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

 

 

 

 

 

 

Let there be Light! Star of David Challah and Challah-cast!

 

In visions of the night God said to Israel, "Jacob, Jacob."
"Hineni," he said.
I  am God, the God of your father," He said.  "Do not be afraid to go down to Egypt, for I will turn you into a great nation there.  I Myself will also most certainly bring you up.  Joseph will put his hands on your eyes."                   Genesis 46: 2~4

In the Torah readings this week we are already coming to the end of the book of Genesis. 

The book of Genesis starts with the Creation.  Through His word, God  brings light into the world and forms and creates all things.  This time when reading Genesis I am noticing how the book of Genesis ends with creating light from darkness as well in the sense that He is bringing into existence a new light that will be created from the darkness of exile--- the nation of Israel.

In the light of all that we are reading, in this Challah-cast from the Parsha Miketz (sorry I am already a few weeks behind!)  I chose to focus on making a "Star of David" challah for the Shabbat of Chanukah! (already a few weeks past, but remember, we are to bring our light in to the continuing the days!)

If you are just joining in, The Challah-casts are my new series of looking at the weekly parsha and connecting to it in some way to the making of a challah.  It is always a learning experience for me to do them and find connections to the parsha, and to somehow put it together into an upload!!  I hope  there would be something in them that would bring light to you!!

In the post below, we have been talking about the importance of "unity" and reconciliation between brothers.  Remember, that kiss between justice and shalom.  A kiss that took 14 years in the making for Joseph and his brothers, and a kiss that is still thousands of the years in the making that is yet to take place when the Shalom is restored between all brothers (and sisters) in Yeshua, the true light who lights all others, who is the Light of the World. 

Blessings and Shavu'a Tov and a light-filled week to you! And by the time I am posting this, Shabbat Shalom!!

♡
Shayndel

But you, O LORD, are a shield about me,
my glory, He who holds my head high.
Psalm 3:3

Deliverance is the LORD's YOur blessing be upon Your people!  Selah.  Psalm 3:9

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!)

Hannukah Challah, Latkes, Hannukah Views

The dough measured perfectly 1200!

To make a Star of David Challah, shape one triangle, then weave a second strand over and under to make the second triangle

This time I was struck by the simplicity of the ingredients for latkes!

They should be oily as this holiday is about a miracle involving oil!

the finished challah once baked comes out more like a pinwheel or flower shape!

Serve latkes with sour cream and fruit, here blueberries and pomegranate seeds!

 

Happy Hannukah！

I like to make a Star of David Challah on the first night.

A Star of David Challah, actually I made three!

Just a few assorted views!!

Wishing you a light-filled week!!


Latkes Recipe HERE

Love,

Shayndel

♡