Succah, Succot, Mitzvah, Mitzvot!

"Succah"

"Mitzvah"

"Succcot"

"Mitzvot"

 You are to live in sukkot for seven days.  All the native-born in Israel are to live in sukkot, so that your generations may know that I had Bnei-Yisrael to dwell in sukkot when I brought them out of the land of Egypt.  I am ADONAI your God.      

Leviticus 23:42 

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Happy Sukkot!

Please join me for a few more days and have some challah (Hebrew letters challah spelling Succah!)  and visit  in the Succa!  So much I want to write but for now just sharing a few views from the balcony succa!

Much love and blessings,

Shayndel 

Joanne`s Challah-Cast channel!

Hebrew lesson in Challah:

Succah Challah

Succot Challah

Succot is the plural of Succah !

Mitzvah Challah

Mitzvot Challah

Mitzvot is the plural of Mitzvah!

Chag Sameach Succot! Post in Progress, succah in progress!!

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One thing I have asked of ADONAI, that will I seek:  to dwell in the House of ADONAI all the days of my life, to behold the beauty of ADONAI, and to meditate in His Temple.

For in the day of trouble 

He will hide me in His sukkah 

conceal me in the shelter of His tent, and set me high upon a rock.  Then will my head be high above my enemies around me.  In His Tabernacle I will offer sacrifices with shouts of joy.

I will sing, yes, sing praises to ADONAI.

Psalm 27:4~6

Shabbat Shalom!

 A Chag Sameach, joy filled Succot to all!

love, Shayndel

(post in progress, succah in progress!!)

Succot welcome, Challah-cast HERE!!

 

Challah Diary--Two Loaves for Shavuot! Part 1!

we each made two loaves, so actually there were 4 loaves in all!!

You are to bring out of your houses two loaves of bread for a wave offering, made of two tenths of an ephah of fine flour.  They are to be baked with hametz as first fruits to ADONAI.   

                                                  Leviticus 23:17 TLV

Its always exciting to get to that day after the 49 days of counting and be ready for the holiday of Shavuot!!

I was preparing to make two loaves of Challah for Shavuot that morning, and had an unexpected surprise, which was that I had the chance to make the loaves together with a friend!

It was an extra blessing of having the chance to make the two loaves for Shavuot challah with my *AHAVA* prayer partner.  We had been praying together the morning before Shavuot, and both said almost at the same time that after our prayer time we were going to make challah, two loaves, for Shavout!! So we decided on the spot to do it together.  It was a wonderful time to make challah together and to meditate on the feast of Shavuot.  As one of the significances of the two loaves is that they can be said to represent Jew and Gentile together in Yeshua, we felt that making the challah together brought in that special meaning and it became a special time to make the loaves!!

I also made it *with you* as a way to share in the making and also that it could be my first "tutorial" on the whole process of making the challah from start to finish!! Some parts are more detailed than others, and some are just *tips* for how to make it, but overall I think it can give you a spring-board (seasonal pun intended!) to make challah for those who have always wanted to try it!!

I know we are already heading into weeks after the Feast of Weeks, hope you all had a blessed time for the Feast of Shavuot!!

There is also an exciting aspect of the spring feasts as a `challah maker` in that bread is featured so prominently in both Passover -- the unleavened bread, or Matzah--, and then Shavuot where two leavened loaves are waved as an offering. 
 
Blessings and stay tuned for parts 2&3!!  

Part 1 : making the dough from the start, including laying out the ingredients and getting started
Part 2 :  some behind the scenes and challah tips, showing the process as two of us did it together via `Zoom`!!
Part 3:  Finishing the loaves together,  our challah offering to the LORD 

Love (heart!)
Shayndel

PS I am on a new computer and this is embarassing to show my technical skills, I can`t find how to make my `heart`!! Should get it back soon, meanwhile sending extra Love!!

Nes Gadol Haya Sham, Hebrew Letters Challah! Parsha Vayashev Challah-cast

"Nun" on the dreidel stands for
"NES"  which means"Miracle"

Gimel on the dreidel stands for "Gadol" which means "Great"

"Hey" on the dreidel stands for "Haya" which means "Occured"

"Shin" on the dreidel stands for  "Sham" which means "There" .  Remember, on the dreidels in Israel this letter would be "Pey" which stands for "PO", which means "HERE"!

Nes Gadol Haya Sham, in Challah!!

Hebrew letters in challah is not what you would see on the typical Shabbat table, but our God sometimes asks us to go out of the typical!  As its something I love, so He is giving me the go ahead  in such a way on the challot these past weeks, from a "Shalom" challah to the "letters on the dreidel"  challah in a recent Chanukah challah, this one to go with the parsha Vayashev.

As I was making the letters,  I learned a lot as I shaped each one, even consulting a book on Hebrew Calligraphy to get the basic strokes right, and then while the dough was rising checking a little about the meanings of the letters, and looking for connections with reading about Joseph in our parsha from the week.

My "kitchen" and rooms became like a Chanukah Challah studio in the days of Chanukah.

Tonight is the seventh night of Hanukkah. Or Chanukah.  There are a few ways to spell it.   The CH sound in Chanukah has the same first letter as the CH in Challah.

I will share my challah-cast in which I make the "Nes Gadol Haya Sham" in Challah!  if you are moved to watch it please do and enjoy!!  It has some fun twists and spins, and a little learning as I go along!

Hope you enjoy it if you have a chance to take a break to view it during your end of the year cleaning and winding down, and that you might even learn something new and hope it blesses you!!  

Blessings and Shalom!

Love,

♡

Shayndel

Challah-Cast Diary/notes! Life of Sarah

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

Genesis 23:19

The reading from this past week in the Torah is the Parsha "The Life of Sarah" .
It is called "The Life" of Sarah,  even though it is actually to tell about her passing, at the time of her death at 127 years. 

 Sarah lived in righteousness, purity and with a love of loving-kindness--the quality of chesed, in Hebrew-- in everything she did .  She and Abraham opened up their tent for hospitality to strangers to share the truth about the One true God.  Her whole being emanated light because she drew from the source of light for her life.  At  age 90  God blessed her and Abraham (who was 100) with a child, even though in the natural it was impossible.  Nothing is impossible with God!

In connecting with something about challah, the aspect I wanted to share is how her light shone even in her challah dough!!

According to a midrash in Bereshit Rabba, we learn that Sarah's dough was divinely blessed, that  her challah stayed fresh from  Shabbat to the next Shabbat, and that a candle would burn in her tent from Sabbath Eve to the next.  There was said to be a cloud of the divine presence always over her tent. 

I love this teaching about Sarah
＊ from a Rabbinic source, quoted below, and what it tells about her life and how she lived doing everything for the glory of God.  I can try to imagine the light that shone forth from her very being!! The woman who was the mother of all the generations of Israel.  Her challah dough was divinely blessed!  From the same midrash, we also learn that the divine blessing left in all those areas, but when Rebecca came into the tent as Isaac's bride, the blessings returned.

Then Isaac brought her into the tent of Sarah his mother, 

took Rebecca and she became his wife--and he loved her.  

So Isaac was comforted after the loss of his mother.

Genesis 24:67

 

And Isaac brought her into the tent of Sarah, his mother-" All the days that Sarah was alive, a cloud was connected (lit. tied) to the entrance of her tent. When she died, the cloud stopped [resting at her tent.] And when Rebecca came, the cloud returned. All the days that Sarah was alive, the doors were open wide. When she died, the wideness stopped. And when Rebecca came, the wideness returned. And all the days that Sarah was alive, there was a blessing in her dough, and when Sarah died, that blessing ended. When Rebecca came, [the blessing] returned. All the days that Sarah was alive, there was a candle that would burn from Sabbath Eve to [the next] Sabbath Eve, and when she died, the candle stopped [burning for so long]. And when Rebecca came, [the week-long flame of the candle] returned. And as soon as [Isaac] saw her, that she did the deeds of his mother, separating her challah in purity and separating her dough in purity, he brought her into the tent.

                                                                                 ＊ from Bereishit Rabbah 60

For those that are following or interested in the Challah-cast series,
please read on , these !
"Notes on the "Challah-cast":

My  basic "filming"  plan was to take  scenes of first getting  flowers for Shabbat at the flower shop,  a special bouquet to honor the Life of Sarah, then zooming in on the flowers in the shop, and next scene , zooming out on the flowers when back in my home, and showing the flowers and the dough.

The whole short film, the challah-cast, would be homage to Sarah. The aspect of the challah that we would focus on is the dough, talking about the teaching above, about the blessing on her challah and the light that she shone from living with the Divine Presence always.
In my challah making scenes I would just show the dough, from when its made, to when it rises, as I talk about that aspect of Sarah's life.

So that is the basic idea for the week of Chayei Sarah.  What I am learning for the challah-casts is it takes a lot of "takes" to get a short video together! And I have to work fast if I want to do it by Shabbat, from the making of the Challah.

After all, I didn't get a finished challah-cast that I felt ready to share, so  am just sharing this post as an "outline" this week, and realize that I may not get a finished Challah-cast each time.  I started to get a little discouraged, but, rather than get discouraged if I don't complete it, I am glad as it is a way of drawing closer to Him in the process.

The midrash (Rabbinic commentary) from Bereishit Rabbah, is about how once Isaac and Rebecca married, and Rebecca entered into Sarah's tent with Isaac, the blessings returned through her.

Its such a beautiful testament to the generations, how through Sarah's life, Rebecca was able to enter in and keep alive the flame of God's presence continually.   It is said that in the time after Sarah died, the blessings stopped, but when Rebecca entered the tent as Isaac's bride, they returned again.
May we learn from the Life of Sarah, and be inspired to keep the light of Yeshua shining through our lives, and be diligent in prayer and in how we live, to pass it on to the next generation.

And a PS, I really was gettting a little discouraged not having done a Challah-cast, so just to keep on going I made a "rough" upload with talking it through and I also included the next Parsha, Toldot, to tie in with it.  If you are moved to watch it, you can see it HERE

When we spend time with the Lord, and more than that, when we live with Him as the source of our very being,   then our light will shine forth in all we do.  And nothing is impossible with Him!

Blessings and Shabbat Shalom!!

 Every year I post my Rebecca (Rivka)  drawing (Below) to go with this parsha!
Blessings and Shalom!

Happy Thanksgiving!

Love,
♡
Shayndel

So she said, "Drink, my lord," and she quickly lowered her jar onto her hand and gave him a drink.  Now when she finished giving him a drink, she said, "I'll also draw water for your camels until they've finished drinking."   Genesis 24:18~19

Not by Bread Alone, Parsha Eikev

Man does not live by bread alone 

but by every word that comes from the mouth of God.

Deuteronomy 8:3

  

Not by bread alone

How I love ❤️ Your Torah!

How I love this Parsha !

Bread  (Challah) and the Word of God.

As we are scrolling down in the Torah, coming to the end of one year on God's calendar, we are approaching the last month of 5779.

This month that we are in is the month of Av.  Av in Hebrew means "Father".  It is a month that is associated with comfort, coming after a three weeks period of mourning in Jewish history.  And leading up to just before the season of repentance and the New Year!!  The next and last month of the year on the Hebrew calendar is Elul!!  It is one of my favorite months.  It is said that the name of the month can be seen in the first of each of the corresponding first letters in "I am my beloveds and He is mine."  Ani le Dodi, ve Dodi Li

If you haven't yet  stepped onto/into life on the Hebrew calendar, it is a wonderful time to start preparing as we have the month of Elul before the New Year.  I think it would change the world if all of God's children were to switch from following the ways of  the "world" calendar and move onto to His calendar!! Not to mention, how it changes our lives to enter His time.  Just casually slipping that in, and yet is a really big thing on my heart for His heart.  I am sorry to just be posting in snippets lately, but just wanted to put this scripture quote about Bread and the Word of God to leave a space here for the book of Devarim, and may come back to the post to follow.  Just wanted to hold a place, as the Torah is scrolling down so quickly now!!!
Blessings and Shabbat Shalom!!


♡

Roses for who? for our neighbor, who else?!

Ok, so it looks like I am back with another story.
You encouraged me to go on.

You know, I buy flowers for Shabbat every Friday evening.  After I get the house (apartment) cleaned and have the challah dough ready and divided, and in the house (apartment!) its beginning to look a lot like Shabbos, I go out to the flower shop.

Its one of the exciting moments at the build up of the end of the week as the sun is still up in the sky, but you can feel that time of day when God is already in the readiness of bringing on the evening.  And of course on Shabbat there is that extra excitement in coming home to light the candles just before that happens,  to meet Him there and welcome the Shabbat!!

I have been going to the same flower shop on Fridays for probably a few years already!!! There was one person who worked there who I developed a friendship with , and she became interested in knowing about Shabbat and I had a chance to share with her about Shabbat.  She would always wish me a Shabbat Shalom when I left with flowers.

She has since had a schedule change and doesn't work on Fridays, so I miss her, but the other women are very nice and it started to become a place I feel at home.  They often tell me which flowers just arrived.

This day I was attracted to the pink roses that just arrived, so the woman at the flower shop who is there now on Fridays helped me.  As she put three together for me I asked her to add a few more so it was now 5, and then had an inspiration to ask for two more, to give to someone else.  Not knowing who, but wanting to share my joy in the coming of Shabbat.

The flower shop woman liked the idea of doing that and it even became a joyful moment in the flower shop as she wrapped one by one the two that would go to who? We both didn't know!  It was exciting to think who they might go to!! She wrapped each pink rose in clear plastic, and tied each with a bright pink thin ribbon the same color as the rose.  The ones for me she wrapped simply in brown paper.

I don't live far from the flower shop, so I wondered if I would find someone.  She said its hot out so people will probably be out going out or doing something.   I was encouraged and got on my bicycle and prayed that the Holy Spirit would show me to the people they were for!!

So I am riding with my eyes alert...and I was almost home but still hadn't found the person.   I  decided to give it one try around the block to a convenient store, and see if there would be someone on the way.  I saw a few potentials, but didn't sense the eye contact or timing was right.  I was focused on women, and saw two who were talking outside but no, it didn't seem that it was them as I approached nearer on my bicycle.  Oh dear, so now what! Dear LORD, I prayed, please show me someone !!!

Now I was at my apartment, pulling in to park my bicycle.  I was determined NOT to go into my apartment with the two gift wrapped roses, as they were clearly for someone else.  So, you know the LORD is faithful.  As I was walking into go into my building, out came a man.  There was a perfect moment of "intersection", and with enough of a clue as that, I stopped, and he stopped, almost as if on cue!!!  It was a neighbor on another floor who I know has a family.   We basically just are on the level of exchanging greetings, never past that.  So I wasn't quite sure how I was going to do it, but I knew I had to give him the flowers.  So here is the exchange!! (it was in Japanese of course0

Me:  Good evening

Neighbor:  Good evening

Me:  (watch what happens here!!)
Are you going out and coming back?

(Yes, I really said that!  I needed to know if he would be coming right back in which case I could give him the flowers to give to his wife.  IF he was going out for the evening, it wouldn't have worked).

Neighbor:  ( blank stare)

Me:  (trying again, and yet with all authority in Yeshua,  in knowing this was a divine encounter. Whereas ordinarily I would not ask such a pointed question to such a neighbor!!)

Will you be out for a short time and coming back?

Neighbor:  Yes

Me: (completely em-boldened to go on!)
Here! Please give these to your wife!  (and I handed to him the flowers!)

Neighbor:  (a little surprised, but not as much as you might think)  Thank you.

(so now this man, who is in a business suit but without the jacket, hence I sensed he might have just been going to the convenience store,  is holding two pink roses!!)

Then, the most beautiful thing happened.
Neither of us moved.  And then,
He smiled.
I smiled.
It was a smile that had come from an awareness of the divine in that moment.  Yeshua, Jesus, was with us for sure, the flower was from God, not from me.  He doesn't know Yeshua, but somehow I felt that he was meeting Him now. In that few seconds the light of heaven was there on us.

Then after the moment "finished" and the glow of heaven released us back into world time, I made a comment that was just a kind of "formality" but had a touch of lightness, and we both bowed as good neighbors do, and parted.

I realize today as I look at the pink roses in my apartment what a divine encounter it was, and how it took about three years to get to that moment.  From having a certain trust in one another from just plain living amicably in the same building at a respectable distance.

So that is the story, roses for my neighbor! Jesus knew who they were for!! And He gave me the words＊, in Japanese, to have the conversation and carry it out!

Shabbat Shalom!! Much love,
Jeremiah Shayndel Joanne  (wink to Sandi!)

♡

＊Since it is a Shabbat story, finding a way to enter back into the blog, and tie it into this weeks Parsha reading. This week's reading is Devarim, the first parsha in the Book of Deuteronomy.  Devarim means "words".  Will start again with pictures in posts to follow!

Challah Diary--- "at home" in Israel--On the Galillee at that!

I call this  challah post  "at home" because it tells how at home I felt coming down for breakfast in the hotel in Israel and seeing that wonderful Challah!!

 

 

      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... 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

I have many photos and posts I want to share from the Israel trip .  Photos of the sites that you may even be waiting (?!!:)) to see,  and of our tour, but somehow the photos that I was moved to post next were these of the Challah at the hotel on the Galilee for Shabbat breakfast.  

On this blog,  I don't like to go too many posts without sharing a Challah!

We don't get too many moments like this in Japan!, where a Shabbat table is set and awaiting with Challah enough to feed the multitudes!!  

You may also have noticed, the beautiful pink slices of Israeli Grapefruit!! I have written about the Israeli grapefruit, and how excited I was to find them in Japan.

Imagine how much more exciting it was to find Israeli grapefruits on the buffet table in Israel!!

There is something of a parable here you might even be noticing!  The Kingdom of Heaven is like a Shabbat. 

 

Blintzes!   These are the real thing!

Israeli grapefruit, in Israel!!

This sign in the hotel announces the time for sunset and candle lighting on the eve of Shabbat

Challah on Shabbat, like a homecoming of sorts!!  Perhaps this really is where I belong!

Where else in the world can you go to Shabbat breakfast at the hotel and go straight to the challah?  Where else in the world is the Calendar set on God's time!?

Where else in the world can you feel so at home where you are on the same time as the rest?!!

(pun intended---the rest, being the Sabbath day of rest, as well as "all the rest" of the people )

All the breakfasts in Israel were heavenly, but I must say this was one where heaven really felt like home!!

♡

note:  I know as I write this there are those in Israel who are hungry and cannot have this kind of Challah breakfast.  So I realize what a luxury it also is.  But still I share this because there is in each of our souls a way that we connect to a place and to our Maker, and I know that He wanted to share this sense of "home" on  my one Shabbat this trip in the land of Israel.  

A wonderful testimony is that when I returned to Japan and made a challah using some of the Date honey I brought back from Israel,  and brought it to share with some brothers and sisters, God took the challah right from our hands and gave it into the hands of someone who was hungry.  I believe He will use the experiences of this "homecoming" trip to Israel in new ways.  I continue to pray He will open up ways to share the Challah I make, and the Bread of Life, here where I live until I am called "home" once more!!

note 2:  now that I got the Challah post out of the bag, I will hope to follow up with other site visit posts.  Oh, though first there is another Shabbat post on the way, as we are still on the Galillee...

 note 3:  just another part of a personal story, one of the scriptures that was on my heart when I went , knowing we would be in the Galilee, was the scene in John 21 where Yeshua appears to the disciples.  It was a "breakfast " scene.  I will come back to that scripture in a post or two to follow, but for now for my diary reference noting here where

Yeshua said to them, "Come, have breakfast."  None of the disciples dared ask Him, "Who are You"--knowing it was the Lord.  Yeshua comes and takes the bread and gives it to them....
John 21:4

Thank you Yeshua!♡