing amongst all peoples, and hasten the return of Messiah to put Your feet on Zion once more, speedliy and in our day.

We also ask for a breaking down of and a total getting rid of the teachings and education system where youths are taught by adults to kill and to hate.  We pray for a softening of all hearts to forgive and to reconcile and to put down the guns and the knives and that soon they will indeed be changed to plowshares as all will call upon the Name of the LORD.

Father we give you thanks for your Mercy and loving kindness, and for your grace in the name of Your Beloved Son Yeshua. 

Amen.

And now continuing in the verse, as this is the week of Shabbat of Song, we proclaim Victory in Yeshua.  We also pray for a hastening of turning of mourning into joy and may Israel come into the next Shabbat , we ask you to give them beauty for ashes,
    the oil of joy for mourning,
    the garment of praise
        for the spirit of heaviness.  After the days of the Shiva (first 7 days of mourning), may there be singing the song of Salvation, singing the Song of Moses and the Song of the Lamb as this will be the Shabbat of Song.  May no plan of the enemy come against the breaking forth in song by all Israel as we are reading this very week in the splitting of the sea.  Breakforth oh LORD with Your Deliverance!!!  

Save us O Lord and we shall be saved! Heal us and we shall be healed.  The LORD is our Strength and our Song.  He has also become our Yeshua! 

Blessings and Love,

Shayndel

 Instead of your shame, double portion.
instead of disgrace they will sing for joy.
Therefore in their land they will inherit a double portion;
    they will have everlasting joy.

Isaiah 61:7

  💛

 

 

Mount of Olives, in memory of Asher.  I just read that the precious son was buried on the Mt. of Olives.  Even as we are coming up on Tu B`Shevat, may we plant trees in the beloved memory of the victims and as a prayer for the prophetic return of the Jewish people , may we be more active in the restoration of Zion, to build and to plant!!

 

Shabbat Shalom! & International Holocaust Remembrance Day

Shabbat Shalom!

Come, let us worship and bow down.
Let us kneel before the LORD our Maker. 

 For He is our God,
and we are the people of His pasture,
the flock of His hand.

Psalm 95:6~7

This Shabbat we are in Parsha Bo.  Bo means `Come`, and we are reading about the Exodus and the Passover.

Yesterday was International Holocaust Remembrance Day for the nations, It marks the day of liberation of the Auschwitz Death Camp and is a day that was established for the nations to never forget the horrific mass murder of 6 million Jewish people during the Holocaust.

It is for the nations to remember and to know this horrific history,  and through knowledge and education be empowered to make decisions to pave a future where it can never happen again.

I attended (on zoom!) a live webinar for this day in Japan.  It was offered to us through the Jewish Community of Japan.  I was glad that they are encouraging education and awareness for the Japanese people to know about the Holocaust.  Yom HaShoah, the remembrance day in Israel, is commemorated later in the spring.

Remembering and educating the younger generations is timely with what we are learning in this week's parsha, even as the book of Shemot starts with Pharaoh's plan to get rid of the Jewish people.  He saw the Jewish people as a `threat` to him purely by being numerous and prosperous and signaled them out to destroy them through such `methods` as  back breaking labor and the decree on boy children.  But as we know the enemy plan is never going to come to be and this week`s very subject is the Great and mighty Hand of God`s deliverance and His power and dominion over all.

Sadly and tragically, since I drafted this post there was an incident in Jerusalem motivated by what seems to be this same hatred, a terrorist attack at a synogogue in Jerusalem.  May the LORD bring comfort to the families and to all Jerusalem. 

May there be an outpouring of LOVE of Israel and the Jewish People released on this day from all over the world including from us in the Body of Messiah.  May we see the end of anti-Semitism everywhere and by our love may we prepare for the Redemption and return of Messiah. 

Pray for the Peace of Jerusalem.  May those who love you be at peace.

Psalm 122:6

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Please find my weekly AHAVA Prayer sheet HERE to pray for your loved ones and Israel from scriptures related to the Torah portion of the week. 

Here is a brief summary of the Parsha Bo and reflections from the Prayer Sheet!:

God grants a new beginning to the children of Israel from slavery to redemption through the Exodus.  In our parsha this week, He marks the beginning of months, establishes the first month of Spring and the Passover offering.  All this just before the tenth plague of the first born where the homes of the children of Israel are “Passed over” and marked by the blood of the lamb.

Our new life begins when we are redeemed in the blood of the Lamb, our Messiah Yeshua.  He himself the Passover lamb.  We are told over and over in the Torah to remember the story of the Exodus  and tell it to our children throughout the generations.  We tell it as part of the kiddush which is said every Friday night at Shabbat, where we remember the Exodus from Egypt and God’s great love in which He guided us and redeemed us.

May our children be eager to learn and know God,
and may our families, loved ones, community, and all of Israel
“Come” to Yeshua!  
The Ruach and the bride await, saying,
“COME!”

＊

 “But you, fear not, Jacob My servant,
nor be dismayed, O Israel.
For behold, I will save you from afar,
your offspring from the land of their exile.
And Jacob will return and be at peace and secure,
no one frightening him.

 Jeremiah 46:27 

(from this week`s Haftarah reading)

Love,

Shayndel 

💛

 

 

Inheritance and Delight! ~ Clothe us with Power and Might!

Shabbat Shalom!

 Adonai is my portion and my cup.
You cast my lot.

My boundary lines fall in pleasant places
—surely my heritage is beautiful. 

Psalm 16:5~6

A few bloggers (you all, dear blogfriends!) have shared your word for the year 2023 and encouraged me so I will also share mine!

My word is `heritage/inheritance`. 

In Hebrew it is:  NACHALAH נַחֲלָה,  NACHAL נָחַל

I receive it for this year, 5783/2023, in keeping with the Biblical Calendar which started in the Fall!  Remember we also are preparing our hearts to come into the new year starting in the first month of Springtime that was given by God to the Children of Israel!  (We have many New Years!)

“This month will mark the beginning of months for you; it is to be the first month of the year for you."   Exodus 12:2

When I was in NY this Chanukah trip I had several conversations with my Dad, we are always talking,  I love my Dad, and it was through one of our conversations that I felt to delve into the word `heritage` and ask the LORD to speak with me about it and it became my word.  I am seeing already how it is about restoration, family, my Jewish heritage which I only recently returned to in Messiah, as well as the larger eternal heritage which we are beneficiaries of in Messiah!

Where your heart is there your treasure will also be.  Matthew 6:21

In this time of the Restoration of All things I am excited and forever thankful to have come back to covenant with our Covenant keeping God and seek to better understand what is our heritage in Him!

Here are a few examples from the scriptures of aspects of `heritage`and `inheritance` that we find from the beginning and all the way to eternity!! (though Eternity is before the beginning!).  Starting with the verse above from Psalm 16, the LORD is our portion! And continuing with these which are just my beginnings of looking into this word!

1.  Heritage as it speaks of the Torah

Your testimonies I have as a heritage forever, for they are my heart’s joy.  Psalm 119:111

2.  Heritage as it speaks of the generations and children:

Behold, children are a heritage of ADONAI ~. The fruit of the womb is a reward.  Psalm 127:3

3.  Heritage as it speaks of the Land of Israel 

But when you cross over the Jordan and settle in the land that Adonai your God enables you to inherit, and He gives you rest from all your enemies around you, you will dwell in safety.          Deuteronomy 12:10

4.  Heritage as it speaks of our spiritual heritage in Messiah

I pray that he will give light to the eyes of your hearts, so that you will understand the hope to which he has called you, what rich glories there are in the inheritance he has promised his people, and how surpassingly great is his power working in us who trust him. It works with the same mighty strength he used when he worked in the Messiah to raise him from the dead and seat him at his right hand in heaven,  far above every ruler, authority, power, dominion or any other name that can be named either in the ‘olam hazeh or in the ‘olam haba. 

Ephesians 3:18~21

5.  Heritage as it speaks of Eternal inheritance 

Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Yeshua the Messiah! In His great mercy He caused us to be born again to a living hope through the resurrection of Messiah Yeshua from the dead.  An incorruptible, undefiled, and unfading inheritance has been reserved in heaven for you.       1Peter 1:3~4

 Inheritance in Psalm 37!

I also opened up a psalm this morning when I had been thinking of the word heritage the night before and the bible just `happened to` open up to Psalm 37.  I had never realized that `subtitle` on the Psalm, or maybe just hadn`t really connected with it as I did today when seeing it in terms of `my word`!  Here are a few of the verses! Please read the whole Psalm as well to see the verses in context and how in many of the verses the Psalmist speaks of the `Inheritance of the Kedoshim` (Kedoshim = holy ones) 

Inheritance of the Kedoshim

Psalm 37

³ Trust in Adonai and do good.
Dwell in the land, feed on faithfulness.
⁴ Delight yourself in Adonai,
and He will give you the requests of your heart.
⁵ Commit your way to Adonai.
Trust in Him, and He will do it.
⁶ He will bring out your vindication as light,
and your cause will shine as noonday.
⁷ Be still before Adonai and wait patiently for Him.
Do not fret over one prospering in his way,
over one carrying out wicked schemes.
⁸ Put away anger and turn from wrath.
Do not fret—it only leads to doing evil.
⁹ For evildoers will be cut off,
but those who wait for Adonai—
    they will inherit the land.

And lastly, notice the word `delight` in verse 4!  And verse 11:

 But the meek will inherit the land, and delight in abundant shalom.

The reason why I mentioned `delight` in the title is that I was `delighted` to see the word inheritance in so many places together with `delight`.  

It also appears in this combination in one of my favorite verses, from Isaiah 58:13 about keeping the Shabbat!

If you turn back your foot from Shabbat, from doing your pleasure on My holy day, and call Shabbat a delight, the holy day of Adonai honorable, If you honor it, not going your own ways, not seeking your own pleasure, nor speaking your usual speech,

then You will delight yourself in Adonai, and I will let you ride over the heights of the earth, I will feed you with the heritage of your father Jacob.” For the mouth of Adonai has spoken.

Isaiah 58:13~14

Last but not least!

I also love to connect everything to what we are reading in the weekly Torah portion, as the cycle is so prophetic.  So it is not coincidence that we are entering into the book of Exodus with the `names` of the twelve tribes.  In Hebrew, the book of Exodus is actually called Shemot, which means `Names`!!   In Ezekiel 47:14, the land of Israel is divided equally as an inheritance and given to the twelve tribes of Israel.  And on the gates of the heavenly Jerusalem are inscribed the names of the 12 tribes!! 

My Dad said something about not being so concerned about our heritage in terms of the Torah and that made me want to take hold of our heritage ever more. See already we are learning so much!

Please share your insights from your word if you have one, and hope you might have been inspired or learned something new from my reflections of looking at `Heritage/inheritance`.  May we delight in the LORD through His word and His everlasting Love.

All love and blessings.❤️

Shabbat Shalom!

Love,

Shayndel

Song, `My Portion` to enjoy , from Psalm 16 ❤️

Multiplying `Chai` ~ Challah of Life

 

Multpiplying the word `CHAI`   חַי which means Life, on a heart-shaped challah

A new inspiration to make smaller `Chai` חַי Heart Challah, and multiply the `Chai` which means `LIFE`. First make the heart shape, and then roll out a thin strand to make the word `

חַי

 

I am the bread of life.

 אָנֹכִי הוּא לֶחֶם הַחַיִּים

Anochi Hu Lechem Ha-Chay-im 

John 6:35

`Chai` or חַי in Hebrew means `Life`.  

If you read the scriptures in Hebrew, you will recognize this word in the Bread of Life, Lechem Ha-chay-im (above)~ Yeshua is the Bread of Life.

Or in another life-giving verse,

I am the way, the Truth, and the Life.  John 14:6

אָנֹכִי הַדֶּרֶךְ וְהָאֱמֶת וְהַחַיִּים

Anochi ha-derech v`ha-emet v`ha-chayim

 And if you are following the Torah portions, you will surely recognize it as the root word from the last Torah portion in the book of Genesis, Vayechi, which we just read this past Shabbat.  It means, `And He lived`,  which refers to our patriarch Jacob at the end of his life.  Always in the Torah, `Life` is highlighted as the Torah is a Torah of Life! So even as Jacob is on his last days and blessing his sons and grandsons just before his passing on, the name of the Parsha (Torah Portion) emphasizes that He lived.  

 A few years ago I had the idea of this `Chai` Challah, a Challah of Life, to make for the Shabbat of `Vayechi`.  I started noticing in the last two Torah portions, even as the tribes were about to begin the Exodus in Egypt and a time of darkness, the word `life` is often used in the story of Joseph. Jacob`s favored son, Joseph tells his brothers that God sent him there to save `life` (lives) in an extraordinary deliverance.

But God sent me ahead of you to ensure a remnant in the land and to keep you alive for an extraordinary deliverance.  Genesis 45:7

 Even though they tried to kill him and threw him in a pit, he rose up to be the viceroy second to Pharoah and he became the saviour for the land of Egypt and for his family from Israel (Canaan at the time), and for all who lived in that time and who came to him for bread.  We see a picture of the Saviour, Yeshua, who like the Joseph we see in these readings, is still yet to reveal himself to his brothers.  LIke the story of Joseph, his Jewish bretheren do not any longer recognize him, and yet its happening before our eyes in this exciting time, that He is revealing Himself to them, and, like me, many are beginning to know our Messiah Lives!!

When I had the idea of `Chai` on a Challah, it seemed very fitting as Yeshua is the Bread of Life, and in this portion, Joseph at the time saved his brothers in a great deliverance through his storing up of grain. Bread features prominently in the salvations so what better way to express this life giving bread, then in a blossoming `Chai` Challah!  The variation this time is that I `multiplied` them and made several small Chai in the hearts challah.  Like the loaves that were multiplied by Yeshua, I pray that this bread will feed many and many will be nourished by the Word of God and find life in the Bread of Life, Yeshua!

`Chai` necklace, on Shayndel`s wishlist!

You may recognize this word from the celebratory toast at weddings or bar mitzvahs or other occasion, To Life,  which is `Le-chay-im`.  You may recognize it from the song of the same name in the musical, Fiddler on the Roof.  Or you may recognize it from the חַי chai neckaces that you can find in a Judaica shop. 

If you might like to try making a Chai Challah, I will direct you to my Challah-cast archives HERE , where you can find related posts and uploads that will show you how to make it!!

Let`s make a toast together for the New Year 2023, 

Le-chayim, To Life!

Love and blessings,

❤️

Shayndel

PS Notes*

*For more on Parsha Vayechi, Please find my AHAVA Weekly Prayer Sheet HERE to pray from your loved ones and for Israel with verses based on this parsha and themes of `LIFE` and blessing!

**Have you signed up yet for my weekly Parsha Newsletter?

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I hope it is a blessing to you.  Please feel free to let me know your thoughts comments, insights, d`var torah (word of Torah), or what else you might like to see in the weekly letters.

Vayechi Shabbat Shalom!