Apple Matzah Kugel! Dreaming of Jewish comfort foods in Japan!
Who is this coming up from the wilderness leaning on her lover? Under the apple tree I awakened you... Song of Songs 8:5
I had a dream during the days of the counting of the Omer. The dream was a close up of a blog post!! The post ( in the dream, note: it wasn`t a `real life` post!) was on one of our dear friends`s Blog and it was a post on "Apple Matzah and the Book of Ruth". Maybe I had this dream to remind me to come back to the blog, as it was during my extended break!!
In any case I ended up making Apple Matzah (Kugel!) thanks to the dream and will just share a little about the dream and the Apple Matzah here and see where the post will take us!
The post in the dream was written and formatted different from her usual posts. It was in text colors like pink and orange and she shared about apple matzah and interspersed the post with insights from the book of Ruth!!
Ruth was an eishet chayil, a woman of valor (from Ruth 3:11)
I woke up in the morning wondering about this apple matzah!! I had never heard of it, and now I wanted to make it! And yet I had no matzah, so I settled for looking to see if there was such a thing `out there`. When I googled `apple matzah` I found something called Apple Matzah Kugel!!! I wanted to make it but had no more matzah after Passover has passed, and I don`t know where to get it in Japan after Passover. So I decided to do something extravagant, and ordered Matzah from the US by Amazon!!
Boaz was an ish gibbor chayil, a prominent man of valor (from Ruth 2:1)
The matzah arrived during the last few days of the omer count, actually it was on Ascension Day (40 days into counting the Omer, see Acts 1), so that excited me! I had been fasting for a 3-day fast to seek the LORD about some things related to Shavuot, so I had a matzah `break-fast` communion with Yeshua on the day the matzah arrived!!
Naomi`s bitterness was changed to joy by the union of Ruth and Boaz and her return to the land of Israel and to God`s covenant promises for her life. The people prayed that her household prosper in Ephrath and be renowned in Bethlehem (from Ruth 4:11). Again the word Chayil is used here to mean `prosper`.
During the last days of the Omer count, I made Apple Matzah and brought it to a friends house for the Shabbat before Shavuot!! The taste was not what everyone is used to, though thankfully some liked it!! I loved it, it was like a Jewish comfort food that I might have tasted in my childhood, and it was somehow the perfect Shavuot dish to add to a repertoire. It only contains a little milk so it is not too heavy, and has apples and cinnamon so can be a good desert not too sweet but enough sweetness to taste and see how good the LORD is. Try it at your Shabbat or Feasts! And notice I have sprinkled a few insights from the book of Ruth just like in the dream!
The geneology that ends the book of Ruth (Ruth 4:18~22) is the geneology that starts the book of Matthew (Matthew 1:1~6), showing the seamless way God has given us the story of Ruth and her Kinsman redeemer, Boaz, and connected us to the genealogy of Yeshua who comes from their union. Yeshua is the Redeemer, or Goel of Israel!! It is a beautiful story of covenant love and chesed. We can also learn from the way Ruth accepted God`s commandments and identified with Israel。 We can also see in it the beauty of Jew and Gentile coming together to help us understand the purposes of God for Israel, as Ruth, who was a Moabite, loved Israel and the God of Israel and joined herself with Naomi with the famous verse,
Where you go I will go, and where you stay, I will stay.
Your people will be my people, and your God my God.
Ruth 1:16~17
Below I will share the name of a book I read this season in regards to Messianic insights into the book of Ruth. It was good and a recommendation during this season or anytime as a devotional study!
I pray you had a blessed time of Shavuot. And now, the revelation that I was waiting to see where this post will lead! The Holy Spirit showed me to wonderful scriptures about apples and relating to Shavuot!! As Shavuot is the holiday where we We thank God and receive His revelation anew, we celebrate the giving of the Torah at Mt. Sinai and over 1000 years later on the very same day the Holy Spirit was poured out on the disciples of Yeshua (Greek, Pentecost)!!
SO I will end the post with these verses about apples and Torah and God`s Love!
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. Song of Songs 2:3
Sustain me with raisin cakes, refresh me with apples ~ for I am weak with love. Song of Songs 2:5 (you may recognize this verse from my famous raisin cakes which just happen to be the bread I often make in the period leading up to Shavuot!)
Keep my mitzvot and live, my teaching as the apple of your eye. Proverbs 7:2
Keep me as the apple of your eye; hide me in the shadow of your wings, Psalm 17:8
Like apples of gold in settings of silver is a word aptly spoken. Proverbs 25:11
For thus says ADONAI-Tzva`ot, He has sent me after glory to the nations that plundered you --because whoever touches you touches the apple of His eye -- Zechariah 2:12
Oh and last but not least!
The recipe, HERE is the one I used . It was easy and good, though of course you will need to obtain 4 sheets of matzah. Enjoy!
The book I recommended above, Messianic Life Lessons from the Book of Ruth can be found HERE
Thank you DUTA for inspiring the dream, and that I was able to express it in a post and hopefully return to more regularly blogging again!!
Blessings and Shabbat Shalom!Love,π
Shayndel
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| Chag Shavuot Sameach from Japan! Love, Shayndelπ |