Draw me after you, let us run! The king has brought me into his chambers.
(Chorus: Daughters of Zion)
Let us rejoice and be glad in you; let us extol your love more than wine. Rightly do they love you!
Song of Songs 1:4, Let us sing it together!
Dear Friends,
Happy to see you again, and to return after another unplanned blog break, this time with a new and `unleavened` header!! I hope you are all well.
The holiday of Pesach, or Passover, is approaching. It`s time to change the header of my blog from leavened to un-leavened bread!
Praise the L-RD we have entered into His first month of Springtime, the first month on His Biblical Calendar. In the bible whenever you see a verse that references the first month, if it is after the Exodus from Egypt, it is referring to this very month we are in now!!
We give thanks as we enter into the month of AVIV, also known as the month of Springtime, also known as Nisan. It is the month of Redemption, Renewal, of Passover, of Freedom!!
Chodesh Tov! We pray a time of new beginnings for you and your family and for all that G-d is calling you to!!
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
More to follow ~~ I hope to get back to posting again in this favorite season here at Challah and Cherry Blossoms, as the Cherry blossoms have just started to open announcing the glory of G-d and the expectation for new life in Yeshua as we align in His first month of Springtime and prepare our hearts...and homes... for the coming Passover!
Therefore let us celebrate the feast not with old hametz, the hametz of malice and wickedness, but with unleavened bread—the matzah of sincerity and truth.
1 Corinthians 5:8
Blessings and Love,
Shayndel
❤️
Note about the pictue, for the record: I just received a delivery of matzah!! I am rejoicing because on my calendar I have marked `order Matzah` on tomorrow`s plan, and already I have received it!! Praise God, and may He always go ahead of us! May His shalom and AHAVA Love be multiplied to you!
He is the one you praise. He is your God, who performed for you those great and awesome wonders you saw with your own eyes. Deuteronomy 10:21
I wrote a few weeks ago about not seeing my daughter since last year, over one year ago before Passover. For Passover last year, we were supposed to meet but had to cancel as it was at the onset of the `pandemic` and travel restrictions.
We were planning to have Passover again this year on zoom and guess what? We didn`t keep the zoom date, because she came home in person and surprised us!
We had an early Passover face to face!!
That is my Passover Miracle, and I thank the LORD on High for His answer to prayer this Passover and revealing His chesed love.
Thank you for your prayers!
I want to share the story and start with a little backdrop to set the scene.
It happened the days of preparing just before Passover, as I was cleaning out the last of the hametz (leaven) from the house.
Even then I was remembering when my daughter was here before she went to college and we did the cleaning together, or at least, she was there to cheer me on and help with the `feather inspection`(making sure we got all the last crumbs)! I even have a post about it HERE, where we were giddy with the spring blossoms and she was taking my bag of `hametz` to her workplace to be stored away and out of the house for the week of unleavened bread!!
Back to the current story, it was almost Passover and I had already sent her a box of matzah and grape juice and a few other things for her so she could have it for our `zoom` Seder together. I decided to cook the Passover meal in advance and send that to her as well so we could have it together. I made the brisket and matzah ball soup and had everything ready at around midnite to make sure to have it frozen by the next day and send it by delivery to her on time.
When I finished and packed the last matzah balls and soup in the freezer, it was about midnite, and just then the doorbell rang!!
I wasn`t sure to answer it or not at such an hour but in my surprise of the moment, I didn`t have to do anything. She opened the door with her own key and there was my daughter in the entrance smiling with her bright yellow suitcase and announcing she`s home!!
The next night I defrosted everything and we had a gorgeous (and a little early) Passover seder together!! Our visit was in haste as she was only able to stay a few nights, but it was wonderful to have her here face to face and celebrate Passover and even enjoy the cherry blossoms and a little family time together!!
Thank you for reading my story.
And now the `Parable`.
I felt the LORD speaking to me about `Preparation`, and how when we prepare for that special time in eager anticipation of seeing the one we love and celebrating the feast with them, it actually can hasten that happening. So can you see the parable? As we `Prepare` for Messiah`s return, we can actually hasten His coming as we prepare for Him and make everything ready in our hearts, homes, and spirit for His coming. And who knows, His coming might even be early!!!
Hope you are experiencing miracles big and small (though no miracle is `small` by definition a miracle is a miracle!!) and having a blessed month of Yeshua, season of deliverance, month of Love!! (I added that!). Isn`t it perfect on God`s calendar the next month will begin this week. It is the month of Iyar, which is considered a month of healing, and acronym for the first letter in the verse, I am the LORD who heals you.
As well as a month of `passage` between Redemption (Passover) and Revelation (Shavuot).
Praying a blessed and healing month of Iyar and continued deliverance and miracles as we count up the days to Shavout.
Now to Him who is able to do far beyond all that we ask or imagine, by means of His power that works in us, to Him be the glory in the community of believers and in Messiah Yeshua throughout all generations forever and ever! Amen. Ephesians 3:20~21
Much Love,❤️
Shayndel
This meal I was able to have ready in the quickest time ever, as I had it all prepared and all I had to do was `defrost` it , just add the spring greens!
PS Just for the record, I am leaving space below to add the pics of house cleaning, and the meal `frozen` and to remind myself, as well as remember how there are times when a miracle comes into being through our preparedness!! Hmm... we might be on to something there!!! xoxo
Please join me under the Cherry trees to share from a few different pages in the Passover Haggadah. The Haggadah is what we read from during the Seder at Passover. Haggadah means the `telling` of the story and `Seder` means `order`.
I hope there might be something new in it for you from a `Messianic` Passover Haggadah, and I also hope you will be able to enjoy the beautiful springtime in Japan, as the series goes from from the full bloom and full moon of the month of Nisan, to the petals falling from the leaves, to the new spring green!!
Blessings and Shabbat Shalom! Love, ❤️Shayndel
PS this is part 4 !
I will lift up the cup of salvation and call on the Name of the LORD.
I hope you will be blessed by this `unleavened` Challah-cast!
Or rather, in this season, I can call it a `Matzah-cast` as we begin to enter the time of Passover and Feast of Unleavened bread.
I hope you might even learn a little Hebrew if it is new for you. In any case, I think it will be the first time for many to see Hebrew words in `matzah`. It was new for me and I found them to be very beautiful and remind us of the `humility` and fruits of the spirit that we are to embody in Messiah Yeshua. There is a quality of unleavened bread that we can discover in this month of Aviv and as we experience anew the Deliverance that God has for each of us both personally and as a people in Him this Pesach.
As its time to clear out the hametz from our hearts and homes, replace
the blog header with `unleavened` header, it only naturally follows that
the Challah-casts too for this Springtime season leading up to
Passover will be `Unleavened`!! It is amazing how that just happens as
we clear our hearts of hametz. The Feast doesn`t officially start until this weekend, but somehow even the days leading up to it, to make a challah in the week before Passover feels so
`puffy`!!
Blessings to all in this month of Deliverance, month of Springime, month of Yeshua!
In Your love You lead the people You redeemed; In Your strength You guide them to Your holy abode. Exodus 15:13
The seven (or eight) days of Passover pass by so quickly. I am never quite ready to go back to "leaven" until another week or so after that! If you still have matzah, I invite you to make Matzah Brei!! Do you know Matzah brei? A divine comfort food that is a little like "french toast", but with matzah!! It will be something you can try while at home, and it will give you a taste of deliverance when topped with Charoset and Yogurt, for a special Passover ending to top off and round up the holiday. Thankfully when one holiday of the LORD "ends" another is already beginning, and that is especially so at Passover, as we start counting the days, or 7 weeks, up to "Shavuot" in expectation. These are the days which led up to the giving of the Torah at Mt. Sinai, and the pouring out of the Holy Spirit in the Upper Room when the disciples would have also counted up to that day in great expectation. The counting started at the second night of Passover, Tonite we count the eighth day of the Omer. In my Challah -cast this week I go out with my timbrels and Praise the LORD with the tambourine before heading inside to make the Matzah brei!! Is there a connection between the two?? I invite you to take up your timbrels, to make Matzah brei, and to watch the "Challah-cast" this week!!
Blessings and Love,
♡
Shayndel (and Joanne's Challah-cast Channel!)
Matzah Brei and timbrels, for the seventh day of Passover
Matzah brei with Charoset and yogurt!! Divine Passover comfort food!!
Worthy is the Lamb! See link below for the Messianic Hagaddah I used for the Passover Seder
Charoset, a mixture of apples and nuts and wine or grape juice symbolizes the mortar that the Children of Israel used to make bricks in the time of slavery in Egypt.
On the Seder Plate, Each item represents something in the telling of the Exodus story and in the revealing of Messiah Yeshua
We drink 4 cups of Wine during the Seder, as per the words in the Scripture in Exodus 6:6, God's promises of redemption and making us a people unto Him. Yeshua too drank 3 of these cups at His seder, the 3rd of which has become the "communion" of the New Covenant.
3 matzah are wrapped in a "trinity" of Matzah! The middle matzah is the Afikomen, which represents the body of Yeshua and which is "hid" during the seder, and found at the end of the meal. Yeshua Himself has been "hidden" from the Jewish people, soon to be revealed with great joy and rejoicing for all!! The Truth shall set us all free!!!
This year the blossoms fill our inside and the Passover spills forth outside. On Passover in Japan the renewal and resurrection that is expressed in the Month of Springtime, Nissan, and the resurrection and Redemption that we celebrate in Yeshua on Passover, seem to echo each other as the blossoms and Passover spring forth in the month of Nissan. I say every year that I can't wait until the Japanese people know their Messiah and maybe it will even be so that after this year when there are no people picnicking under the blossoms, that next year there will be a new gathering under the blossoms in the recognition of our Creator who brings this all forth and our Redeemer who will deliver Japan too in His mighty Hand of Salvation!! I can't wait!! This year when reading in the Hagaddah, I also learned that Nissan is called "Chodesh Yeshuah". Which means the Month of Salvation. For the Jewish people too, I can't wait until they know thier Messiah. Me too, I didn't know Him until six years ago. It is so amazing that for 2000 plus years Jewish people know that the month is "Chodesh Yeshua" and yet we have lived with not knowing the truth of Yeshua who is our Passover Lamb, the Lamb that the whole seder is based upon and reveals. As I observe the Passover year after year, as a Messianic believer reborn in Yeshua, this reality of Yeshua as our Passover Lamb just bursts alive, as each element on the Passover table reveals our Messiah. And yet most Jewish people, including all of my family, still have not received this truth. I pray this Passover that all my Jewish family and all my Japan family will know this truth, and the truth will set Israel free and Japan free and all the nations of the world free!!!
BTW, why a Tambourine on the Seder table?? Its my original addition, as it represents Miriam the prophet, Moses' sister, and her great faith in God her Deliverer and the Saviour of her people. She was all prepared and had "packed' her timbrels knowing in complete faith and believing that God would bring about a great Deliverance! When indeed the Jewish people were led through the Sea of Reeds and set free on the other side, she led the women in timbrels and dancing!!! May we have our timbrels ready for His great deliverance this Passover as well! Blessings and Happy Passover, and a happy Month of Yeshua!!!
note: the Hagaddah I have used this year and last year is THIS LINK, Messianic Hagaddah. I'm sure there are many you can find, and this one is pretty long!! But even so, I have found it very good for teaching and for the seder!!! Recommended for all who desire to see how the Jewish Passover reveals our Messiah Yeshua, as well as the Revelations for the Passover we will all celebrate together when it is fulfilled in the Kingdom and we drink the fourth cup with Him, all together as ONE in Him!!!
There is neither Jew nor Greek, there is neither slave nor free, there is neither male nor female---for you are all one in Messiah Yeshua.
Note: This post is from last year (Spring 2019) before Passover, and I never ended up posting it. Somehow I saw it today when I was going to edit a post, it was in "drafts". I didn't purposely mean to post it but I posted it. That seemed strange but as it was what it was, I decided to leave it!!! And see how it speaks to us today!! Hope it blesses someone or speaks even to me in some way about this Year's Passover--and actually I just read it and amazingly, it completely does speak of this year "where God's people are some here, some there, may we all join our hearts as One , as we prepare for the ultimate Redemption..."(read on!) *** (Note: I started this post "on the go" before Passover, so it is from a few weeks past already! I was too rushed to post !! I went "up" to Tokyo for Passover. I made a trip to Tokyo to have Passover with my daughter, and attend a community seder on the second night. These were pictures, before my Passover "journey"to Tokyo! Of sharing a matzah and grape juice "communion" before actual Passover. Just sharing it now as we can always eat the bread and drink the cup as Yeshua tells us to and as the first Passover was taken in a rush to get out of Egypt, this "Passover to-go" set reminds me of getting rid of anything we still may be enslaved to and set out in this season free of those things that are full of "hametz", and trade them in for those qualities fitting for being freed as a child of God.)
As I am scurrying to get ready, to have the house cleaned of all the hametz. I confess (?!) I started eating matzah already, sharing in communion even over a week before Passover. Things with leaven already look heavy, bread so puffed up, and sinful! I am ready for the week of matzah, and no leaven. Today I had matzah standing up. Because in my cleaning I still had things around and there was no place to sit. When standing up I think of the Israelites who were commanded to eat the Passover in haste, not leaving anything leftover. They were to stand. In preparation to leave quickly for their Exodus. Exodus 12:10~11 Being set free happens at once and yet once set free there is still our lifetime to work out our salvation. At moments like these when we realize or start to , what it means to be set free and die to ourselves, sometimes we can't even sit down. And surely there are those moments when we can't even stand up, and have to kneel down and cry in sheer thanks to our Saviour for the finished work of what He has done for us. But the work we need to do is not finished, our work to come together as One in Him. On this holiday where God's people are some here, some there, may we all join our hearts as One , as we prepare for the ultimate Redemption...Well, these are just some thoughts on the go on the day before Passover!! I give you a new commandment, that you love one another. Just as I have loved you, so also you must love one another. By this all will know that you are my disciples, if you have love for one another. John 13:34~35 Many blessings...Love to all and a Chag Sameach Pesach!!
For I received from the Lord what I also passed on to you—that the LordYeshua, on the night He was betrayed, tookmatzah;and when He had given thanks, He broke it and said,“This is My body, which is for you. Do this in memory of Me.”In
the same way, He also took the cup, after supper, saying, “This cup is
the new covenant in My blood. Do this, as often as you drink it, in
memory of Me.”For as often as you eat this bread and drink this cup, you proclaim the Lord’s death until He comes. ―1 Corinthians 11:23-26
When you present an offering of meal baked in the oven, (it shall be of) choice flour: unleavened cakes with oil mixed in, or unleavened wafers spread with oil. Leviticus 2:4 וְכִי תַקְרִב קָרְבַּן מִנְחָה, מַאֲפֵה תַנּוּר--סֹלֶת חַלּוֹת מַצֹּת בְּלוּלֹת בַּשֶּׁמֶן וּרְקִיקֵי מַצּוֹת מְשֻׁחִים בַּשָּׁמֶן.
As my blog has a theme of "challah" and I like to find connections between Challah and Torah, you may not be surprised that I got excited when reading about the "grain offering" in this week's parsha. This time its the first time I noticed the word "Challah" in the scripture above. Unleavened wafers (cakes) in the English is "Challot Matzot" in Hebrew!!!
If you can find it in your heart to share in my enthusiasm, please do read on !!!
Making Matzah!
In the recipe for making matzah, after it is baked there is the instruction to "anoint the matzah"!
I never read that in a recipe before, and I must say it helped me to "draw near" to the LORD in this matzah-making time!! If you have never made matzah before, be encouraged to try!!! First, its much simpler than challah, and technically (halachically, according to the Jewish tradition) has to be done from start to finish in 18 minutes for Passover purposes!! So if you have a little time and want to try it for this year, please do!!
I'm hoping to be able to get a box or so of Matzah for Passover, but just in case am "practicing" making Matzah!!
Of course, The Children of Israel didn't have the luxury of "practicing", and had
to just to it and prepare the dough right away and carry the dough with
them on their Exodus!!
Passover amazingly always comes at the time of the Cherry Blossoms!! This year Nissan 1, the first of Nissan, was also just when the first blossoms opened!! I find that amazing, as the day is always different on the Hebrew calendar, and there is not a "set day" that cherry blossoms open, and yet the past few years that I have been "living on the Hebrew calendar" I have noticed that each year!!
It feels very Messianic that God's commanded first day of Springtime and first month of the year is announced in His creation with the opening of the first cherry blossoms!! I always say I look forward to the day when the people of Japan will know their Messiah Yeshua and the glorious time under the blossoms will be a time of worship and celebration of Him!!! May it be swiftly and in our day!!
This year it may be a little quiet for cherry blossom picnics, but thankfully the blossoms blossom and the fragrance of resurrection and renewal is in the air!! And who knows, maybe it will be just this year when the people of Japan look up to a salvation Sky and receive their Saviour as the "sakura" blossom all throughout Japan.
Nissan, as you know, is a month of miracles!
As a friend wrote in a message to me, I will share this:
"Get ready to pass over!"
That message encouraged me tremendously!!
This is the Matzah recipe I used HERE if you'd like to try it!!
And this (below) is my Matzah Challah-cast for this first week of Nissan!
The
Challah-cast is a little under 11 minutes if you are moved to watch it
and to make matzah, you can try it!! I also share some
of my "drash" (related discussion!!") in the upload, so I'll keep the
text here in this post brief as the photos are many!!
Time to start removing the "hametz", and change the header to "unleavened" bread!!
Much Love and blessings all!!
Shayndel (dba Joanne's Challah-cast)
Notes: The recipe also calls for salt to be sprinkled on the matzah. I love this recipe! Anointed with oil and sprinkled with salt!
Yeshua, the anointed One, tells us we are to be salt (Matthew 5:13)!! I found that connection so interesting to read this scripture in Leviticus in light of Yeshua's words, as we ourselves are to be the salt.
You shall season your every offering of meal with salt; you shall not omit from your meal offering the salt of your covenant with God; will all your offerings you must offer salt. Leviticus 2:13
Shabbat Shalom!! (not Passover yet, but making "unleavened cakes" to prepare, in this week of parsha Vayikra!
Anointed, salted "challot matzot"-- Matzah!-- on the Shabbat Table in this week of Parsha Vayikra--entering the book of Leviticus
Cherry blossoms first blossoms so perfectly calling in the month of Nissan,the month of springtime
The matzah is "Pierced" and calls to us to remember Messiah Yeshua who was pierced for our transgression
Today God asked me to wear a worship dress when I make challah. He has never asked me to do that before!! And my Shalom apron!! So I will obey and begin to make the challah now. Oh wait, but first, clear the table and the room have the Shabbat candles prepared on the table. This Shabbat, He reminded me to check, is ......Shabbat HaChodesh. Oh!! LORD, thank you !! That means it will soon be the new month of Nisan!!! Nisan, the month of springtime, the month of Deliverance and Redemption. This is one of the holiday Shabbat between Purim and Pesach. I still have all my Purim decorations on the table, and I hear its time to clear them and prepare my heart and myself for Passover and the Spring Feasts. I also just realized this Shabbat we are finishing the book of Exodus!! Chazak, Chazak, V'nit Chazek!! Be strong, be strong and let us strengthen one another!!
Blessings to all and Shabbat Shalom!!♡
(Photos: first cherry blossom this year seen at the "root" of the tree, and first butterfly(photo to follow, seen earlier this week)!
Parsha and Holiday readings for this Shabbat HaKodesh:
HaChodesh The Month (Nisan begins civil year on the Hebrew calendar)
A long title, and a short post to wish you a Pesach Sameach!! As the Blossoms turn to spring green, reflected in a Tambourine!! Time to change the header to "Matzah and Cherry Blossoms"!!
A song of Praise,
with blessings,
with LOVE !
The singers go before, the musicians last, between maidens beating tambourines.
"Bless God in the congregations--
ADONAI, from the fountain of Israel". Psalm 68:26~27
As the Cherry blossoms are fluttering off the trees, in a soft and flutter,
and the leaves turn to green
the season is flowing in perfect harmony into the days of Passsover
as if it was out of a movie scene.
As we prepare to clean our hearts of leaven and our cabinets of hametz, a delivery arrives. Matzah! On time! And then the doorbell rings again. Oh heavens! Tambourines!! ♡
Shabbat Shalom!! the last Shabbat before Passover! The Great Shabbat (this Shabbat is called Shabbat Gadol! the Great Shabbat)~~~!! Notice: This Post may contain photos and scriptures to follow, for now just posting a few words in the excitement of receiving the Matzah and the timbrels!! You may be able to guess the two scriptures I have in mind!! (OK, if anyone is up for the challenge, and gets them, then a tambourine is in store for you!)!! Blessings and Love, Shayndel, off to clean my cabinets!
Some time before the end of Passover I always like to do a dance under the cherry blossoms.
After the cleaning and confessing, the festivities and the matzah, the contemplation and the prayer, and all of the blossoming there is definitely undoubtedly a renewal and something set free within us.
May we rejoice and Praise the King of Kings in this season and at all times! May we see a new season of Salvation for many and may the yokes of bondage be broken off. For He is good and His love endures forever!! And He is coming again!!
But now that you have been set free from sin and have become slaves of God, the benefit you reap leads to holiness and the result is eternal life.
