Challah Diary--- "at home" in Israel--On the Galillee at that!

I call this  challah post  "at home" because it tells how at home I felt coming down for breakfast in the hotel in Israel and seeing that wonderful Challah!!

 

 

      If you turn back your foot from Shabbat, from doing your pleasure on My holy day and call Shabbat a delight, the holy day of ADONAI honorable... then you will delight yourself in ADONAI and I will let you ride over the heights of the earth, I will feed you with the heritage of your father Jacob.   For the mouth of ADONAI has spoken.  

Isaiah 58:13

I have many photos and posts I want to share from the Israel trip .  Photos of the sites that you may even be waiting (?!!:)) to see,  and of our tour, but somehow the photos that I was moved to post next were these of the Challah at the hotel on the Galilee for Shabbat breakfast.  

On this blog,  I don't like to go too many posts without sharing a Challah!

We don't get too many moments like this in Japan!, where a Shabbat table is set and awaiting with Challah enough to feed the multitudes!!  

You may also have noticed, the beautiful pink slices of Israeli Grapefruit!! I have written about the Israeli grapefruit, and how excited I was to find them in Japan.

Imagine how much more exciting it was to find Israeli grapefruits on the buffet table in Israel!!

There is something of a parable here you might even be noticing!  The Kingdom of Heaven is like a Shabbat. 

 

Blintzes!   These are the real thing!

Israeli grapefruit, in Israel!!

This sign in the hotel announces the time for sunset and candle lighting on the eve of Shabbat

Challah on Shabbat, like a homecoming of sorts!!  Perhaps this really is where I belong!

Where else in the world can you go to Shabbat breakfast at the hotel and go straight to the challah?  Where else in the world is the Calendar set on God's time!?

Where else in the world can you feel so at home where you are on the same time as the rest?!!

(pun intended---the rest, being the Sabbath day of rest, as well as "all the rest" of the people )

All the breakfasts in Israel were heavenly, but I must say this was one where heaven really felt like home!!

♡

note:  I know as I write this there are those in Israel who are hungry and cannot have this kind of Challah breakfast.  So I realize what a luxury it also is.  But still I share this because there is in each of our souls a way that we connect to a place and to our Maker, and I know that He wanted to share this sense of "home" on  my one Shabbat this trip in the land of Israel.  

A wonderful testimony is that when I returned to Japan and made a challah using some of the Date honey I brought back from Israel,  and brought it to share with some brothers and sisters, God took the challah right from our hands and gave it into the hands of someone who was hungry.  I believe He will use the experiences of this "homecoming" trip to Israel in new ways.  I continue to pray He will open up ways to share the Challah I make, and the Bread of Life, here where I live until I am called "home" once more!!

note 2:  now that I got the Challah post out of the bag, I will hope to follow up with other site visit posts.  Oh, though first there is another Shabbat post on the way, as we are still on the Galillee...

 note 3:  just another part of a personal story, one of the scriptures that was on my heart when I went , knowing we would be in the Galilee, was the scene in John 21 where Yeshua appears to the disciples.  It was a "breakfast " scene.  I will come back to that scripture in a post or two to follow, but for now for my diary reference noting here where

Yeshua said to them, "Come, have breakfast."  None of the disciples dared ask Him, "Who are You"--knowing it was the Lord.  Yeshua comes and takes the bread and gives it to them....
John 21:4

Thank you Yeshua!♡

Challah at the Bakery

When I returned to NY this summer, I found challah in the bake shops!  It was so exciting and for the first time after two years of making challah, and even a little stint of selling my challah, I was able to buy challah in a bakery for Shabbat!!   For anyone in NY or other area where you can find challah, it may be hard to fathom getting so excited about this! But as I live in Japan, and in a part where the only challah is the ones I make,   I just was so happy to see the challah lined up in the bakery and to bring a challah home for Shabbat!

At first I thought it would be hard not to make it, as I love making Challah as part of Shabbat, but buying it had another wonderful quality , as here I was in a place where so many people observe Shabbat that the Shabbat bread was available and readily even in the supermarkets!!  And I was also able to "study" the taste and way of making!

Being in a community to celebrate Shabbat was wonderful, and being able to go buy challah on Fridays was a treat!!  Challah was also like  sign that there are people who observe Shabbat, and that was also such a sense of homecoming for me.  I guess it might be funny to think about being so happy to buy challah, but yes I savored the chance to buy challah!!  From the round challah for New Year to the fluffy soft challah each Shabbat!

I even got the chance to observe the baker making challah, to see how it is made on a professional scale, and  to take back some tips.  God has a plan and a purpose for each of our lives.  The time away in  community centered around the syngogue and ...the bakery! showed me in a concentrated way the things that I love to be surrounded by in my life.  The challenge is how to bring this into existence here where I am, or whether to go to somewhere where those are a focus of the community.  I get overwhelmed a little to think of it, but with God all things are possible!

Praying for you too that the new year will bring you closer into the focus of those things that your heart and spirit are leading you to pursue.

To be continued....!

Love,

Shayndel

♡

*photo credits and a big thank you to the Beach Bakery!