First Blossoms, Shabbat of Song, A new Challah-cast, and Happy Tu B'shevat!!

Plum blossoms, and can you see , the "Tu B'shevat" moon?! 

Thou in Thy love hast led the people that Thou hast redeemed; Thou hast guided them in Thy strength to Thy holy habitation.        

                                                          Exodus 15:13

This Shabbat is known as the Shabbat of Song.
I love the sound of that, and the readings in the book of Exodus and the book of Judges this week that contain the Song of Miriam and the Song of Deborah.  Joyful and Triumphant songs of Praise and Redemption!!!  Isn't it amazing how Miriam had her timbrels all packed and ready on the Exodus, she was so confident of the Victory that would be seen from the mighty hand of God that she had all her worship instruments ready to take out and break out into leading the women in song and dance!! Praise God!! He is mighty!! The horse and rider He has thrown into the sea!!

In this week's Parsha, Parsha Beshalach we are also introduced to the manna which God sends down to the Children of Israel.  I love this parsha for the song, for the freedom, for the manna!!!

I talk about the manna and God as our provider in this week's Challah-cast.  You can see it  at the end of post or HERE   if you are moved to please do watch and to  let me know any comments!! I am trying to find a good balance between Torah and Challah, and each week's continues to be a learning experience  how to put it together.  You may notice in this one, I mostly talk! I do hope to include more of the challah-making as I go along and can find the good way to set it up!! I did some scenes this time but as I kept talking I was adding more and more flour and I lost my concentration on the challah, so I didn't include those scenes this time!!
Enjoy if you do have a chance to watch.

This Shabbat also comes around the time of the first blossoms of spring!!   The first blossoms we see here in Japan are Plum Blossoms, called UME (pronounced u-may) in Japanese.  I have a special love for these first blossoming trees and how their opening also corresponds to the season in which  the holiday of Tu B'Shevat is celebrated in Israel. 

Tu B'Shevat is the new year for trees!!

The trees start to 'wake up' as the sap and movements that we can't see yet begin to be activated from underground that gives rise to the opening of beautiful flowering blossoms!!  We can also tap into that creative unleashing in ourselves as we ask the LORD to help us to reach our creative potential and use our gifts for His glory.  May we all blossom in our gifts and use them for His glory!!

Blossoms appear in the land.  The time for singing has come.
Song of Songs...

Happy Tu B'Shevat !!!  Take a walk around, admire the blossoms!
Sing a song of Praise to the maker of all Creation, to the Redeemer who set us free so that we can worship Him!!! What a wonderful purpose to have!!!

🎵The LORD is my Strength and my Song! And He has also become my Salvation*!🎶

*my Yeshua!! ♫

 Under the blossoms, so fragrant,  I want to say, Thank you LORD for you are my Strength and my Song.  And you  have become my Salvation!!!  Thank you for saving me!! Creating me!  Setting me free!!  You are my Messiah, My Yeshua, and I love YOU!

Blessings and love!
♡
Shayndel (aka "Joanne" on the Challh-cast!!)

A tambourine  as part of the table setting for the Shabbat of Parsha Beshalach and the Shabbat of Song!! To remember Miriam leading the women with timbrels and the Songs of Praise !!

The very first Plum Blossom this year!!

Blossoms and Birthday in the Spirit!

Yeshua answered, "Amen, amen I tell you, unless one is born of water and spirit, he cannot enter the kingdom of God.  What is born of the flesh is flesh, and what is born of the Spirit is spirit.  Do not be surprised that I said to you, "You all must be born from above."  John 3:5~7

Therefore if anyone is in Messiah, he is a new creation.  

The old things have passed away; behold, all things have become new.  

2Corinthians 5:17

This year my "spiritual" birthday came in full blossoms!!
Today is my born-again birthday!!  Five years in Messiah Yeshua!!

Walking out amidst the blossoms that speak of re-birth I looked up to heaven in thanks for the re-birth in my Messiah!!

Breezing past bunches of blossoms seen from the bus, I breathed in the day.

This year my spiritual birthday also came on the day of the spring recital!! I was in a recital of students age 5 to age 75 for the voice training lessons I take!! Three years ago, I started taking voice training because of back problems.  After finding out I would need to strengthen the muscles around the spine to avoid further problems, I started taking voice training!! It became not only a way of healing my back,  it has opened a new door to sing songs of Praise to my maker!! And share and minister His heart to others through the songs!!  As well as get to know and grow with a wonderful teacher, who is also my friend,  and be part of the spring recital and continuing learning...and healing!  Thank you Yeshua!

Blossoms and song, a family atmosphere and listening to others share their gifts  was a beautiful gift to me as well!!  I never imagined I would be singing in front of people, and the thought of being "good" or not didn't even cross my mind.  Its funny as I am not a "singer", but  I know it is a gift from God to do this voice training,  and if He wants us to share something, then its something we will be delighted to share!!

  You must be born again I tell you!!  That is what Yeshua, Jesus, says!

Thy Kingdom come, on earth as it is in Heaven!

The youngest student performer in the recital today was 5 years old!  I think now, that is the same age as my years since being born anew!! We can be 5 again, through being born in the spirit!! We must be born again, says Yeshua!!

And for a gift for you, here is the song I sang---it is a  beautiful song by Misha and Marty Goetz called "The Plans I Have for You",  that they wrote together based on the scripture of Hope that many of you are familiar with from Jeremiah 29:11.

As in Japan a new year starts in April, after the cherry blossoms, it seemed like a fitting song to sing when many of the students would be graduating and going into a new school year.  I translated part of it with the help of my teacher in Japanese, so we added some verses in Japanese so those listening could understand the words!!  It will be a little while still and  a few more years training until I share my singing here!!! Please stay tuned with patience!

Meanwhile,  I will share the anointed singing by Marty and Misha, from Jerusalem!!Its a beautiful song, and a beautiful backdrop, please enjoy it HERE!!

  With a message of hope for all.
 It says

" I know the plans I have for you!  You're always on my mind.  And all the thoughts I think towards you are lovingly designed.  To bring you through and give to you a future and a hope.  They're for your peace they're for your good.... the plans I have for you!"  (from lyrics by Marty Goetz and Misha, based on Jeremiah 29:11 )

❤️

Succa Song

With joy you will draw water from the wells of Salvation.

 --Isaiah 12:3 

Mark, on the fifteenth day of the seventh month, when you have gathered in the yield of your land, you shall observe the festival of the LORD (to last) seven days:  a complete rest on the first day, and a complete rest on the eighth day.  On the first day you shall take the product of hadar trees, branches of palm trees, boughs of leafy trees, and willows of the brook, and you shall rejoice before the LORD your God seven days.   You shall observe it as a festival of the LORD for seven days in the year; you shall observe it in the seventh month as a law for all time, throughout the ages. 

---Leviticus 23:39 ~ 41

In the succa, we are reminded that we are temporary dwellers
We are reminded of the divine presence, of the God who provides
and brings us to this season.  It is a time to give thanks for all His abundance and to savor the blessing of being brought to this season on His appointed times. 

It is a time to rejoice, as we are commanded to be joyous in the succa!
Yes, it is a command!

I couldn't believe how beautiful the sounds of singing could be, in that temporary place, with the species of plants and natural materials as the "roof", and walls open to one side.  After all the eating and rejoicing, or somewhere into the feast, someone asked the cantor to sing.  As he was not in the pulpit, but sitting at the table with everyone, when the cantor sang, it was spontaneously in a moment where a song was called forth,  and the sounds of his voice were released like an audible fragrance and everyone's senses and whole being were attuned to his song.

When he sang, it was as if all eternity came into a sonorous presence, yes, that is how I would describe those earthy and at the same time heavenly sounds of Hebrew songs sung and springing from a mouth given by God, to be the source of song.

After several songs the air of the succa became  infused with the songs, everyone was drawn into an atmosphere that was transforming, and the choir, who were also just a minute ago individuals sitting and rejoicing and eating at the table, once again became the choir and ran out for a few minutes to get their song books.  They came back into the succa with songs that must be the same ones that were sung by our ancestors and are sung by the angels in heaven and that are sung in the succa each year.

Songs that have been sung and will be sung and are eternally sung.

The thing for me, was that it was my first time to hear the succa song.*
It was a summer of "Teshuva" for me, of "return" and I had never before sat in a succa like that hearing them although they have always been sung and always will be and always are sung in the succa.

When the songs were sung people sometimes joined and sometimes just listened.   Nourished by song.

It was a deep listening started as a listening with ears but became a listening with hearts and with souls and then we were all transported at once and there was a kind of palpable soul-stirring from the cantor's song and I didn't quite know where I was except that I was in the succa song.  Maybe the swirling of angels of heaven, preparing to take us up...but just before we were swept up into the heavens, the song came to its sonorous crescendo that was soft and sweet, and

the next thing I knew, the rabbi was saying something,
that it was time
for dessert.

＊

note: The name "succa song" is my "poetic" title for this post and a term I made up here to refer to the songs that were sung in the succa, though it is not a particular "song" title or song I am referring to, it is the whole mood of what it was like to hear the singing by the cantor in the succa at my "return" this season. 

note:  Succot is the holiday in the season of fall feasts that comes after the Ten days of Awe of Rosh Hashanah and Yom Kippur, after the work of repentance and reflecting and "return" come the joyous holidays of Succot and after then Simchat Torah.  Related post about Succot HERE and song and Succot HERE.

note:  After all the festivities the Torah is scrolled back to the beginning so if anyone is new to observing the cyle of the Hebrew calendar and God's appointed days, it is perfect time to start!! The list of the dates of all the Shabbat and Feasts and readings on the Torah can be found HERE, a good printable version,  or you can find it if you search for the Weekly Parsha readings 2018~2019.  You can always  find this link and a related link to the readings on the sidebar at right under "Pages".

This Shabbat will be the third one already of the new cycle!!   Already out of the garden and after the flood!

♡

The Sabbath of Song

I will sing to ADONAI,

for He is highly exalted!

The horse and its rider

He has thrown into the sea.

ADONAI is my strength and my song,

and He has become my salvation.

This is my God, and I will glorify Him,

my father`s God, and I will glorify Him,

my father`s God, and I will exalt Him.

--Exodus 15:1~2, begins The Song of Moses and Miriam

Blessings to everyone and Shabbat Shalom!!

The reading this week on the Parashat Cycle is from Exodus, it is a wonderful Parsha, Parsha Beshalach, where God brings the Children of Israel out of Egypt and through the Sea of Reeds. It is the Parsha where He gives Manna to them from Heaven, and establishes the Shabbat with the Double Portion!! There in this portion is the Song of the Sea, the Song of Praise by Moses and Miriam upon being set Free!!

Oh there is just so much and I could write a whole blog about this alone as I am bursting with things I want to express.  You can see in the readings below how the Song connects all the readings, from the Song of Moses and Miriam in the Torah portion, to the Song of Deborah in the Haftarah, to the Song of Victory in Heaven at the Wedding of the Lamb.  But it is Friday afternoon, and time to start preparing for Shabbat.  I will make a special Challah today because not only is it the Shabbat of Song, but it is also Tu b`shevat this week so I will make a special Biblical Fruits Challah!!

I have a prayer, friends and dear ones, it is that God will bring me people to my community to celebrate Shabbat day with. Thank you to all if you feel led to agree and believe with me for this!! In my city and even Prefecture (State)  I have not yet met anyone who observes Shabbat.   I realize as it is January that this will actually be starting my third year of observing Shabbat!!  Thank you Father in Heaven for your wonderful and delight-full Shabbat, and for hearing our prayer, I send this prayer up boldly to the throne room in Heaven,  in Yeshua`s glorious name I pray!

A-men!!!

Parsha BeShalach, Shabbat Shirah, The Sabbath of Song

The readings in the Bible are:

Torah Portion (from Old Testament):  Exodus 13:17~17:16

Haftarah Portion(from the Prophets): Judges 4:4~5:31

Brit Chadasha (New Testament)*:  Revelation 19:1~20:6

Note for the Brit Chadasha, or New Testament reading, I also see John 6:47~51  as a good connected reading as the Torah portion is about the Manna from Heaven and these verses connect the Manna to Yeshua who is the Bread of Life, the living bread, which came down from Heaven

Time to start the challah!!

Shabbat Shalom!!

Love

♡

Shayndel

Song of Songs

For your love is more delightful than wine.

Let us delight and rejoice in your love,

Savoring it more than wine-----

---The Song of Songs   1:2 b, 1:4d

I didn`t even touch a button, but suddenly a song came on, and filled the outside  air.

It was the Song of the Beloved.... Ani le Dodi, v`Dodi li....

Blessings and Shabbat Shalom, May you rejoice in a beautiful time of Sukkot !