Challah Cover, Continued, and learning from the Life of Sarah

It is said that when Sarah was 100 she was like 20 and when she was 20 she was like seven. Always beautiful and pure in heart.  She was righteous, faithful, and the one ADONAI chose to be the woman who would bring forth Abraham`s seed!!

As I was making the challah cover (yes! another post about the challah cover), you saw that I wrote Sarah`s name, and through different layers that led to my name through the generations, in embroidery thread.

 I had all the names done.  When I looked at everything I was pleased how it came out. I was able to write the names in Hebrew.  But then I saw a mistake in my name, Shayndel.  The `nun` which is the letter that sounds like the `n` in Shayndel looked like a `vet`.  The horizontal lines were way too long for a `nun`.  I wondered how I missed that when I drew the under-lines with the pen.  The purple pen lines were easy to see, and yet I completely overlooked it or..., or maybe just liked the overall balance and chose not to notice.  When I  finished sewing,   it looked more like `Shavdel`, as the `vet` has a `v` sound.  But still I thought, I `ll just leave it.

I had no idea how to make changes in embroidery and I figured to chalk it up to a mistake that I could live with.

Then I shared the pictures and the posts with my Hebrew teacher, asking her to let me know if there were any other glaring mistakes in my writing.  She reminded me about the nikkudot, the `vowels` and dot marks used in Hebrew.  I had kept some--the dot over the letter sin in “Sarah” and the one over the letter shin in Shayndel but left out others.  She pointed out that inconsistency of leaving them on some letters and removing them from others.

Oh, and she agreed about the `nun`.  To her it looked like another Hebrew letter, a `khaf`.

correcting the `nun` in `Shayndel`

I have been learning from my Hebrew teacher about the importance of each letter in Hebrew, and about being thorough and clear in our reading and writing and study of each letter.  She is very gentle and didn`t say `you should change it` but somehow I realized after that correspondence that it wasn`t `right` to leave the mistakes.  I would use the challah cover on Shabbat and week after week I would see that I knew I had mistakes, and I left them.  Not only that, but I saw something about myself.  How easily I am willing to just `leave my mistakes`.
Let me just clarify, there is nothing wrong with mistakes, it is a good thing, as it is good to acknowledge we made a mistake and then learn from it.  But here was something else.  I knew I made a mistake, and I knew that I needed to correct it, yet I was avoiding making the correction.

I am learning through Torah and through studying God`s word and through my Salvation  that we want to strive to be more holy as He is Holy, more righteous as He is righteous.  And to just plainly be honest with ourselves because when we know we are not being true to ourselves, then we are not being true to Him.

If I was to learn anything from Sarah, it was this attention to `right-ness` or right-eous-ness.  The `me` before walking with God would have definitely left it.  I liked how it looked, I liked the dots there, I didn`t mind that the nun wasn`t right, I would take artistic license.  But the new and recreated `me` in Messiah Yeshua  realized as the day went on that I couldn`t leave it knowing it was not right.  I would have to risk what would happen to the whole thing and if need be I would have to scrap the whole challah cover if I `ruined` it,  as  experience.    I just needed to find out how to change it.  I went to the fabric store where I bought the thread and the nice salesperson heard me out and said that I probably needed a `ripper`.  Oh dear, that sounded severe, a ripper!!! But I said, ok please show me.  And she took out a sample ripper.  It was actually more gentle than it sounded, it was small and hand-sized,  had a nice metal point and a sharp part in the curve that could neatly tear the threads and take them out.

Ok, I will take it! I said!!  So now I had my ripper, I went home and looked at the cloth, said a prayer and blessing, and went to work!! I took out the letter that wasn`t a `nun` and carefully checked the shape of the `nun` and redrew it.  I made the correction!!

This story goes on and on, as I looked up the meaning of the Hebrew letter `nun`. It means `Messiah`!! There in the middle of my name was the letter that represents Messiah!!  And I was going to let it be another letter and not correct it!!! Wow!! I am sure that only by making the mistake was I able to come back and see the `nun` for what it was.  It also has other meanings and significance such as: servant, if you look at it`s shape bent over as a servant; it also represents a fish.  As the 14th letter of the Hebrew alphabet it is associated with King David`s reign and much more about the `nun`.  It then lead me to looking up all the letters and to deepen my understanding of my Hebrew name, and most of all of what it means to have Messiah and His Holy Spirit live in us.  He is the one who is Counselor, He is our Righteousness!! He came to earth as a servant and to teach us to serve others!! He always existed even before Abraham and yet He is also of the seed of Abraham, the source of all Life, He is Life!! ...And this leads us into the next parsha, as we will see Isaac spending time at wells.  Wells of Living Water that were dug by his Father Abraham!!

To be continued....

Challah Cover in Progress---From Sarah to me and to you

 `Sarah` and `Avraham`.  Using my new Challah Cover,  still in progress!!

From Sarah and Abraham, to Isaac and Rebecca. The pink thread that you see at the bottom is spelling the first letters of my name, Shayndel!!

The seeds scattered around the challah.  from this angle the Challah Cover and the layers of the generations reminded me of the tent of Abraham!!  The challah cover like a house for the bread.  Lechaim, to life, to Lechem (bread), to Yeshua!!

`Shayndel`

.   

`Yitchak` and `Rifka`, on blue and on pink, `Sarah` and `Avraham` on white above, challah cover in progress on the tatami ...

Shabbat Shalom!
It became Shabbat and my challah cover is still ... in progress!

 I had an idea (see post below for Part 1!) and it kept getting new layers and look what happened.. Sarah and Abraham led.. in thread... to me!!

As I was sewing I saw I had left a place in the white cloth that was under the names Abraham and Sarah.  I didn`t exactly know what or if anything would go in that space.  I made the blue layer for Isaac, the pink layer for Rebecca.

Then I looked at the tatami floor where I was stitting, the golden color picking up on the gold color thread around Sarah`s name. 

 I realized that what all the parashiot are about is not just to study the portions intellectually and look at `history` but rather at the living Torah and our places in it through what God shows us in each time we read it, including what came before, what is to come and where we are now!!

Through this parsha I saw the thread that connects us to our forefathers and mothers!!
 The letters added to the bottom are my name, in Hebrew letters, Shayndel!

 I saw that Sarah is the beginning of our line of women, who brought forth the promise of ADONAI of descendants through the seed of Abraham!!  Look at all those seeds...through Isaac, then Jacob, to his sons who made up the tribes of Israel ...to King David, to  Messiah Yeshua.  And through Him that seed were multiplied and sent to nations... and continues to multiply... all the way and continuing in....yes, in us....

I am sharing my excitement in some ways as a diary of my first year studying the Torah,  and this journey through the parsahiot...and also in the hope that my excitement in learning can connect you with yours as we find out who we are in Yeshua, in God the Father.  Each week there is another layer of new things to learn as we continue to study His word, to walk in Faith, hear His call and return to the living Torah!!

 I do hope that perhaps there is someone who is reading this has not yet chosen to walk with God, and will hear His call.  And that even now, this very day your eyes will be open to Yeshua.  Salvation is for everyone who calls on the name on the LORD.  The seed of Abraham is so huge in number that his descendants are as many as the stars in the sky...At the end of this Shabbat, when we look up at the stars as it becomes night, we can think of the taste of the wine (or grape juice in my case!), Yeshua the vine, and Father Abraham who left everything behind to walk into the plans God had for him that he could not yet even see!!! And remember, Sarah was 90 years old when she gave birth to a son, fulfillment of a long-awaited promise.

For nothing will be impossible with God.

----Luke 1:37

  May we give thanks to ADONAI for our forefathers and mothers!  For their Faith that encourages us in ours.
And for His Torah!!
We are only (already!) in the fifth week, hope you will join in reading the portions if you have not yet already.  You can find the list of weekly readings here.

Shabbat Shalom!
May ADONAI  bless you and keep you!  May He shine His face upon you and give you SHALOM (Peace).   (from the Aaronic Blessing, Numbers 6:24~26)

Bring us back to you, ADONAI, and we will return.  

Renew our days as of old.   ---Lamentations 5:21 TLV

A remnant will return,
even the remnant of Jacob,
to the Mighty God.

--Isaiah 21

From the beginning

In the beginning God created the heavens and the earth.   ---Genesis 1:1

In the fall (autumn) in some places the clocks are turned back this time of year for daylight savings time.  I just saw that in Israel this is done too, and it became one hour earlier just last night!

In the cycle of God`s calendar, it is the time of the year where we roll back the Torah.   Time to begin reading and study again from the beginning.

Like many of my posts this one also expresses something I am learning and doing for the very first time, as this fist year of celebrating the Fall Feasts*  in my life in Japan continues!  

As a child, even though I was raised Jewish and went to synagogue year after year for the holidays and attended Hebrew school,  I never  understood anything about the ongoing and repeating cycle of the Torah readings.   

The Torah is read in portions each week for one year from Genesis to Deuteronomy.  Then at the last of the Fall Feasts, Simchat Torah,  we read the last Torah portion, then proceed immediately to the first chapter of Genesis, reminding us that the Torah is a circle, and never ends.   On Simchat Torah there is rejoicing with the Torah, and a celebration of getting all the way to the end.  In the congregation people even dance with the Torah, though I am not sure if that was done in our Long Island reform congregation where I attended! 
It was done in Japan though!!

Then the Torah is scrolled all the way back to the beginning!

The first Parsha, or Torah Portion, is from Genesis, which is called Breisheet in Hebrew.  Creation.  As I was flying over water on the way to Tokyo to celebrate Shemini Atzerat just before Simchat Torah,  I was looking out the window the whole plane ride.  I sensed God wanted me to see the expanse in the midst of the water, and the way He separated the waters when he formed and named the sea and sky.  Connecting back to that second day of creation...

Then God said, "Let there be an expanse in the midst of the water!  Let it be for separating water from water."   So God made the expanse and it separated the water that was below the expanse from the water that was over the expanse.  And it happened so. God called the expanse "sky."   --Genesis 1:6~8

I looked down at God`s creation in awe of the way the sky and the water really are separated and the clouds even float on that line of separation.  Those thousands of years ago felt close as I was filled with a giddy excitement of this Torah cycle approaching and starting anew from the beginning.  In His creation, in Genesis.  

Then on what would be the third day He said let the water below the sky be gathered together in one place and let the dry ground appear.  And it happened so. (from Genesis 1:9). 

I watched the shapes of the islands and thought of how our island nation of Japan is one of the nations who wait in anticipation for His Torah. 

The islands will wait for His Torah.   ---Isaiah 42:4

I watched the shorelines in awe of how exactly the shapes are drawn, and how the water line is clearly calculated so the water stops when it reaches the land.

when I said, 'This far you may come, but no further'
here your majestic waves will stop. '   ---Job 38:11 

Turning back the Torah doesn`t turn back time but it reminds us of the precision and plans of our Precise Creator and how everything is divided and separated, formed and calibrated on His ...Torah time!!  God`s time.  When we are all in sync with His time, agreeing to His purposes, reading the same passages and celebrating His appointed days as He commands us to do, something clicks like those calibrated wheels that you see when you look into a time piece.  As we gear up for the new year of the Parashiot, it is like  getting synchronized on the circle that goes back to creation and forward to His coming!


If, like me, you have never read the Torah on a yearly cycle, this could be the perfect time to start!! This will also be my first time to start from the beginning, as the past year I joined in sometime around the Passover and it was already well into the Exodus.  I hope this post might inspire you to start this cycle and study together!

This weeks reading was Breisheet.  The coming Shabbat will be Noach from the story of Noah.  You can click on here  to get the listing of the Parshiot for 2016-2017.  In each set of readings we see how the prophecies from the Old Testament are fulfilled in the coming of Yeshua as we read and study the portions from the Torah, Haftorah, and including readings from the Brit Chadashah (The Good News, or New Testament). 

(then He, Yeshua said...)

I am the Alpha and the Omega, the First and the Last, the Beginning and the End.                                                            ---Revelation 22:13

 May God look upon us from the heavens and see us returning to His Torah!! May he be pleased with us and say like He did at the time of creation when there was a separation between water and water, and when there was not yet a separation between people and God, and He said at the end of the each day, `it is good.`!!

So God saw everything that He made, and behold it was very good.     ---Genesis 1:31

Note:  all the photos in this post I took from the airplane from Oita to Tokyo In two trips over the Succot and Shemeni Atzeret holidays.

Note:  If you are interested to read more about this Torah portion from Genesis,  you can find many drash, or sermons about it if you look it up.  I will share one link below from a blog I came across, it looks at the Hebrew letter Beit that begins the Breisheet and first line of Genesis from a Messianic perspective.  The writer  explains how the first letter means house, and then goes on to connect it with Yeshua and our dwelling with Him from the very beginning.  I provided the link to that article below.  Or enjoy looking for other talks on the text as you begin the year of Torah Study from the beginning! Shalom and Enjoy!:
http://jewishjewels.org/Newsletter%20Archive/IntheBeginning-Jan2006.pdf

Note:  Until my eyes were opened to the truth of Yeshua, I always knew the Fall Feasts as the `Jewish` holidays, but important note:  they are not only for Jewish people but for all God`s children!! they are for all who call upon His name, all who call upon His name in truth, both in the natural and the grafted in, we are all brothers and sisters in Yeshua!!  Yeshua came to reconcile the Jew and Gentile in Himself.  It is  beautiful to see that living truth  in a messianic congregation, where Jewish and Gentile believers  worship, read Torah, and celebrate the feasts together!!

The first Sabbath

Remember the Sabbath day by keeping it holy. For in six days the LORD made heaven and earth and the sea, and all that is in them, and rested on the seventh day.  Thus the LORD blessed the Sabbath day and made it Holy.      ---Exodus 8:8,11

 God is so merciful, He cleans our hearts and our lives when we repent and become new in Him.   He makes us into a new creation in Christ.  It is something miraculous.  Little by little I was shedding many things from my old life.    

(I don`t exactly know where to start, so I will start from the first Challah and let the story take its twists from there!)

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

When we moved into a new apartment this year God showed me that he wanted me to leave everything behind, and only bring 3 boxes with me.  It was not easy but in the end, I did it and understood why.  It was so I could make this home new and holy for Him.   I delighted in choosing each new thing,  from the rice bowl to the color of the curtains. 

Then once we were set up, He asked me to observe his Shabbat. (Yom Shabbat is Hebrew for Sabbath Day).

When I think of it now its romantic that He asked me to do that.  
Perhaps like a new bride I didn`t quite know how to set up house for him or even what it meant to keep the Shabbat.

I didn`t know how to start, but knew the special Jewish bread called Challah and that Jesus is the bread of Life, so I decided to start by making a Challah.

Something new was happening.  We were celebrating the first Shabbat.

 I read a book around that time about the Kingdom Calendar and the importance to God of observing His feast days, for both Jews and Gentiles, called Touching the Heart of God (Touching the Heart of God by Paul Wilbur).  This book (I highly recommend it!) spoke to me strongly and I saw how important the Sabbath is for God.  Now that I loved Him I wanted to do the things that pleased Him.  It was not out of obligation but rather out of hearing something that was in His heart and obeying that call to observe His fourth commandment.

It was a wonderful time to make the dough while meditating on my Savior.
Our Father, Our King.
I never celebrated the Sabbath as a child, even though we were Jewish, so this was my first time ever to observe it,
here in our new apartment in Japan.

So there it is my first Challah!

When my daughter came home from school that Friday evening and saw the Challah she got excited!
My love for Jesus went into making it.  It was a holy bread.  It emanated light! I attempted a six braided challah, but as you can see it is quite different!! But even as I see it now, it is my first and came from my heart.  It was an offering to God. After years of separation from my Jewish faith--- forty years in the wilderness!!-- I had returned to Him through Salvation in Yeshua.

No one comes to the Father except through the Son!

 He was pleased.  The first Sabbath.