Shabbat Shalom ~ Sing to the LORD!

 

I will Sing to the LORD for He is Highly Exalted!

The Horse and rider He has thrown into the sea!!

Exodus 15:1

This Shabbat is called Shabbat Shirah, the Shabbat of Song! Because in this week`s parsha  (Torah Portion) we read of how God split the sea for the Children of Israel to go through on dry land and bring about their Deliverance in the Exodus from Egypt.  They sing the powerful and victorious song of the Sea! 

We also read the song of Deborah in the Haftarah portion, and the Song of the Lamb in the book of Revelation!

God inhabits the Praises of His People!

Sing to Yeshua! 

This Shabbat let us join our voices and hearts with all Israel and all who are singing this song, and let be united in our Praise as one with the Jewish people, and join our voices with the Heavenly Host who are most certainly singing this song today! 

LORD we know that you put Your Name on Jerusalem, and your Heavenly throne is above the Great City of the KIng!  As we sing, facing Jerusalem, may you hear us from Heaven and send your Ruach to breakthrough the enemy plan and bring Victory that YOUR Salvation, Your Yeshua! be known and Your Name be Glorified in Israel and all the world, even on this Shabbat Shirah!!♪💕🎶

HalleluYah!!

"Great and wonderful are Your deeds,

ADONAI Elohei-Tzva`ot!

Just and true are Your ways, O King of the nations!"

          ~from the Song of the Lamb,   Revelation 15:3

🎶💕🎶

 Song of Moses and Miriam

Then Moses and Bnei-Yisrael sang this song to Adonai: I will sing to Adonai, for He is highly exalted! The horse and its rider He has thrown into the sea.

Adonai is my strength and song, and He has become my salvation. This is my God, and I will glorify Him, my father’s God, and I will exalt Him.

Adonai is a warrior—Adonai is His Name! 

 

Pharaoh’s chariots and his army He has hurled into the sea, and his chosen captains have sunk into the Sea of Reeds.

The deeps cover them. They sank to the depths like a stone.

Your right hand, Adonai, is glorious in power. Your right hand, Adonai, dashes the enemy to pieces. 

 

In the greatness of Your excellency You overthrow those who resist You. You send forth Your wrath— it consumes them as stubble.

With the blast of Your nostrils the waters piled up. The floods stood upright as a heap. The deeps became firm ground in the heart of the sea.

The enemy said, “I will pursue, I will overtake, I will divide the spoil. My lust shall gorge on them! I will draw my sword— my hand will destroy them.” 

 

You blew with Your wind, the sea covered them. They sank like lead in the mighty waters.

 

Who is like You, Adonai, among the gods? Who is like You, glorious in holiness, awesome in praises, doing wonders?

 

You stretched out Your right hand, the earth swallowed them. 

 

You in Your loving-kindness led the people You have redeemed. You guided them in Your strength to Your holy habitation.

When the peoples hear, they will tremble—anguish will seize the inhabitants of Philistia.

Then the chiefs of Edom are terrified. Trembling grips Moab’s mighty men. All of Canaan’s inhabitants will melt away. 

 

Terror and dread will fall on them. By the greatness of Your arm they become still as a stone, till Your people cross over, Adonai, till the people whom You purchased cross over.

 

You bring them in, and plant them in the mountain of Your inheritance*, the place, Adonai, that You have made for Yourself to dwell in— the Sanctuary, Adonai, which Your hands have prepared. 

 

Adonai will reign forever and ever! 

 

For Pharaoh’s horses with his chariots and his horsemen went into the sea, but Adonai brought the waters of the sea back over them. Yet Bnei-Yisrael walked in the midst of the sea on dry ground. 

 

Then Miriam the prophetess, Aaron’s sister, took a tambourine in her hand, and all the women went out after her with tambourines and with dancing,

as Miriam sang to them: Sing to Adonai, for He is highly exalted! The horse and its rider He has thrown into the sea!

Exodus 15:1~21

Copyright © 2014 - Messianic Jewish Family Bible Society

Shabbat Shalom! Love、💛 Shayndel

🎶Listen to Jonathan Settel, Song of Moses HERE!! 

https://youtu.be/HVPWClhdLoQ

Mi Kamocha! Ein Kamocha! 

There is none like You!

HalleluYAH!!

Great!

Great and Marvelous! Are your works, LORD God Almighty....

And they sing... 🎶

 

 *note: for my records, this verse, Exodus 15:17 in Song of the Sea,  is another verse with my word of the year, inheritance!

 

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

＊

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 

💛

 

 

A Special Challah-Cast Message --this Shabbat's for You!!!

And the LORD said to Moses: Speak to the Israelite people and say:  Nevertheless, you must keep My sabbaths, for this is a sign between Me and you throughout the ages, that you may know that I the LORD have consecrated you.          Exodus 31:12

Dear Friends,

I have a special Challah-cast Message for you!!!
This Shabbat's for you!! Hope you will watch in time for this Shabbat, got it ready and sent off just in time to wish you a Shabbat Shalom!!

Believing for God's great plan for healing and restoration will come from this time of  having to "Rest" in our homes, and that beauty and truth will be revealed in marvelous ways out of the challenge of the situation we are facing.

May the LORD bless you abundantly and give you His great Shalom on this Shabbat and Shabbat HaChodesh Nisan!!

Much Love,
♡

Shayndel （and Joanne's Challah-Cast productions!)

Hope you enjoy this week's Challah-cast!



PS trying out a larger font size, how is it for you??? Please let me know if its better for you to read this post and if you notice any difference on your screen! thank you!

And to note:  just as I was processing this upload I saw there was released a declaration by the Pope Frances (which he had made in 2018 but was just picked up upon again now)  in an Israel newspaper, he was encouraging believers to observe the Sabbath in the way the Jewish people observe it!! 
 You can find the news article in the Times of Israel which was released  here!!

The clip caught the eye of Rabbi Shmuel Eliyahu, a leading Israeli rabbi.

“You probably won’t believe it, but the Pope called on the inhabitants of the world to keep the Sabbath like the Jews,” he said, according to the Jewish Press. “It is unbelievable. Those who have decreed that we will not keep Shabbat now understand what the value of Shabbat is.

                                   ---From theTimes of Israel article,  here!!

Mishpatim Postcards--for you to Color!!

 Let all that you do be done in love.

1 Corinthians 16:14

The LORD is good to all, 

and His mercies are over all His works.

Psalm 145:9

♡

Love and blessings,

Shayndel

Parsha Yitro--Ten Commandments and Two 5-Strand Challah

 Jethro rejoiced for all the goodness that ADONAI had shown to Israel, since He had delivered them out of the hand of the Egyptians.      Exodus 18:9

Yitro is the name in Hebrew of this week's (* last week's, by the time I am posting!!)  Parsha, named for Moses' father-in-law Jethro.  Jethro was a Midianite priest and former idol-worshiper who became a believer in the one true God, after hearing the wonderous things the LORD did for the Children of Israel,  that He parted the Sea and He set them free.  Jethro also had a good advice to Moses not to do everything himself, but to hire good men to help him.＊

I used my "Mt. Fuji and Ten Commandments" Challah cover this week in honor of the parsha.  The Challah cover is also a visual "prayer" that here too where we are in Japan the people will hear and be transformed by the truth of the one true God and receive His word and Salvation! 

For this week I made 2 five strand challah to make 10 strands total to represent the Ten Commandments!  For the Challah-cast this week (HERE, or see "screen" below!)  I show how to braid a five-strand challah.  My brother, who has been watching my weekly challah-casts, has been telling me to put in more of the making of challah and less talking!! (I did the challah making, as per his request,  but there is also still a lot of talking, sorry Jim, I'm working on it!)

In the parsha Moses tells the children of Israel not to be afraid of the thunder and mountain quaking, but  that they have to Fear the Lord and not go astray (Exodus 20:20).   God Himself tells them several times in the book of Exodus and later throughout the Torah, that if they fear Him and observe all His commandments He will not bring upon them the diseases "that He brought upon the Egyptians". 

²⁶ He said, “If you diligently listen to the voice of Adonai your God, do what is right in His eyes, pay attention to His mitzvot, and keep all His decrees, I will put none of the diseases on you which I have put on the Egyptians. For I am Adonai who heals you.”                                                             Exodus 15:26

He also made this clear in the ten plagues, where the plagues were judgement put upon the people of Egypt and yet didn't touch the Children of Israel who were all in one accord to follow His ways.

He is the same yesterday and today and tomorrow.  May we Praise Him,  and fear Him and not go astray.  Observe His statutes with delight. And may the diseases not come near our tents (Psalm 91:10).  May more and more people say Yes to His Salvation.

Did you know that at the time of the giving of the Torah, it is said in an  account in the  Mishnah(Sifrei Devarim 343) that all the nations were given the chance to receive the Torah and the Ten Commandments.  But all said no on certain commandments that they couldn't abide by, and after that only Israel said YES, and their YES was without  questioning the specifics of what they would have to do, they put all their faith in Him and said Yes, we will do all that You ask.  The other Nations all were said to have said no to one or the other commandment, and turned down His offer of the TORAH on those things that didn't agree with them.  For one nation, "no murder" was unacceptable, it was their way of life, they just couldn't commit.  For another, no adultery--- out of the question as that was part of their way of life (I am not naming nations! but so it is said!).  And so on! Only Israel  gave their reverential and unequivocal YES, acknowledging that that HE is their Master and Creator and Sovereign King, and they agreed to receive the Torah.

 We are given the choice each day anew to say Yes, LORD, we will do ALL that you ask us to do because You are our God.

Seek His Kingdom and His righteousness, and all else will follow.

Blessings and Love,

S h a b b a t   S h a l o m !  !

♡

＊Thank you Hobbyloes! I added this line from your comment:)!

Shayndel (doing Challah Cast as Joanne!)

Postcards from Parsha Pekudei

I will expound a theme, hold forth on the lessons of the past,

things we have heard and known, 

that our fathers have told us.

We will not withhold them from their children,

telling the coming generation

the praises of the LORD and His might, 

and the wonders He performed.

Psalm 78:2~4

Finishing the book of Exodus!

Chazak, Chazak, venitchazek!!

Be strong, be strong, and let us strengthen each other!

Blessings and love,

♡

Shayndel

Postcards from Parsha Tetzaveh and from this morning

You are to make holy garments for your brother Aaron, for splendor and for beauty.

---Exodus 28:2

This morning in my prayer and praise time I was reading from the scripture 
"I will meditate on the glorious splendor of Your majesty and Your wonders", 
from the Psalms 145:5. 
 

During that time I got a call from my Dad from the US.   He asked what was I doing.  I said " I'm spending time in prayer with Yeshua,  meditating on the glorious splendor of His majesty and His wonders."
There was a time that I woudn't have just come out and said that, and if I did my Dad would not quite know how to receive it....but now I can and I am so thankful my Dad replied by asking if I was o.k. to talk.   I am so thankful that Yeshua cares so much about families,  I felt His presence speaking to us both at that moment, to me, saying, Yes, share your love of Me to your Dad, and to my Dad, He gave that heart of respect for me, as He  intercedes exquisitely to bring all our families and loved ones to Him.


Blessings in 
Yeshua, our High Priest Forever. 


Love,

❤️
Shayndel

The Ume Tree is back! notes

Praise God!
The ume tree is back and planted in nourished soil.
The workers who do the planting take such care of the garden work.
When I told my Japanese teacher about the gardeners, he said there is word to describe that in Japanese, Shokunin Kata-gi. 職人気質。He explained that it means  the spirit of a traditional craftsman.  

That word and the whole work of the gardeners and the blossoms and moving the tree reminds me of the spirit filled craftsmen we are reading about in the Parashat about the Tabernacle.
There are so many times the word "spirit filled craftsmen" is used in these parsha.

You know that everything reminds me of the parsha, when I walk through the days.  I have mentioned before how I also love the description of the blossom crafted menorah.  I am just copying a part of it here, just to copy it and honor the beauty of it and in the season of blossoms and the work of the craftsman, to the glory of God. 

I also think of the scriptures about restoration  and re-building, from Jeremiah.

I am happy that the Ume tree is back.

God brings order to our lives.   He plants and He uproots.
And He rebuilds and restores.

Blessings and Shabbat Shalom!

Love,
♡
Shayndel

You are to make a menorah of pure gold, by hammered work.   Its base, stern, cups, bulbs and flowers are to be one piece.  There are to be six branches coming out of the sides, three branches of the menorah out of one side and three branches out of the other.  There are to be three cups shaped like almond blossoms in one branch, each with a bulb and flower, then three cups made like almond blossoms in the next branch, each with a bulb and flower, and so forth for the six branches coming out of the menorah.  Whithin the menorah will be four cups made like almond blossoms, with bulbs and flowers.  Exodus 25:  31~34

Manna and Challah --now, the Challah! Parsha Beshalach

So they gathered it every morning, each as much as he needed to eat; for when the sun grew hot , it would melt.  On the sixth day they gathered double the amount of food, two omers for each; and when all the chieftans of the community came and told Moses, he said to them, " this is what the LORD meant: Tomorrow is a day of rest, a holy Sabbath of the LORD.  Bake what you would bake and boil what you would boil; and all that is left put aside to be kept until morning.  Exodus 16:21~23

The house of Israel named it manna; it was like coriander seed, white, and it tasted like wafers in honey.  
                                                                                Exodus 16:31

You've heard me say this before  (here, here, and here),  and here I go again.
I get so excited in this week's Torah portion, Beshalach.  The Freedom!  the Manna! The Shabbat!

It is not only the freedom of when God brings the Children of Israel out of Egypt, but the way in which He is with them and guides them.

It is not only the manna that falls from heaven but the Bread of Life that He provides them.  It is not only the Shabbat that is introduced in the provision of the manna, and the double portion on Shabbat, but the goodness of a Master who gives His children sustenance and the way to achieve it,  and gives them  rest.

This portion is one we can stay in forever, it is alive with song.  The song of Moses and Miriam, a spontaneous rejoicing at the wondrous awesome God who has set them---us!--- free and who they---we!--- know is with them--us! as He travels with them in a pillar of cloud by day and fire by night.  As from now He is their --our! ---home and the journey begins to make a life where He will dwell with us and in us and we in Him.

They sing and Miriam leads the women in dance!!

Once the rejoicing settles down and the people get hungry, they ask for bread.  They have been slaves for over 400 years and now the bread that they receive will be the bread from heaven.  And with it comes some "rules".  But they are not rules of  back breaking labor as they were accustomed to in Egypt, but a law that comes from Love, and that will be given as they journey forward in His commands.  We begin already to see how closely connected are love and following His commands to our Father in Heaven.

The double portion that is sent down on the sixth day is sent as a "test" as God wants to see if the children of Israel will keep his commandments.  He even says so, I'm not making that up about it being a test!!

And the LORD said to Moses, "I will rain down bread for you from the sky, and the people shall go out and gather each day that day's portion---that I may thus test them, to see whether they will follow My instructions or not.   Exodus 16:4

Now even as we are set free in Yeshua, we still and even more so want to know the heart of the God who brought us through, the God of yesterday, today and forever.   When we receive that double portion, there is a deep remembering of where we came from and it is together with a deep gratitude and praise for the One who brought us through, who brings us through, and will bring us through again.  Our Redeemer and Salvation.

This Shabbat is the Shabbat of Song!! May we sing a song to Him, for He is our strength and our Salvation!!

♬ I will sing to the LORD, for He has triumphed gloriously;
Horse and rider He has hurled into the sea.
The LORD is my strenght and my song.
He has also become my Salvation.   ♬   from Exodus 15:1~2

When I made the Challah this week, those are some of the things I thought about.  As I added flour to the dough I thought of the manna that landed as a layer of dew on the ground, and its description as flaky white like coriander coming from heaven.  Manna is called manna because when the Children of Israel saw it on the ground like a fine frost on the ground, they said to one another "What is it" (Ex. 16:15), which in Hebrew the word "what"  is pronounced "Man" (as in manna) and  that is where the word manna comes from. ( I think the whole sentence is , man- hu , what is it?) and that became what it is called! so it is a wonderful word of wonder at the bread from heaven that God provided as their first bread!

When we spread the challah cover over the Challah on the Shabbat table it and a layer beneath it we remember of the layer of manna that covered the ground in the morning when the Children of Israel awoke and saw that indeed their God provides.  Though in response to their grumbling, there it was, and he loves them--us! despite their--our! sometimes grumbling!!  Over and over in this beginning of their journey, the LORD assures and re-assures the people that He is their God.

The LORD spoke to Moses:  I have heard the grumbling of the Israelites.  Speak to them and say: By evening you shall eat flesh, and in the morning you shall have your fill of bread; and you shall know that I the LORD am your God. (16:12)

It was through His parting the sea that they knew He was God and the Master of Creation.
It was through that first provision in the wilderness that they knew He was their God.

When I went to measure out the flour for the challah this week in the week of Parsha Besalach, I almost hugged the bowl, remembering, connecting with what it may have been like to go out and see the manna there covering the ground.  Knowing it is that same God who provides the flour for the challah that I will gather into the bowl to make the challah for this Shabbat.   As we say the blessings,  and  the  double  Shabbat commands of "remember" and "keep", shamor and zakor. 

God bless you and hope you have a time of rejoicing and remembering on this Sabbath of Song!!

This is my God, and I will glorify Him,
my father's God, and I will exalt Him.

Exodus 15:2b

I took my bowl to gather the provision, and measured out the first cup of flour.  And hence two challot were made.Notice in the parsha, the unit of measurement is an "OMER", see how this again is something we will remember at Passover and the counting of the OMER!!! 

You will bring them and plant them in Your own mountain,
the place you made to dwell in, O LORD,
The sanctuary, O LORD, which Your hands established.
The LORD will reign for ever and ever!        

Exodus 15: 17~18

Its the week of Mannah! (post in progress)

Its the week of Mannah!
We have to make

two challahs!
The proper plural is Challot,

But for such a post as this,
I wanted things to ryhme.

We are in the book of Exodus,
We are on God`s appointed time!

Ok, that is my introduction to this post on Manna! Actually there is not an H, but there could be,
as Manna
is writen
(What is it?)

as Challah
is written

You`re just going to have to stay tuned, because its time to make the Challah!

(to be continued! )

This week`s Torah readings are in the Parsha Beshalach.  See sidebar for the readings!  Blessings and Shabbat Shalom!!  Love, Shayndel

♡

Branch, Blossoms, branch, almost Tu b'Shevat

At this farm side stand, there was a bucket with plum blossom branches, 

and a can for coins

Come, my beloved, let us go out into the field.  Let us go out early to the vineyards, --Let us go down to see if the vine have budded, if their blossoms have opened,    Song of Songs, from verses 7~13

On my way home I took a new route, my friend drew me a little pencil line map for how to get to the train station.
The route even looked like a branch on a tree.

And on my home then what did I see?
You guessed it! A branch, well more like branches for the taking.
I knew this scenario was of the LORD's making.

There by the branches was a little tin can,
to put in a coin though there was no woman or man,
just the box there and someone who trusts.

So I put in some coins  picked up a few branches and set out on my way.
If anyone saw me, they would see that I was holding a flowering branch on that day!!
And the rest I will write as a post for today!

So that is my introduction.
 Its  a "Tu B'Shevat" Story in the making, or a prelude to a Tu B'Shevat story!

I must say I like this story very much!
I have an affinity for sure for flowering branches, and have written about them and even made a flowering "branch" challah for two years in a row, this year will be third.

God gives His gift of fruit and flowering blossoms and branches in this season.
The branch is from a yellow plum tree.  In Japanese, Ro-bai.
Its supposedly the most early blossoming plum tree, but actually the white ume, the plum tree near us, blossomed similarly early, so I don't really know which one came first.

I think of the branch and the flowering staff of Aaron that we will read about later in the book of Exodus.

I think of the golden menorah with the blossoms and bulbous designs.

I put the blossoming branch on the seat next to me on the train, and it reminded me of taking the train on Hannukah with the menorah, I put the menorah in the window as the train passed from north to south, and it lit up the scenery.  God reminded me of that when I placed the blossoming branch on the seat next to me on the train!

I think of the branch I received last year at this time that flowered in my home and in my heart.

I think of the Messiah who would come from the root of Jesse.  So perfectly in Hebrew does His name, Yeshua, come from Yeshi.   

 A branch will sprout from the route of Jesse.
(scripture)

The holiday of Tu B'shevat is coming up next week.  It is the New Year for fruit trees on the Hebrew calendar and celebrated in Israel in the 15th of the month of Shevat (that is the meaning of Tu b'Shevat). I 've written about it on my blog since finding out about this day ,three years ago.

The sap from the earth is starting to come up and pulse through the roots and up into the branches bringing new life into what look all winter like dead trees.  It is a season of new life.

Spring is in the ground before it is in the air!
And it is in the readings in the book of Exodus this week, as God gives the children of Israel the commandment to sanctify the first month and the head of every month therein.  He tells that this will be the first month of spring.  And that on the 14th of the month will be their delivarance.  The commandment to slaughter the Passover lamb is given just before the tenth plague is carried out.  All that is speaking of the first month of Nissan.  Though we read it now in the 11th month of Shevat.  In Shevat we can prepare out hearts for the first month, the month of spring.  And look to God's time for He is beyond time, but He commands the time and the times!

Now the LORD had said to Moses and Aaron in the land of Egypt;  This month shall mark for you the beginning of the months; it shall be the first of the months of the year for you.  

Exodus 12:1

All that from a branch on a roadside? someone might ask?
There is so much more, its just  the beginning of the month of Shevat!

behind the branch of the yellow plum blossom, you can see the plum tree near me

In this story, I saw only the branches and didn't see the tree!
But we know that the gardener is certainly He!!

Much Love, Shabbat Shalom!

Shayndel

* Shevat is the eleventh month of the Hebrew calendar, so this time of the New Year for trees is a harbinger of the Spring, which starts as the month of Nissan, and the 14th of Nissan is Passover.  The day planned from the beginning of time which would be the day the Jewish people were set free and the day that the rest of the world would be set free through the death of Messiah Yeshua, which was exactly the same day, Nissan 14 , and  His resurrection three days after that.  Our God is beyond time and space, and yet He commands time and space, defines it by His making, and sanctifies it by His Word.

＊＊note, I should also note the fragrance!! The Yellow plum blossoms, called Ro-bai, written
蠟梅 in Japanese、are known for their yellow color and for their fragrant blossoms.  When I read this verse below, after posting this, it spoke to me about these flowering branches and the fragrance that fills the air, and accompanies the branch.   So I am adding it here, hoping it might waft through the post to you, with Wishing you a fragrant Shabbat and beautiful week!

The vines in blossom give off fragrance.
Arise, my darling;
 My fair one, come away!

from Song of Songs 2:13


♡

Va`Era -- and I appeared (Postcards)

I love ADONAI, 

for He hears my voice, my cries.

 Psalm 116:1

For God is greater than our heart, and knows all things.  

1John 3:20

Just a few light heart-ed interpretations, drawings inspired from the first days of the New Year and together with some impressions from the Parsha
 (Torah reading, from Va'Era, Exodus 6:2~9:35, for complete readings see sidebar link to the readings!  ).  
Greetings from today!
 

The first, above, was from God `appearing`in the heart-shaped cloud.
(Remember, Va'Era means "and I appeared)

In the second I drew a frog kite,  as an expression of remembering the plagues from the Exodus we read about in this weeks parsha, and being set free.  

Therefore, my child, be strengthened in the grace that is in Messiah Yeshua.   

2Timothy 2:1

As we read the parsha, look at the miracle!

ADONAI said to Moses, to say to Pharaoh,
 "Let my people go, so that they may worship Me".  
Now we read these words and Thank you, LORD.

Thousands of years after the Exodus. 
May we say, Here we are!

You have set us free so that we may worship You!  May we always remember to tell of Your wondrous deeds, that You heard our cries and You took us for a people.  
Forever You are our God, who brought us out of Egypt.

I will take you to Myself as a people, and I will be your God.  You will know that I am ADONAI your God, who brought you out from under the burdens of the Egyptians.  

Exodus 6:7

You, dear children, are from God and have overcome them, because the one who is in you is greater than the one who is in the world.

1John 4:4

The Love of God

(the first picture from the book of Exodus!! Much Love!!)

♡

In days to come Jacob will take root,
Israel will blossom and bud and fill 
the face of the world with fruit.

--Isaiah 27:6, first line from this week`s Haftarah reading

Nissan 1!

Nissan 1

I took a bicycle ride to the park to see if the cherry blossoms were blossoming.
I knew they probably weren`t quite yet, so I took a cherry blossoms ball with me to bring some pink.
The trees were dotted with buds, buds, buds!

I stood on the grass and threw the cherry blossoms ball 

into the sky! 

Maybe the pink would profusely pour down on the trees and the buds would blossom!
This is what happens around now in the month of springtime.
Everyone is looking up!  To see if there is a blossom yet!
Birds are busily finding them first.

People ask each other, did you see any blossom?
Not yet, not yet!
Anticipation is in the air!

A little girl joined me, and we both took turns throwing the cherry blossoms ball up to the sky!  She saw it was fun, and when she threw the ball up, it landed on the tree!  The tree now had pink!! A pink cherry blossoms ball in the cherry tree.  She jumped up to try to reach it, but it was too high.  She ran and got her jump rope to use it to move it and loosen it and get it down.  It worked! 

The ball was set free, but now the jump rope was in the cherry tree!

She pulled on it and it came down too.
Whew!

We played a little more with the ball, throwing it up to the sky!
She told me her name, smiled,  and when it was time we said,
good bye.

Happy Nissan 1! ＊

＊The first day of the first month, Nissan, of the Hebrew calendar