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!!

Branch, Blossoms, branch, almost Tu b'Shevat

At this farm side stand, there was a bucket with plum blossom branches, 

and a can for coins

Come, my beloved, let us go out into the field.  Let us go out early to the vineyards, --Let us go down to see if the vine have budded, if their blossoms have opened,    Song of Songs, from verses 7~13

On my way home I took a new route, my friend drew me a little pencil line map for how to get to the train station.
The route even looked like a branch on a tree.

And on my home then what did I see?
You guessed it! A branch, well more like branches for the taking.
I knew this scenario was of the LORD's making.

There by the branches was a little tin can,
to put in a coin though there was no woman or man,
just the box there and someone who trusts.

So I put in some coins  picked up a few branches and set out on my way.
If anyone saw me, they would see that I was holding a flowering branch on that day!!
And the rest I will write as a post for today!

So that is my introduction.
 Its  a "Tu B'Shevat" Story in the making, or a prelude to a Tu B'Shevat story!

I must say I like this story very much!
I have an affinity for sure for flowering branches, and have written about them and even made a flowering "branch" challah for two years in a row, this year will be third.

God gives His gift of fruit and flowering blossoms and branches in this season.
The branch is from a yellow plum tree.  In Japanese, Ro-bai.
Its supposedly the most early blossoming plum tree, but actually the white ume, the plum tree near us, blossomed similarly early, so I don't really know which one came first.

I think of the branch and the flowering staff of Aaron that we will read about later in the book of Exodus.

I think of the golden menorah with the blossoms and bulbous designs.

I put the blossoming branch on the seat next to me on the train, and it reminded me of taking the train on Hannukah with the menorah, I put the menorah in the window as the train passed from north to south, and it lit up the scenery.  God reminded me of that when I placed the blossoming branch on the seat next to me on the train!

I think of the branch I received last year at this time that flowered in my home and in my heart.

I think of the Messiah who would come from the root of Jesse.  So perfectly in Hebrew does His name, Yeshua, come from Yeshi.   

 A branch will sprout from the route of Jesse.
(scripture)

The holiday of Tu B'shevat is coming up next week.  It is the New Year for fruit trees on the Hebrew calendar and celebrated in Israel in the 15th of the month of Shevat (that is the meaning of Tu b'Shevat). I 've written about it on my blog since finding out about this day ,three years ago.

The sap from the earth is starting to come up and pulse through the roots and up into the branches bringing new life into what look all winter like dead trees.  It is a season of new life.

Spring is in the ground before it is in the air!
And it is in the readings in the book of Exodus this week, as God gives the children of Israel the commandment to sanctify the first month and the head of every month therein.  He tells that this will be the first month of spring.  And that on the 14th of the month will be their delivarance.  The commandment to slaughter the Passover lamb is given just before the tenth plague is carried out.  All that is speaking of the first month of Nissan.  Though we read it now in the 11th month of Shevat.  In Shevat we can prepare out hearts for the first month, the month of spring.  And look to God's time for He is beyond time, but He commands the time and the times!

Now the LORD had said to Moses and Aaron in the land of Egypt;  This month shall mark for you the beginning of the months; it shall be the first of the months of the year for you.  

Exodus 12:1

All that from a branch on a roadside? someone might ask?
There is so much more, its just  the beginning of the month of Shevat!

behind the branch of the yellow plum blossom, you can see the plum tree near me

In this story, I saw only the branches and didn't see the tree!
But we know that the gardener is certainly He!!

Much Love, Shabbat Shalom!

Shayndel

* Shevat is the eleventh month of the Hebrew calendar, so this time of the New Year for trees is a harbinger of the Spring, which starts as the month of Nissan, and the 14th of Nissan is Passover.  The day planned from the beginning of time which would be the day the Jewish people were set free and the day that the rest of the world would be set free through the death of Messiah Yeshua, which was exactly the same day, Nissan 14 , and  His resurrection three days after that.  Our God is beyond time and space, and yet He commands time and space, defines it by His making, and sanctifies it by His Word.

＊＊note, I should also note the fragrance!! The Yellow plum blossoms, called Ro-bai, written
蠟梅 in Japanese、are known for their yellow color and for their fragrant blossoms.  When I read this verse below, after posting this, it spoke to me about these flowering branches and the fragrance that fills the air, and accompanies the branch.   So I am adding it here, hoping it might waft through the post to you, with Wishing you a fragrant Shabbat and beautiful week!

The vines in blossom give off fragrance.
Arise, my darling;
 My fair one, come away!

from Song of Songs 2:13


♡

Diary--Parsha Terumah, and a Bee in the Ume tree

And let them make Me a sanctuary that I may dwell among them.  
Exactly as I show you--the pattern of the Tabernacle and the pattern of its furnishings---so shall you make it.  
--Exodus 25:8~9, from Parsha Terumah

I walked by the Castle garden, smelled the blossoms on the ume tree.
A bee came by and did the same, so I moved out of the way, as he, the bee,
had work to do.

Then I saw there was not just one but two, no three,
there were many bees
buzzing around the ume tree!!  The first bee got most of the honey (pollen?) and so the next one to come had to try another blossom.

Things were busy at the ume tree, and then some men came and said it was a construction site and I would need to move outside the limits of the construction.
They had work to do.

So I moved outside the fence and did a little sketch.
This scene with the workers and  wood beams beneath the Ume tree reminds me of this week we are reading in Parsha Terumah about the Tabernacle and the description of the materials, all the acacia wood to make the various structures, everything laid out,  and what is to be done to make the sanctuary where God will dwell.  The descriptions about the menorah are so wonderful, and the design of the menorah is patterned with almond blossoms, and its branches are like a tree.

The description of the menorah starts out,

You shall make a lampstand of pure gold; the lampstand shall be made of hammered work; its base and its shaft, its cups, calyxes, and petals shall be of one piece.   --Exodus 25:31

and continues, 

Six branches shall issue from its sides; three branches from one side of the lampstand and three branches from the other side of the lampstand.  On one branch there shall be three cups shaped like almond-blossoms, each with calyx and petals; so for all six branches issuing from the lampstand.  --Exodus 25:32, from Parsha Terumah

I noticed that one construction worker's hat was spray painted gold.
And they were painting the beams with a roller dipped in gold paint.
 Unusual details.
And they were all dressed in camoflauge.

(I am struggling to write the last sum up line here, something about the way we receive our instructions from our Boss up in heaven.  I will see if I can get a good sentence to follow, leaving this in parenthesis for now)

Note well, and follow the patterns for them that are being shown you on the mountain.  
---Exodus 25:40

Blessings and Shavua Tov!!

Have a great week.
Love,
Shayndel

Note:  Ume Tree, Ume = Plum, so the Ume tree is the Plum tree.  Ume is pronounced oo-may and written like this in Japanese: 梅　or  phonetically, うめ.  Can you see the bee, and the man with the gold construction hat?

You shall make bars of acacia wood; five for the planks on the one side wall of the Tabernacle, five bars for the planks of the other side wall of the Tabernacle, and five bars for the planks of the wall of the Tabernacle at the rear to the west.  The center bar halfway up the planks shall run from and to end.  Overlay the planks with gold,                                                                            ---from Exodus 26:26

New Post--One more for Tu B`Shevat and Song of the Sea

The Song of the Sea (above) 

I didn`t yet color this drawing! So it is a gift like this if you would like to print it out on a postcard (a non glossy one that will take colors!) , and color it in the colors of spring and rejoicing!!

After Pharaoh had let the people go, God did not lead them along the road to the land of the Philistines, although that was nearby, for God said, "The people might change their minds if they see war and return to Egypt."  so God led the people around by the way of the wilderness to the Sea of Reeds, and Bnei-Yisrael wnet up out of the land of Egypt armed.    --Exodus 13:7, begins Parashat Beshalach

When  I read these opening scriptures in the past weeks Parsha, after Pharoah had let the people go, and God was there with the Children of Israel (Bnei-Yisrael), and  describing the route He was going to take them, I thought, I know this voice.  I know Him.   I realized that the very same hand of God who parted the Sea of Reeds for the Children of Israel is the very same hand of God who gave me the plum blossom that opened on my Shabbat table last Shabbat!! (see posts just below!)

Reading those lines,  it was a first time that I had that feeling, it was not an `intellectual` knowing that this God who is the author of the Bible, and who did all the Miracles there is the same God who I pray to and have gotten to know in my life.  It was more of an `experiential`, body and soul knowing that that this really is Him.

Let the word of Messiah dwell in you richly, teaching and admonishing one another with all wisdom in psalms and spiritual songs, singing with gratitude in your hearts to God.  And whatever you do in word or deed, do all in the name of the Lord Yeshua, giving thanks to God the Father through Him.

--Colossians 3:16~17

Dear Father,
Thank you for this special week of Tu B`shevat, and for Your Word.  Even though this is not a biblical holiday, LORD I feel you have been speaking to me through your Fruits!  The pomegranates! The Israeli grapefruit, that was in our local supermarket once again just before Tu B`Shevat!

 And  through the gardener who was pruning the trees and gave me the blossom.  Your Word is living and alive, and everything in it speaks to us of your great Salvation.   Yeshua is our Salvation!  It is only through Your great Salvation that we can come to be free and know You, and to be in personal relationship with You, the Creator of everything, the Maker of Heaven and Earth.  It was Your hand that gave me that branch, and the branch blossomed in my hand!! It was You who brought the worship song to the food floor of the department store where I was buying the ingredients for Shabbat!! It is You who gave us your Son so that we can have Eternal Life, and who sets us free so that we can Worship You!!

Dear Father, I pray blessings and a fruit-full season of blossoming and rejoicing to each one who reads this, may you touch her heart, and may she know the resurrection power of Yeshua and your great Salvation in Christ Jesus!! Thank you Father, I pray, all Glory to You, in the name of Yeshua. 

Love
 ♡
Shayndel

Blossom & Rejoice

The wilderness and dry land will be glad.
The desert will rejoice
and blossom like a lily.
It will blossom profusely,
will rejoice with joy and singing,
will be given the glory of Lebanon,
the splendor of Carmel and Sharon.
They will see the glory of ADONAI, 
the splendor of our God.     ---Isaiah 35:1~2

Thank you Father, Love Shayndel

The land brought forth grass, green plants yielding seed, each according to its species, and trees making fruit with seed in it, each according to its species.  And God saw that it was good.

                                                                    ---Genesis 1:12

 Shabbat Shalom!
Happy (almost) Tu B`Shevat! 
♡ 

Fruit of the Ume Tree and Psalm 1 Tenugui

  

(This is the third post in what became a `series` of posts on  Psalm 1 expressed in a tenugui!*
see two posts below! Blessings and thank you for visiting)

On this Shabbat,  I received a wonderful and playful gift from the Ruach HaKodesh.

The Holy Spirit of God. Yes! I believe He speaks to us in ways that are unique to each person and often with surprises.  He knows our hearts and  finds the way to express something in a language we understand.  I find that on Shabbat when we open our hearts He speaks new life into things and shows us something new.

He will even speak through a tenugui (a Japanese long rectangular cloth used traditionally as a hand towel and in recent years for many other uses) if we have ears to hear and eyes to see!

First I just saw in it the pattern the Tree planted in streams of living water.  

An expression of Psalm 1 (*see this post below!)

Then as the Shabbat went on,   I heard the other lines of the Psalm, and the Psalm seemed to come to life around me...

The streams of water!!
He will be like a planted tree over streams of water, 

see, the fruit!
producing its fruit during it`s season.   ---Psalm 1:3

Fruit of the Ume tree and `Psalm 1` Tenugui

The Torah is a Tree of Life when we grasp hold of it.  

It doesn`t unfold all at once. It is like in the Psalm.   It is something we meditate on day and night.  And then more and more we see it reflected in the world around us.  

I asked a woman that I met recently if she has a Bible. She said no.

We talked and she was distressed, so I asked her if I could pray for her, and she said, yes, please.  After we prayed,  she seemed much lighter.  We talked a little more.   I recommended that she get a Bible and that she spend time reading it.  She said she would.  I really hope she did.
It is life changing when we encounter the living word of G-d.

My prayer today is that many souls will receive Salvation and know Messiah Yeshua in this new season we are entering, where everything is green and new.  Here in Japan,  and in Israel and all the world, and even someone reading this! 
If you don`t have a copy of the Holy Scriptures, I do hope you too will grasp a hold of one.  It is a Tree of Life for those who take hold of it.  Its ways are ways of pleasantness and all its paths are peace...*

(from Proverbs3:18)

God Bless you!

Shavu`a Tov.

Have a Blessed week!

Psalm 1!

The heart of entrance into this week`s  Shabbat!

The light of the Havdallah candle, marks the separation between Shabbat and the new first day of the week

A wonder-ous end to the Shabbat this week.  The wax from the Havdallah candle made a heart shape in the drips!!

God is Love

♪　♪　　♬　　♬　　♪　♪

Sing to ADONAI for He is highly exalted!

The horse and its rider

He has thrown into the sea!

---Exodus 16:21

＊ my new ume tree on the balcony!

how are you?＊ I hope you are having a blessed week!
 

Shayndel

Happy Tu B`Shevat (2) & Shabbat Shalom・梅の木と雪とマナ

Then Moses and Bnei-Yisrael sang this song to ADONAI

  I will sing to ADONAI,
for He is highly exalted!

--Exodus 15:1 TLV

Friday, February 10

The snow falling this morning looked like the manna God sent from heaven.
It was big flakes of white dew-like snow, falling from heaven and forming a layer on the ground!! As we are in the Parsha Beshalach, the parsha where God gives the manna to the Israelites, it was like a Shabbat Miracle!

 I also just found out it is the New Year and Birthday for trees, called Tu B`shevat.
It falls on the same day as this week`s Shabbat.  (Sundown February 10th, to Sundown February 11th).  It is my first Tu B`shevat in Japan, and maybe in my life (though I probably celebrated it in some way when a child though I can`t remember how).

The snow falling like manna even seemed to be `dancing` around  the Ume (Plum) Tree.  May today be a day to dance a joyous dance and wish a Happy Birthday to your favorite tree.  May we give thanks the God of Heaven for all that He provides.  And remember the test of the manna in the desert, that we should know that all provision comes from heaven, and that His heavenly provision comes in just the amounts we need.  This weeks Torah portion can be found starting in Exodus chapter 13.  In it we see the first teaching about Shabbat, and how God set apart this day of rest and provides a double portion of manna.   It is also the Torah Portion of Moses and Miriam`s song of Praise and declaration of Faith in ADONAI  after the `showdown` at the Sea of Reeds (Red Sea).  For the full list of weekly readings see here.  This weeks readings are:

Torah:  Exodus 13:17~17:16

Haftarah:  Judges 4:4~5:31

Brit Chadashah: Revelation 19:1~20:6 

and the Holiday readings for Tu B`Shevat, New Year for Trees (15th of Shevat):
Psalm 104:16~17
Psalms 120~134
Matthew 7:13~24, 7:28~29

Delight in the Shabbat! Shabbat Shalom! Happy Tu B`Shevat!!

Then ADONAI said to Moses, "Behold, I will rain bread from heaven for you.  The people will go out and gather a day`s portion every day, so that I can test them to find out whether they will walk according to My Torah or not.  So on the sixth day, when they prepare what they might bring in, it will be twice as much as they gather day by day."

---Exodus 16:4 TLV

＊＊＊

梅の木と雪とマナ


それから、夕方になるとうずらが飛んで来て、宿営をおおい、朝になると、宿営の回わりに露が一面に降りた。

この一面の露が上がると、見よ、荒野の面には、地に降りた白い霜のような細かいもの、うろこのような細かいものがあった。

イスラエル人はこれを見て、「これは何だろう」と互いに言った。彼らはそれが何か知らなかったからである。モーセは彼らに言った。「これは主があなたがたに食物として与えてくださったパンです。」　　　出エジプト１６：１３〜１５

イスラエルの家は、それをマナと名づけた。それはコエンドロの種のようで、白く、その味は蜜をいれたせんべいのようであった。　　　出エジプト１６：３１


金曜日、2月１０日

今朝雪が降りました。
とてもきれいでした。
雪は天から地面に舞い降りて来ました。
地面の上は白雪でおおわれました。
神がイスラエルの人々に天から下ろして来た「マナ」のように見えました。

梅の木の周りに雪が舞いりました。　

明日はイスラエルではこの日には「樹木の新年」、トウ・ビ・シュバットと呼ばれています。ユダヤ暦でシュバット月の１５日という意味で、イスラエルではみんなで植樹をしたりドライフルーツを食べたりします。毎年１月～２月のあたりにあります。
今年は２月１１日。

これからもうすぐ実もなるでしょう。

私達も、木々をを祝いしましょう。
身近な木の周りで踊りましょう。神から創造された木々に感謝し、「明けましておめでとう」をお祝いしましょう！


＊＊＊






 

Parashat Shemot, Haftarah

In days to come Jacob will take root,

Israel will blossom and bud and fill

the face of the world with fruit.

---Isaiah 27:6

(from this weeks Haftarah Portion in Parashat Shemot)

Parashat Shemot, Burning Bush, Daffodils and Ume Tree

Then Joseph died, as did all his brothers and that generation.  Yet Bnei-Yisrael were fruitful, increased abundantly, multiplied and grew extremely numerous---so the land was filled with them.

---Exodus 1:6~7

In this weeks Parshat Shemot, oh my goodness there is so much happening, as the world shifts from Genesis and the story of the sons of Jacob, ending where Joseph saved the nations as ruler of Egypt next to Pharoah,  to the next book of Shemot (Exodus),  where the ruler of Egypt no longer `remembers` all that Joseph did and decides there are just too many of the Children of Israel in Egypt, and he makes them all to become slaves and attempts to wipe them out by drowning all the male babies.  It gets pretty terrible.

But enter Moses.  In this weeks parshat Moses is born.  He is ordered to die along with all the male babies of the Children of Israel.  But as we know, he doesn`t die, he is hidden by his mother. (see Exodus 2:1~4)

Then after three months she  set him in a basket on the Nile and it is seen and found by Pharoah`s daughter and the child, Moses, is  raised in the palace of Pharoah until he grows up and discovers the injustice done to his people.  He noticed a Hebrew, one of his own people, was being beaten by an Egyptian.  He kills the Egyptian, and when he realizes his deed had become known, he flees to Midian.

In this weeks parshat Moses also meets and is chosen by ADONAI to lead the Jewish people out of Egypt.  Their first encounter occurs at the sight of a burning bush.  Moses notices it, he sees that it is on fire but is not burnt.

When ADONAI saw that he turned to look, He called to him out of the midst of the bush and said, "Moses, Moses!"  

So he answered, "Hineni.*" 

---Exodus 3:4

*Hineni=`Here I am",  answering a call 

Scene switch, to Friday afternoon in my life.  A flower shop in Oita.  When I went to buy flowers for the Shabbat I looked into the case and wanted to get flowers that would somehow express the burning bush, as this image and encounter stood out so strong in the parsha.  Maybe something orange, or fiery looking.  Something noticable, and light like a flame.

The flowers that caught my eye in the case were the daffodils.  Although daffodils are not the dramatic flower I envisioned, when I saw the colors they were bursting with light and passion, and the center orange was burning flame inside the yellow petals.  There were also branches of cherry blossoms in the shop that day, the first of this year! So I had an inspiration that if the daffodils were in front of the branches, the branches could be like the bush and the flowers like the fire.

It also expresses somehow the literal `season` we are in, approaching spring where the bushes are still not yet full of the flowers, so the daffodils seem to `ignite` the expectant branches making it like they could represent the consuming fire.

So that is what I chose! Then on the way home I passed the budding ume (ume = Plum)  tree.  I took out the daffodils and did a little photo shoot with them.  Then some women who were walking their dogs stopped and liked the way I was posing the bright flowers in front of the almost blossoming, expectant ume tree.  We chatted a little about the plum blossoms (ume no hana) and how they are earlier than cherry blossoms (sakura) and they showed me how the ume, plum blossom, petals are different from cherry blossoms.   I told them when I first came to Japan it was hard to tell what is different between  ume blossom and cherry blossom.  Now I have come to know and especially since the ume blossoms bloom earlier, it is easy to know which are ume.

The sun was getting lower in the sky so I had to hurry back to light the Shabbat candles before sundown.

Again I imagined the burning bush and Moses` encounter with ADONAI, and where God says to Moses to tell the Children of Israel his name is `I AM WHO I AM` (Exodus 3:14)/

Moses, who should very well have drowned in the Nile with all the other boy Hebrew children, didn`t drown.  He was taken from the water---it says in the parsha that his name means drawn from water---years later meets God in an encounter with fire, and then is lead by God to bring His people to freedom through water!!!  What a mighty God we serve!  What a dramatic encounter between Moses and the Burning Bush.   It is a good time to remember how our first encounter with God was, how did he approach each of us?  Or if you haven`t yet encountered Him in your life, it is good to read this parsha to see what happens in that life changing and world changing encounter, how Moses turned to look, and how when God called Moses` name he responded right away with `Hineni`, Here I am.  In addition to all the great meanings and interpretations of this parsha on the grand scale, I think this scene also has this lesson in our lives about looking, turning to see,  keeping our eyes open to meet God in even the most unexpected places. And to notice if something that is getting our attention might just be the Great I AM asking us to notice, to draw closer , to turn to look at Him and to listen to what it is He has in purpose for us.

Blessings and Shabbat Shalom!!

Therefore, thus says ADONAI,
Redeemer of Abraham,
concerning the house of Jacob:
"Jacob will no longer be ashamed,
no longer will his face grow pale;
for when he sees his children,
the work of My hands in his midst,
they will sanctify My Name:
They will sanctify the Holy One of Jacob,
and stand in awe of the God of Israel.

---Isaiah 29:22~23
(from this weeks Haftarah portion for Parsha Shemot)



For the full list of readings, see, Weekly Readings link on the right sidebar.
For the Whole Wheat Challah recipe, see my favorite Challah links on the right sidebar.
Blessings and Shabbat Shalom!

Challah and Plum Blossoms and Blessing

את צמח דוד עבדך מהרה תצמיח וקרנו תרומ בישועתך כי לישועתך קוינו כל היום

ברוך אתה יהוה מצמיח קרן ישועה      

'et tse-mach da-vid 'av-de-kha me-he-rah tats-mi-ach ve-qar-no ta-rum bi-shu'a-te-kha ki li-shu-'at-kha qi-vi-nu kol hai-yom ba-rukh 'at-tah 'Adonai mats-mi-ach qe-ren ye-shu-'ah

May the offspring of David Thy servant flourish speedily and may You exalt in Your salvation.  For in your salvation do we hope all the day.  Blessed are You, Lord, Who makes the seeds of our salvation grow.

---Blessing Fifteen, Kingdom of David, from The Shemoneh Esreh prayer

 Shavu`a Tov! Have a great week!!