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!!

Biblical Fruits Challah for the Shabbat of Song and Tu B`shevat!

Figs, raisins, dates, pomegranate, olive oil, honey, barley, and one special addition, the grapefruit from Israel!

As The Shabbat of Song (see post below!) was just a few days before Tu B'shevat, I made a Biblical Fruits Challah for this Shabbat!!

This was a very exciting Challah to make! The ingredients themselves are a song.  They are expressing the 7 biblical species, which are foods mentioned in the Torah and eaten in Biblical times as well as used or represented for various significance such as in the Temple.  I took the challenge of seeing if I could find them here in Oita, Japan.  

 

Tu B'shevat is a holiday celebrated in Israel as the New Year for Fruit trees.  The name  means the 15th day of the Hebrew month of Shevat, which is tomorrow on our calendar, from the evening of January 30 to January 31.  I first learned about it last year, and this discovery of a New Year, or Birthday for Fruit trees excited me.  It became a great delight-filled time in noticing the first blossoms on the fruit trees and gave me a new awareness of this season when the sap from underground begins to enter into the trees, renewing them, a time we don't "see"  much, but a time when much is happening to prepare for the first blossoms.

Blossoms appear in the land, the time for singing has come,

The song of the turtledove

Is heard in our land.

The green figs form on the fig tree,

The vines in blossom give off fragrance.

Arise my darling, 

My fair one, come away!

--Song of Songs 2:12~13

 Once I decided to make the Biblical Fruits Challah, I went Friday morning to gather the ingredients. I already had the Israeli grapefruit (famous post about the first Israeli Grapefruit HERE, and using it in the Challah HERE) And a pomegranate!!

There were dried fruits in the recipe and I also needed pomegranate juice for another recipe so I decided to go to a Department store I hadn't gone to for a while.  When I got to the food floor,  and was looking around at the dry fruits area a song came on the BGM.

Here we are preparing for the Sabbath of Song, I am in the dried fruits area, and a SONG comes to my ears, with words very clear, and in perfect English.

His Grace is enough.

I listened again,

His Grace is enough.

Oh my goodness, I am hearing this!

God I sing,  Your grace is everything!!

I was hearing worship music in our local department store food floor here in southern Japan.  Well, I practically hugged the store man, for playing such great music..

Posting note:   I didn`t realize at the time, but looked it up after from the words I heard, and it must have been the song by Chris Tomlin, Your Grace is Enough.  But how it came to our hometown Department store, ..Well, sometimes we don't need a reason.

God's Grace is Enough for me!!

Sustain me with raisin cakes,

Refresh me with apples,

For I am faint with love.

Song of Songs 2:5

 

He brought me to the banquet table 
and his banner of love was over me.

Song of Songs 2:4

Some notes on the Challah:

The dough was a very easy dough to work with.  Some of the fruity parts are that in the last stages you mix in the dried fruits--raisins and dates.  The recipe includes a fig filling that is rolled into the strands!!  You can find the recipe HERE-- Biblical Challah and Date Butter, and up on the sidebar at right.

For a perfect dish to go with this Challah for a Tu B`Shevat 'banquet`, see this recipe for Pomegranate Salmon

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


♡

Shabbat Shalom! Tu B`Shevat Challah and Seven Fruits and Grains

                                                             Today`s Shabbat was also the holiday called Tu B`Shevat.  It is the 15th day of the Hebrew month of Shevat (see two posts below!).

  On this day it is tradition to eat foods that are from the seven types of fruits and grains--barley, wheat, grapes, figs, pomegranates, dates/honey, and olives ---which are mentioned throughout the Torah as the main produce of Israel.

This recipe for a Biblical Challah and date butter combines these tastes.

 I made the challah using a variation of the Biblical foods that I was able to find locally in Japan.  I couldn`t find a pomegranate, but did have one ingredient that came from Israel, the famous Israeli grapefruit that I wrote about in this post below!!

God is so good.  As we are reading about the manna in this weeks Parsha, we know that He provides what we need, and everything comes from Him.  Little did I know earlier this week when I saw the Israeli grapefruit --from Jaffa --in the local supermarket,  that it would be one of the indgredients* that was called for in the recipe for this week`s Challah!! His ways are so much greater than ours!!

The grapefruit from Israel became the center of this week`s Challah and celebration of fruits!

                     Like an apple tree among the trees of the forest, 
so is my lover among the sons.
In his shadow I delighted to sit,
and his fruit was sweet to my taste.
He has brought me to the banquet house
and his banner over me is love.
Sustain me with raisin cakes,
refresh me with apples---
for I am weak with love.             ---Song of Songs 2: 3~5

There are so many references to the spices and fruits of Israel in the Song of Songs, one of the scriptures that is read to welcome the Shabbat.  There is choice fruit, pomegranates, all the finest spices, honey from the honeycomb, and all the trees of frankincense, myrrh and aloes.  These passages can touch our souls as our senses are filled with the fruits and sweetness of Shabbat.  May we prepare a Shabbat table to welcome the God of Israel into our hearts and deeper into our lives.  May we taste and see that He is good and know that His Love endures forever.

Delight in the Shabbat, Shabbat Shalom!

Shalom be upon Israel!  --Psalm 125, 128

I went down into the garden of nut trees

to look at the fruit of the valley,

to see if the vine had budded, 

or the pomegranates had bloomed.

Before I was aware, my soul sent me

among the chariots 

of my princely people.

---Song of Songs  6:11~12 

A Man in a Tree, almost TuB'Shevat!

I am the true vine, and My Father is the gardener.   ---John 15:1

This morning I said to my daughter, maybe I will take a walk to see if the buds have begun to blossom on the ume tree.  (Note:  Ume = 梅 = Plum, hence Ume Tree=Plum Tree; "ume" is pronounced "oo-may") Note: Plum trees are the first fruit trees to blossom here in Japan, several months before Cherry Blossom trees)
It's almost Tu B'Shevat! (The New Year for Trees!)
I want to see the first blossom this year!

I looked out the window to see if I could see if the ume tree was starting to bloom.
In my natural mind, I knew that there is no way that from six flights up  and what would be equal in distance to a few blocks away, there is no way I could see if a bud turned into a blossom, as they would just appear a tiny dot to the eye either way, but somehow I looked anyway.

Indeed I couldn't see if there was a bud or a blossom, but what I did see clearly in the branches was that there was a man in the ume tree!!

Just to confirm what I saw with a word spoken outloud, I said to my daughter, who was getting ready to go out,
"There's a man in the ume tree!".

She said "Oh" or something like that, though she didn't exactly jump from what she was doing to see the man.

But quickly I knew this was an adventure that was calling me to attend to and that I had better get dressed and up and out quickly, as one doesn't know how long a man will stay in a tree these days!!

I grabbed the second challah that I made for Shabbat, sensing I might have found the one to give it to this week.  (Note: in all the excitement of seeing fruits in season this month, I forgot to mention something, which is that this year I decided I want to give a challah to someone each week at Shabbat, as a way to begin sharing the Shabbat. Even if no one around us knows what Shabbat is. I received a great Challah book from my sister for my birthday in the end of the year, and the writer said she always makes extra challah to give away to someone each Shabbat and she prays about who to give it to.  As that is something that I had been thinking about too, I had a challah ready to give).

 Ok, back to the Ume Tree and the Man.  I ran down the back way six flights down and into the Castle grounds---of course, all adventures God sent are in the Castle grounds, as He is the King!---excitedly making my way past some construction workers with flags,  and around the corner and stone walls, into where I could see--- the tree, a truck, and indeed, a man!! But he was no longer in the tree.  He was standing back some meters away from the tree, checking his work.

From the truck and the tools and the rake, it became clear that he had been pruning the tree.

(Yes, daughters of the King, pruning! take note! John 15, our King is also a great Gardener!)

I tried to look casual, and not let on that I came here to see Him.  Though of course He knows everything, so that was a pointless thing to try to hide.

I smiled and said something about the buds almost blossoming.

He smiled with his head in a humble bow and continued his work of loading the discarded branches onto his truck.  I looked in the branches and saw a few had buds, and asked if I could have one of the branches .  He said, sure, and looked thru them but said none were flowering.  Then he looked like he had an idea.

"I will cut one for you!" He said.

He went to the tree, and looked for the right one, cut it with a swift and knowing hand, and handed it to me.  A light from heaven shined on the moment of his handing it to me.  I received it with thanks.

He told me to put it in water, and the flowers will open.

He finished his work and strapped the ladder onto the back of the truck. He said goodbye to me.
I was about to say goodbye to him, when...

I remembered the challah! I had prayed before for the right moment to give it to him, and it looked like this was my chance.

I went around to the side of the truck where he was getting in.   I asked if he would so kindly accept this bread. At first he said, no , no, please nothing is necessary to give him.  I said, I know, but ...today is a very special day where I am from, and I wanted to give it to him.

He accepted it, and reached out his hands to receive it,
I brought my hands towards him to give it.
In that moment, both of our hands were on the bread,
and for the second time a divine light shone on the moment.

He got in the truck and drove off with the pruned branches and the challah.
I turned back to sit a little longer and held the little branch he gave me, and went to finish my drawing. I saw that the branch he gave me echoed the tree itself.  It was like a little cutting from the big tree.  Then I heard the voice of our Father in Heaven.  He said, it is.  Because we are from Him, and we are created in His image.  And the one who shows us this, the one who is the ladder from Heaven and Earth, is always wanting to show us that.

"If you abide in Me and My words abide in you, ask whatever you wish, and it shall be done for you.  In this My Father is glorified, that you bear much fruit and so prove to be my disciples."

"Just as the Father has loved Me, I also have loved you.  Abide in My love!"  

---John 15:7~8, 9

I held the branch.  And brought it home, put it in water.

And propped up the drawing with the words,

"Thank you Father"

Love,

Shayndel

When I saw this photo after I took it, I noticed the way the curve in the tree echoes the curve in the man the way his pose was!  Like in a Van Gogh painting!

the Gardener and the Ume tree

He said He would cut a branch to give to me

The little ume branch is on my Shabbat table today.

 Happy almost Tu B"Shevat!!

PS NOTES: For other posts on the Ume Tree and Tu B'Shevat on this blog, see HERE

Happy Tu B`Shvat from Japan!

 post in progress!
 thank you to my new blog friend at The Real Jerusalem Streets for making me aware  of this day!!
I just learned we are still in time for Tu B`Shevat, a Jewish Holiday that is the New Year for Trees!

It will be this Shabbat, so there is even time still if you are considering celebrating this day, to make a Biblical Challah perfect for the occasion. Here is the Link, stay tuned for how the Challah comes out and hopefully some nice photos of our neighboring Ume (Plum Blossom ) tree, for a Japan-Jewish-Israeli celebration!! Happy Tu B`Shevat! and guess what?  Remember the Israeli Grapefruit I found in the post below?  In the Challah recipe it even calls from zest from a Jaffa orange, so I will plan to use the zest from the Jaffa Grapefruit!.  If you are local, please let me know as surely there will be plentiful Challah to share!!



Blessings and Shalom from Japan,

Shayndel

The First Cherry Blossoms

My blog is called Challah and Cherry Blossoms.  I`ve posted a lot of challah but not too many cherry blossoms.  And now the time for cherry blossoms is come-ing!  As your Challah and Cherry Blossoms correspondent, I must say this is a very exciting time.

This week a friend invited me to see the earliest blossoming cherry blossoms in Kyushu, the south island of Japan where we live.  Of course I said yes!  Thank you T-san and K-san!!  The skies were cloudy, but it didn`t matter.  We had a beautiful day.  The pink blossoms cheered up the whole landscape and brought new life to everything.  The funny thing is the place where we ended up to see the cherry blossoms was in a parking lot.  An ordinary parking lot becomes extraordinary when lit up by the pink `sakura` blossoms!





Cherry blossoms are like a resurrection, a bringing new life to what was once dead.  After the burst of pink they soon bring forth green leaves and the season of spring.  People flock to see them, and even as we left the parking lot, there were many people with cameras who came for the same reason we  did, to see the cherry blossoms.  We left as people came.  Everyone was taking pictures of the cherry blossoms.

There is still a month before the rest of the cherry blossoms here and in all Japan officially open.  Its a little hard to explain, but this viewing today was like a sneak preview, in the still cold days of February, a reminder of the new life that comes after the sap begins to flow (remember Tu B`Shevat, the New Year for trees. That day a few weeks ago commemorates when the sap begins to flow after the months of winter in the trees.)

At the end of our adventure, she took us to see her new granddaughter.  How precious is new life!
And what a special reminder that we too can be born again!!

Blessings and blossoms!!
Shayndel

 A prayer of thanks for today, Dear Father thank you for this day that You have made.  How glad we are for every moment in it,  we rejoice in your Creation.  Thank you for friends who are so kind and invited me today on the day outing.  We know it is You who provides everything in our lives, and that You bring us together with people for your purposes. Thank you for the beautiful canopy of pink that makes everything new and reminds us of the power of the Resurrection of Yeshua.  
The color pink is like a burst of your Love painted in the landscape, announcing a new season and showing the miracle and wonder of how what was once dead comes to life as You direct all of Creation.  Please reveal more about Yourself to us in this season as we eagerly anticipate the cherry blossoms opening throughout Japan.  May the Messiah`s return come soon and may we prepare for His coming by becoming new in You and seeking your Kingdom and the heavenly on earth.  I pray blessings for the one who is reading this.  That she will be renewed by the power of the Holy Spirit and that she will come to know Yeshua as her Saviour.  And to the reader here now who has already received Salvation in Yeshua, may she be constantly renewed by your Great Love and Shalom, and be restored in health and strength and new passion and creativity.  May all we do bring Glory to You.   Hashem Yeshua.  Amen!

 Yeshua said to her, "I am the resurrection and the life!"

---John 11:25

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

613 Yen!! (post in progress but posting it anyway as its been in progress since December!! Much love!)

Notice the total, 613 Yen!!!

 there is  the receipt! 

As promised there is a challah in this post, inside the The Blossoming Challah bag!

 (note: still catching-up,  drafted in mid-December, and finally posting now!...and yes, it does contain challah!.. and pomegranates!)

1.  613 Yen!
I had a `convenience store lunch` yesterday! I was on the way to my voice training lesson and often stop at the convenience store there for coffee, and maybe an onigiri (Japanese popular item, rice ball!).  Yesterday when paying at the cash register, the cashier rung up the items.  She asked if I needed a bag, and I said no thank you, I will eat -in here.  She informed me  that there will be a change in price  for eat-in.  I didn`t know that even though I have often sat and had eat-in there!  From how she said it I didn`t understand if it meant the price was going to be less or more.  At first I even thought `less` since we save a bag!  Then she clarified and she said its more! It was just a few yen more, but anyway of course I said ok.  She re-rang up the items and the cash register revealed the three numbers, 

like a jackpot, 

the digits 6-1-3 showed up!!

613!!!

I got excited at the transaction. As you know 613 is the number of commandments that there are said to be in the Torah!!! As many of you know, from my blog--thank you friends for reading and being on the journey together--- God has been leading me to read and study His Torah since around 4 years ago.

 If you love me, you will keep my commandments. 

John 14:15

אם אתם אוהבים אותית הרי שתשמרו את מצוותיה

The 613 on the register like that was one of those moments that we all have, when the God of Heaven, Blessed be He, shines His light on a moment.  I knew He was  bringing attention to it because of the above explanation that the number was re-calculated and that is why it got my attention.   I took the receipt where there again where the numbers that I saw on the screen, and the change (since I gave 1013 yen , ), the change was 400 ( another biblicaly significant number representing a divenely perfect period of time!!)

 Its my 2 yens worth to share this post,  but it amazes me how sometimes the Almighty God reveals Himself even in the  small change.

So this post is a song of Praise! And thanksgiving.

 

2.  Seeing Pomegranates after that!

The 613 also connects to Pomegranates, so this is a kind of reverse lead in to the post below!! After that day at the convenience store, I started to see pomegranates in all my local supermarkets and fruit stands, and the way I would see them was like God was `sending` them.  As you also may know from my blog over the years, God speaks to me with fruit in seasons.  I am thankful for that day a few years ago when I first stopped to notice the Israeli grapefruit in the supermarket.  

And now when I am finally posting this it is almost Tu B`shevat, the New Year for Trees (more to follow or more HERE!! if I am late again!)

I just am connecting to something we are now reading in the book of Exodus, called Shemot, in Hebrew.  It is significant that  Moses stops to look at the burning bush. It is because he stops and notices and turns around to look, and it is then that God adresses him and gives him his destiny, as well as reveals His name, the great I AM.

In this name He reveals that He is who He is and that He will always be with us in our times of trouble.  This is when He gives Moses the instructions for delivering the people Israel out of Egypt.   I connect all this in my post as the 613 on the screen in the Japanese convenience store and all the fruit.  He asks us to stop and notice and hear what is the purpose and mission we are to carry out.  He plants us in places where we have to see His divinity in the midst of the surroundings.  

 3.  And counting...

 I think that with showing me the receipt He wanted to confirm that day about my calling that He has given to me to teach Torah because after that I kept on seeing pomegranates in the supermarket!...  (see the Pomegranate posts to follow)   It was just after the 613 incident!!!  As our blogging friend Aritha pointed out in the comments of that post, the pomegranate is said to have 613 seeds representing the 613 mitzvot. 

Please see THIS ARTICLE  that she shared for more on the Pomegranate.  As well as feel free to pop in on some of my Pomegranate posts where I also share about the revelations God has showed me over the years in the pomegranate!! The His Israel article is very good as it is all there in one place!!

 4.  Pomegranate Challah and Pomegranate scriptures (to be added, or if I haven`t yet, please share your favorite!!)

I will just end this post with a few of the many beautiful scriptures about Pomegranates in the Tanakh (I just noticed the one below has `400` in it!) !

and the 400 pomegranates for the two lattice works (two rows of pomegranates for each lattice-work to cover the two bowls of the capitals that were upon the top of the pillars).      2 Chronicles 4:13

 Let us go out early to the vineyards, let us see if the vine has budded, if their blossoms have opened, and if the pomegranates have bloomed--there I will give you my love.  Song of Songs 7:12

Blessings and Shalom!

Love,

Shayndel

 

Fruits of the Spirit, Pineapple of Shabbat!

 But the fruit of the Ruach (Spirit) is love, joy, peace, patience, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, and self-control---against such things there is no law.    ---Galatians 5:22~23

I have written some posts about fruits on my blog.  Not with any intent to do a `fruit` series, but certain fruits have called to my attention, as if the Holy Spirit did indeed want to show me something through them. Does that sometimes happen with you?


There was the famous Grapefruit from Israel, then Tu B`shevat and my first fruity challah.  Recently,  Israeli orange samples were being given out at our local department store food floor.  Another fruit surprise was a birthday pomeganate, and now...a pineapple of Shabbat.  It was this past Shabbat that I picked up the pineapple.  I almost didn`t post it, but after all I will include it, and not let the pineapple pass by.

In the Book of Exodus that we just finished reading, do you remember a fruit that appears on the garments of the Holy Priest?  Yes, it is a pomegranate (not a pineapple), which alternates with bells on the pattern of the hem of the priestly garment.  Perhaps I am pushing it, not just because they both are fruits which begin with `P` but I see some similarity between them.

The similarity is in... the crown!! There is something King-ly about both  the pineapple and the pomegranate.  This pineapple was born (grown) in Japan, in the very southernmost part, in Okinawa.  It may be the first time I saw a Japan-grown pineapple.  On the Shabbat I like to sometimes buy a special fruit to honor the LORD and the special-ness of the day.

Delight is one of the qualities that we experience in the Shabbat,  our senses are at a peak as the LORD shines a divine light on everything in that time---colors, tastes, smells, everything seems to be heightened when we enter the Sabbath.  Even in preparing for the Shabbat,  I will sometimes sense a nudging, or pointing out by the Holy Spirit to pick out something delight-full for the Shabbat table.

This week it was the pineapple!! We didn`t actually even eat it until the day after, but it was there gracing the table.  While I was worshiping and welcoming the Shabbat on Friday,  I had a vision of a stream of turquoise flowing from the throne of Heaven.  I was dancing and then Yeshua himself came to dance with me and our hands touched, making a kind of high bridge over the stream of Living Water.

When I tried to make a drawing of it, I wanted to to somehow express the Throne but without drawing what it `looks` like, so I put something there to express the Throne room of heaven, and guess what it was?? A pomegranate? No!  A pineapple? No.  But you are close...

Yes!! there you see it, A Crown!!!

You will also be a crown of beauty 

in the hand of ADONAI,

and a royal diadem

in the hand of your God.  

 Isaiah 62:3

So that is my story of the pineapple of Shabbat. I would like to dedicate this post to a new sister, friend, and reader of my blog who I met on this very Shabbat.  For Mrs. N!!

Drawing that brings together the crown, the names of the twelve tribes of Israel, the New Jerusalem, and Yeshua bringing healing on the Shabbat!

 How precious is Your kindness, O God!   The sons of man take refuge in the shadow of Your wings. May they be sated from the abundance of Your house; and may You give them to drink from the stream of Your delights.  For with You is the source of life---by Your light we shall see light.  Extend Your kindness to those who know You, and Your charity to the upright of heart.

---Psalms 36:8~11