Round Challah Part 2 and Rosh Hashanah・Shabbat Shuvah diary

 

Every good and perfect gift is from above, coming down from the Father of lights, with whom there is no variation or shifting shadow.  James 1:17

Would you believe it, this challah  was a gift, sent to me from Tokyo!!  A good and perfect gift from our Father in Heaven, who sent it through the synagogue ,  surprise and touched my heart in ways that only He knows how!! (the perfect round challah in a perfect square box, the box had my name on it hand written all around the box!!!)

L`Shana Tova! A card for you!

This one I made! A three strand braid shaped in a circle like a crown

. 

Praise is awaiting You in Zion, O God,

and to You the vow will be fulfilled.

Psalm 65:2

A few friends asked about how to make the round challah and to see `part 2` of shaping the challah, so I am popping in to share the upload for Part 2,  and share a few reflections on the Feast days and the Ten days of Awe that we are in, as well as about the challah!!

So without further ado, here is Part 2.  Sorry it doesn`t include the receiving of the challah gift described and pictured in top photos above!! I had already filmed the video!! But if you can, just imagine another doorbell ring, like in Part 1 when the sukkah was delivered from Abram the tent maker.  This time it was a Japan postman at the door delivering a Round challah from the King!!!  

 

 Joanne`s Challah-Cast channel!

As I have shared before, the round challah is my recommendation for all the fall `chag` (chag-im) feasts!!   I am thankful for master challah teacher Tamar, who I got a lot of tips from for making the challah this year.   I learned a few new things, including sifting the flour first, using oil instead of flour on the board for rolling and kneading if needed.  I made three of the shapes she taught about (see upload!).  I gave the ones I made to others, including of course one for my daughter, and to neighbors or friends to share about the holiday and God`s goodness.  So I was extra grateful for receiving the challah (from) above! 

The next feast is Yom Kippur, the day of Atonement, and the holiest day on the Kingdom calendar, with the Shabbat of Return (Shabbat Shuvah, or Shabbat Teshuvah!) before that.  It is very wonderful to see this year here in Asia, and many people now in the body of Messiah everywhere around the world,  are  beginning to more and more understand and enter into God`s appointed feasts.   And to  pray for Israel during these days.   Many Jewish people still do not know their (our) Messiah Yeshua.  Over hundreds, thousands, of years of history,  He has become unrecognizable to the Jewish people,  so removed even from His own feasts (*actually another word is `moedim` which means God`s appointed times and seasons).   The Feasts of the LORD are the appointed days that Yeshua  made as part of His plan of creation and redemption and for heaven and earth to meet in Him.  From the beginning it was all in place.  At the Restoration of the Kingdom of God on earth they will be continue to be celebrated and they will be fulfilled by Yeshua Himself, the coming King.   On this Shabbat of Return, and in this year 5781, May He reveal Himself to the Jewish people and to the world that He is the Messiah of Israel and Savior of the World!!  This is a time of restoration of all things and its exciting that we each have a part to play!!! 

 

And in this way all Israel will be saved, as it is written,

" The Deliverer shall come out of Zion.

He shall turn away ungodliness from Jacob.

And this is My covenant with them, when I take away their sins."

Romans 11:26~27 (referencing Isaiah 59:20~21, 27:9, and Jeremiah 31:31~34)

 

Oh, so of course no challah on Yom Kippur as it is a complete fast, for 25 hours, but you can have a challah prepared in advance for the break-fast, or for the continuing days of the feasts through Succot!! 

By the way I started putting up my Succah today!! Its my first real succah, and I can recall how it harkens back to the Tabernacle and forward to the wonderful day when God will dwell with us here on earth!!!

Blessings and Chag Sameach!

G`mar Chatimah Tovah!!

May you be sealed and inscribed for a good year!!

Love,♡

Shayndel

O the depth of the riches, 

both of the wisdom and knowledge of God!

How unsearchable are His judgments

and how incomprehensible His ways! 

Romans 11:33

Shabbat Shuvah and a Challah of Return (1 of 2)

As for me, nearness to God is good;
I have made the Lord God my refuge,
that I may recount all Your works.    ---Psalm 73:28

This Shabbat is called Shabbat Shuvah.
It means the Sabbath of Return.
It is the Shabbat between the Holy Feast day of Rosh Hashanah (Head of the Year) and the Holy Fast day of Yom Kippur (Day of Atonement).  This whole ten day period is called the Days of Awe.

For the month before these days (see `Elul` posts below), we draw closer to God and prepare our hearts in reflection as we seek repentance and return to Him.

Hence, on this Shabbat it is all about

return.

My challah this week too became all about return! No braided strands but one long strand (though it is my first time making this shape and, my strand could have been longer!).  You make the strand and then roll it from beginning to end into a spiral.  It naturally takes an upward shape of the spiral and can reflect our time of introspection and reflection and return.  As well as the circle and continuous eternal nature of God our Creator, who each year brings us together to these days of repentance and

Return.

thus says ADONAI-Tzva`ot,
`Return to Me`---it is a declaration of ADONAI-Tzva`ot---
`and I will return to you`, says ADONAI-Tzva`ot.

---Zecharaiah 1:3

Shabbat Shuvah and a Challah of Return (2 of 2)

and you return to the LORD your God, and you and your children heed His command with all your heart and soul, just as I enjoin upon you this day, then the LORD your God will restore your fortunes and take you back in love.     

----Deuteronomy 30:2

RECIPE:
Round Challah with raisins, Recipe HERE

Our Shabbat Shavuah meal recipes HERE and HERE

My First Shabbat Shuvah

Shabbat Shuvah ("Sabbath [of] Return" שבת שובה) or Shabbat Teshuvah ("Sabbath [of] Repentance" שבת תשובה) refers to the Shabbat that occurs during the Ten Days of Repentance between Rosh Hashanah and Yom Kippur.  --from Wikipedia

Today's Shabbat is Shabbat Shuvah.  I made another round challah.  I don't know if it is said to make round challah on this day, but as it is still this period of the Ten Days of Awe and repentance, it seemed fitting.  Plus I love the way the round challah braids are made, and how the two crossing over two become a circle as all the strands are woven together in a particular way.   It felt like the Crown, a reminder from our King that He is listening.  

Since I started observing the Shabbat this year,  the weeks have taken on a new rhythm.  One  Shabbat begins Friday evening and ends the next day's sunset and then the week begins and then again we prepare to enter into the Shabbat on the next Friday sunset.   God created the world in six days and rested on the 7th.  The circle seems to come alive in His Love.  

This year I began to enter into Shabbat through the making of challah.  Today is I suppose also the first Shabbat of the New Year, 5777.  But more than that it is seen as the special Shabbat, the sabbath of Return,  in between Rosh Hashanah and Yom Kippur, as if to say the cycle of Shabbatot doesn't really begin and end but continues in a beautiful eternal cycle, culminating every year in the Fall Feasts in the seventh month of Tishrei in this time of repentance and return.  

Isn't that so beautiful and even exquisite.  Each Shabbat has a special Torah portion to study, called the Parshiot, regardless of where we are on the round earth!.  Again I see the round challah and how unified we are in our King when we study His Torah and live on His eternal cycle of time, as he measures everything just perfect.

 Just like on each Shabbat we ask to draw closer to God, in this time of repentance we draw closer to Him and to seek forgiveness.  Forgiveness and repentance are life-giving.  Without seeking forgiveness we pile up sin in our heart, and that becomes a sure way into darkness, but with constant and true seeking of forgiveness, we are given life as we return to our Creator and to Yeshua. 

He is Light of the World.  When we smell the challah, and see it and taste it, may we understand the words in the Psalms 34

"Taste and see how good ADONAI is.
Blessed is the one who takes refuge in Him".    ---Psalm 34:9  TLV

Shabbat Shalom! 

I will heal their backsliding,
I will love them freely,
for My anger will turn away from him.
I will be like dew for Israel.
He will blossom like a lily,
and thrust out his roots like Lebanon.
His tender shoots will spread out.
His beauty will be like an olive tree
and his fragrance will be like Lebanon.
Those dwelling in his shadow will return.
They will grow grain and bud like a vine.
His renown will be like 
                 the wine of Lebanon.


               ---Hosea 14:  5〜8