Chanukah Journal ~~Sevivon Sov, Miracles, Light and Names of God revealed on the dreidel!!

A Great Miracle Happened  THERE

...and the name of the city from that day on shall be "The LORD Is There."  Ezekiel 48:35

סָבִיב, שְׁמֹנָה עָשָׂר אָלֶף; וְשֵׁם-הָעִיר מִיּוֹם, יְהוָה שָׁמָּה

  

(catching up on posts! and trying out a new font...nice to see you again and a happy new year!)

This year during Chanukah, in additon to wonderful blessed time of sharing on-line  with people from four corners of the globe,  I also had a chance to share several `live` events in my community.  

One was an event called "Hikari and Kiseki", which means, Light and Miracles (in Japanese, 光と奇跡）.  It was an outdoor Community Dance event.  The playlist included Chanukah songs, Israeli songs, praise songs, and a last minute on the spot addition of Hava Nagila, a traditional Jewish celebration song.

Another event was a dreidel making workshop at the Onigiri Cafe (decorating above).  

Another Chanukah activity  highlight was that I designed a special set of `Letters on the Dreidel` Flags for Chanukah this year to use in  dance and in worship, where each flag has one letter from the Dreidel on it！

As you know the four letters on the dreidel-- Nun, Gimel , Hey and Shin--- stand for `NES GADOL HAYA SHAM`, ` A great miracle happened there`.  The powerful message of Chanukah!  This year, God shined a new light for me on these Hebrew letters, and in them I saw a new revelation to bring even more light into this Festival of Light ~~ He revealed  four of His names in them!! 

 

נ Nun stands for Nes, MIRACLE נס  ~~  Name of God revealed in Nes:  ADONAI Nissi, the LORD is my Banner.  Nes means miracle and is also the root word for Nissi, or Banner!, as seen in Exodus 17:15

ג Gimel stands for Gadol, GREAT גדול~~  Name of God revealed in Gadol:  El HaGadol, the LORD is a Great God

ה Hey stands for HAYA, HAPPENED היה~~ Name of God revealed in Haya:   I AM who I AM.  The word Haya is first used in the Torah when God says `Let there be Light` , so this Name of God also reveals the God who speaks everything into existence by His Word !!

ש Shin stands for Sham, THERE שמ~~ Name of God revealed in Sham:   ADONAI Shamah, the LORD is There ,Ezeikel 48:35 (bonus Hebrew insight in this verse, for anyone who wants to take a Hebrew challengs---see Hebrew above at top of post,  this verse also contains the word for `dreidel` in Hebrew!! Can you find it!? A powerful `movement` word with an intriguing line up of scripture)

As we spin the dreidel, as we worship, as we pray, as we move into His feasts and walk in His ways, may we turn the world back to Him!! May we always and continually shine our light, the light of Yeshua, all the days of our lives.  May we re-dedicate ourselves to Him anew in each day.  Giving thanks and all the Glory to God in the name of Yeshua!!

Enjoy one or all of these uploads with a few scenes from the above community events!!!Just a sampling, from  Joanne`s Challah Cast Channel and my new channel, in progress, AHAVA Productions.

Blessings and Love! Shalom upon shalom to you!

Love,

♡

Shayndel 

 

 

 

סָבִיב, שְׁמֹנָה עָשָׂר אָלֶף; וְשֵׁם-הָעִיר מִיּוֹם, יְהוָה שָׁמָּה

 

 

 

 

 

 

Hanukkah diary--Hanukkah encounters of the Divine kind (reflections and a story from the 7th night of Hanukkah)

The lifebreath of man is the lamp of the LORD
Revealing all his inmost parts.
                                               Proverbs 20:27

(note:  still catching up some Hanukkah posts!!  this some notes I wrote from the 6th or7th night)

The light of Chanukah is not just any light.  It is the light of the Shekinah, the divine light, the light of the Divine presence that we recall from the miracle of Hanukkah those many years ago in 167 BC from the oil that burned in the re-dedicated Holy Temple after the victory of the Maccabees. 

The small band of Maccabees stood up for their faith in the God of Israel and their Judaism in walking in His ways, and from refusing to give in to the ways of the "world", of the Greeks, and fighting for the Torah for their life,  even though they didn't have a chance in terms of "numbers", they had strength in God.  He gave them a victory over the Greek army!!!  He gave the stronger into the hands of the weak.  As even the weakest is given strength in the One who gives us strength!


While the lights are lit, and especially for the first 30 minutes, the Jewish sages say that we are not to do anything to use the light for any other purpose,  but just to look at the light.  There are many things said about the light of Hanukkah! One is that it is said to be a concentration of the hidden light of Creation.




On each night of Hanukkah you can see that the light is increasing.  You light first one on the first night, then two on the second, three, ....and then seven , then eight lights at last are lit!! Its very exciting to think of how the one days light spread out and expanded over 8 nights.  There are said to be two kinds of light, one the "physical " light that can be defined by its properties and physical qualities measurable to the eye, and the other is light of the Divine kind.  Like the fire of the burning bush,  which kept on burning but wasn't consumed.  And the light of the Hanukkah miracle, which was "measurable" to one nights amount, but spread out over eight.  Even when we light the 8 lights of Hanukkah with the one "shamash" candle, we have a sense of what looks like a tiny flame can light all the others.

So when I set out tonight with my menorah in hand, I prayed for some kind of miracle or divine encounter so that I would be able to share about this amazing miracle and more than that, so that I could share about this amazing God!!! And lo and behold, He gave me an encounter!! I returned to the "tent" that you can see in this post below, where I had a little Chanukah party on the third night.  Tonight though I didn't have anyone with me, I decided to bring the menorah there and "light"it.  The dome "tents" that are set up there in our city made me think of Abraham and how he and Sarah always anticipated for someone to come into their tent so they could share about the God of Israel, and I had a flicker of confidence, almost a mustard seed of faith, that there might just be a guest to the tent!!

So you know what happened?!  I had not one guest, but three!!! It was a wonderful Hanukkah encounter in the tent with the menorah!! First a woman passed by before I even settled in, I hadn't yet taken out the menorah and she peeked in to see if there was anyone in, and she actually asked me if she could come in!! She beat me to it! I would have asked her! It was just that exact timing that the Holy Spirit breathed on the moment, so that it would work out that she would come in!!  She said she had time before her bus and wanted to have a place to wait!!   She asked if I mind if she had a sweet snack she brought, and offered me one.  (guess what it was?  you guessed! a "red bean" sweet! )   So it was my moment to ask if she would mind if I "light" the menorah with her, and she said she'd like that!!  And wanted to know about what it was about!! Then I took out the menorah from my "sack" (yes, thinking of the sack with the goblet! in Benjamin's sack, this week's parsha Miketz, Genesis 44:12)).  And when I was about to "light " the Shamash candle (on the battery powered menorah),  a young woman and man stopped to look into our tent. Both I and the other woman asked if they would like to join us, as we were just starting to light the menorah!!

The young man and woman lit up and seemed excited about this gathering, and they entered into our Hanukkah adventure!! This was God!! Now there were four of us settled in around the menorah, and I was able to share with them about Him and the miracle of Hanukah!!!  I made a prayer and a blessing.  Even though it wasn't the real candles, it was the real Presence of the Holy Spirit, so we were able to feel His light expanding even beyond the transparent confines of the tent!! It was wonderful!! I even had a chance to pray for the young woman, and in that way introducing her to Yeshua, in whose name we pray.  He showed me a lesson of the Maccabbees.  How when we step out to shine our light for His glory, He will meet us and in the power of His light we become strong!!

I really hope I can meet the people I shared Hanukkah with tonite again, but most importantly, they had an encounter with Him, with God who is the Light !

Wishing all a Happy New Year, may we go forth with the light revealed from Hanukkah and may the year and each of our lives be filled with the pure oil of the Light of Messiah Yeshua!!

（ps please pardon my spelling of the word Hanukkah in so many different ways, I know there are several ways to spell it and I just couldn't settle on one, and left it the way I typed it out! thank you, from the editorial staff at Challah and Cherry Blossoms! Much 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

Let your light shine!♡

latkes with sour cream and applesauce, is a de- light of Hanukkah!

For with You is the source of life---. 
By Your light we shall see light.

Psalm  36:9

You are the light of the world.  A city set on a hill cannot be hidden.  Neither do people light a lamp and put it under a basket.  Instead, they put it on a lampstand so it gives light to all in the house.  In the same way, let your light shine before men so that they may see your good works and glorify your Father in heaven.           Matthew 5: 14 ~16

A few scenes from the first few days of Hanukkah here.  Each night there is ever increasing light as the candles are lit adding each day to the light from day one to eight.
On this holiday we are to go out and shine our light!
Blessings and Happy Hannukah!
Don't hide your lamp under the table!
 

Love,

♡

Shayndel

Light and dreidel -- Sharing Hanukkah

"Light and Dreidel"  is the name of a small community exhibition and workshop I had at a community gallery this past Sunday,  to share about Hanukkah.   Visitors were invited to  make a "dreidel" and enjoy an afternoon of  relaxed meeting , fellowship,  playing the dreidel game,  and learning a little about the festival of Light, which is Hanukkah!

A dreidel is a special game that is played at Hanukkah with a four sided spinning "top" that has four Hebrew letters written on it to represent "A Great Miracle Happened There", and as you know that is the Hanukkah miracle of the light that the pure oil that miraculously lasted long enough for 8 nights that should just have been enough for one .  

I love Hannukah,  though I must say I don't quite know how to spell it.

You can make a dreidel in two ways at the workshop, either out of paper clay or using origami paper "straws".

Of course, the idea of making a paper clay dreidel comes from the song! Which we sang.  In Japanese and English!

And the idea for the  dreidel craft from straws, comes from a creative Jewish Mom's blog, and it is This Post.  I love her creative and colorful Hannukah ideas, and when I saw it  I had an inspiration for my "Made in Japan" variation here, which is to use origami paper to make "straws".

Just roll the origami paper first into "straws" and enjoy all the variegated patterns and colors to make a dreidel decoration of many colors or many different colored dreidels. Because we were reading the Parsha about Joseph, it made me think of "Joseph and the many colored dreidels".

Please tune in  for a related Challah-cast from this week, all new,  HERE!

The original special edition challah in the header above will just be for the days of Hanukkah! It spells the letters on the dreidel which as you know stand for "A Great Miracle Happened There"!

Much love and Hanukkah blessings!!

♡

Shayndel

I was so happy to share about making a dreidel with the children!!  A few adults made one too, and when you make a dreidel as an adult, you feel like a child again!!

This paper clay dreidel was made by an adult who stopped by.  We found a new idea, to make the letters on the dreidel out of cut origami paper.

As part of the "light" theme, a photo that I took in Israel , Sunrise over the Sea of Galilee

, and of the Menorah that will go in the Holy Temple.

A Great Miracle Happened There--this is what the letters on the dreidel stand for, Nes Gadol, Haya, Sham.   Sharing about the miracle of Hannukah at a small community exhibit here in Oita.  This Origami craft Menorah I made inspired by this creative Hannukah Craft HERE that uses Straws to make an adorable menorah.

Reading the Hebrew letters from Right to Left, they stand for "Nes Gadol Haya Sham", a great miracle happened there.  The dreidels in Israel have one difference, there it says "A great miracle happened HERE"!

This little girl made her first dreidel.  She made it out of clay!

Sharing Hanukkah with children was a complete joy!! This is one of the new friends I made! She took home a little dreidel after we read together from the Little Dreidel book.

Reading this book, with a Japanese translation handy, that I translated last year with the help of my Japanese teacher!!  Its a fun book because it is all in "verse" to the Dreidel song tune, so even if the words aren't all understood, the pictures and the "song' are fun to share!

Another craft using origami paper rolled into "straws" inspired from this Dreidel Craft HERE!  Thank you to Creative Jewish Mom for the inspirations on her blog!

Sea of Galilee sunrise♡

Yeshua, You are welcome in this place!!

♡

And He called a child to Himself, set him in the midst of them, and said, 
"Amen, I tell you, unless you turn and become like children, you shall never enter the kingdom of heaven.  
Whoever then shall humble himself like this child, this one is the greatest in the kingdom of heaven.  And whoever welcomes one such child in My name, 
welcomes Me.

Matthew 18:2~5