The High Holy Days

Greetings and blessings to you, Gail-Friends.  I hope your celebration of Rosh Hashanah was sweet.  Here are a few photos from our service:

Lots of shofar blowing (100 notes, plus many more as we rejoicedat the end of  the service!)  And, of course, we had food -- lots of glorious apple creations for a sweet year ahead.  (See below for information about my Apple Roses, as promised.)

And then came the ten days of awe. . . a time of introspection and soul-searching leading up to Yom Kippur, the Day of Atonement.  During this time, we spend time with Hashem and His Word, asking Him to reveal any sins and we attempt to mend any broken relationships.  This year was a tender, somber time, more so than years past.  The last song was the Kol Nidre, and while it played people went to each other and made things right.  It was an amazing evening together.

I love the High Holy Days because we take the time to be still and listen to Hashem more so than the other Holidays.  How blessed we are to observe and celebrate these set-apart days, His Feasts and Festivals.  They are gifts and reminders to us of His presence and goodness in our lives.  As a  believer, I observed Christmas and Easter.  Now, as a Messianic Jew, I love being blessed with a holiday every couple of months in the year:  Rosh Hashanah, Yom Kippur, Sukkot (the Fall Feasts), then we have Hanukkah, and on to Purim, Passover and Shavuot (the Spring Feasts).  All of these draw us closer to Hashem and are types of our Messiah, Yeshua.   And lest we forget, we have our weekly feast -- Shabbat, our blessed day of rest.  Hashem is so good to us.

Here's a photo of the apple roses I made for Rosh Hashanah.  I think they turned out very nicely.

I will share the recipe (and the adventure) next week**.  I just don't have time right now, since today is Preparation Day, plus Sukkot begins on Monday at sundown.  Lots to do, dear Gail-Friends!!!

Shalom and love to you all from me - and from one of the sweet little ones in our congregation.

** To learn more about the Feasts and Festivals, click on this LINK
For the Apple Roses Recipe, click HERE

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Sabbath Music - BaShana HaBa'ah

 

Shabbat Shalom and Shanah Tovah to you, Gail-Friends.  I'm giving you holiday greetings early because the High Holy Days begin at sundown on Sunday, September 9.   What a blessing -- the Sabbath, followed by Rosh Hashanah, the Feast of Trumpets -- a double blessing!
 
Rosh Hashanah is also the first day of the year - so Happy New Year - or Shanah Tovah to you.  We'll be blowing the shofar, dancing, singing, and eating the traditional foods - apples and honey during our celebration this Sunday.  These foods represent our prayers and desires for a good, sweet year ahead.   I'm planning on making apple roses.  I'll post all about it when I return.  Here's a traditional song for Rosh Hashanah that tells of the belief that the new year will be a good one.  And I hope you dance, Gail-Friends :  BaShana HaBa'ah

photo courtesy of MiYah Music - used by permission

Rosh Hashanah is the first holy day, which begins this Sunday.  This begins the ten days of awe leading up to Yom Kippur.  During those ten days, we seek Adonai's face to see if any sins have crept into our lives.  Sad to say, it happens, so this is a needed discipline in all of our lives.


If you are not familiar with the High Holy Days, you can learn all about Rosh Hashanah, Yom Kippur, and Sukkot at this LINK.   You'll find my past posts related to these holidays.

Because this is a holy time of introspection, I will not post again until after Yom Kippur. I will be back on Thursday, September 20.  At that time, I will post about our Rosh Hashanah celebration, and also about our Yom Kippur service.  

I will pray for you, dear Gail-Friends, while I am away, and please pray for me.  Until then, I say L'Shanah Tovah B'Yeshua (Happy New Year in Yeshua).  And may the year 5779 be a sweet one for you.

Thankful Thursday - Sukkot 5777

This is a photo of the moon on the night of our Sukkot celebration. 

The High Holy Days are past, along with Feast of Tabernacles and Simchat Torah.  All of this, plus the aftermath of Hurricane Matthew, and the election have made for a very busy  two months. 

So many blessings and photos to share with you, Gail-Friends, that I may have to break this up into two posts. 

After some teaching about Sukkot, we enjoyed some singing and dancing.
Then, it's time to build the sukkah. We used bamboo from the backyard of the Golden Cottage.

This year, we tried something a bit different -- a bamboo screen to wrap around three of the walls.

TA-DA!  I think it turned out really well, don't you?

Then, it's time to decorate. It was a great joy to have our daughter's decorating expertise. :)

Even the little ones can help.

On Sukkot, we wave the lulav.  Everybody in the congregation gets their turn.

And then, it's time to eat, and boy did we have some good food. 

We have some really good cooks at Ma'gen Da'vid.

To learn more about Sukkot and see some of our past celebrations 

(including our sukkahs), click on this LINK.

The High Holy Days are my favorite time of the year, and Sukkot is the most joy and fun filled.  If you celebrated Sukkot, I'd love to hear about it in the comments below.  

Next week, I'll share about Simchat Torah and some of the other happenings at the Golden Cottage.  

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I sometimes share my posts with these friends:

Spiritual Sundays      THE SUNDAY COMMUNITY – #GIVE ME GRACE @SEE SPEAK HEAR MAMA Kathy’s Return to Loveliness at A Delightsome Life     GRAND Social       The Beauty in His Grip Link-Up   

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Sabbath Music - Avinu Malkeinu

This past week, we've spent cleaning up after Hurricane Matthew, and putting our house back in order.  All of this while enjoying having our seven-year old grandson stay with us.  We're calling it Camp Gi-Gi-Paw-Paw.  He's with us because his parents have been working night and day to clean up the mess from the roof and water damage inside their home.  Please continue to pray for them.

This picture above was posted by a local radio station, Z88.3 of Orlando.  My daughter had a vision of this very same thing as we were preparing for the hurricane last week.  She and her little family prayed for G-d to push that storm away.  He did that very thing.  The storm was predicted to hit the Space Coast, but "wobbled" west so we did not get a direct hit. Even though she has suffered a lot of damage, she's been faithful to praise G-d for his provision and protection and for the family, friends and neighbors who have reached out with help.

At the end of our Yom Kippur service this week, we all gave testimonies of how G-d helped and protected us through the storm.  It was a Hallelujah time!  It was also a humbling time, as we all are experiencing first hand the reality of His protection and provision in our lives.We also rejoiced in the provision of Yeshua HaMashiach's blood to cover our sins.  This is the song we sang and danced to that night. (Mashiach ben David by Lenny and Varda)

To learn more about Yom Kippur, click on this LINK.

This song is one we sing each year during the High Holy Days.  It is a reverent prayer for G-d to bless us in the year ahead.   This version is by Barbara Streisand, and even though I disagree with her politics, I love her voice.  Listen and be blessed.

Avinu Malkeinu

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I sometimes share my posts with these friends:

Spiritual Sundays      THE SUNDAY COMMUNITY – #GIVE ME GRACE @SEE SPEAK HEAR MAMA Kathy’s Return to Loveliness at A Delightsome Life     GRAND Social       The Beauty in His Grip Link-Up   

Modest Mom Monday Link-up         Growing Homemakers Link-Up        The Gathering Spot Link-Up 

MOTIVATION MONDAYS – @EMBRACINGHISWILL      SHARING HIS BEAUTY – @THEBEAUTYINHISGRIP

The Art of Homemaking Mondays
Monday of Many Blessings 

Titus 2 Tuesday     Share Your Stuff Tuesday    TITUS TUESDAYS @CORNERSTONE CONFESSIONS    

Wordless Wednesdays    Jennifer Dukes Lee Tell His Story  Teaching What Is Good Link-Up

Classical Homemaking Link-Up    Judith’s Wholehearted Wednesday     Raising Homemakers Wednesday     A Wise Woman Builds       Wake Up Wednesday     A Little R & R Wednesday     Wednesday's Prayer Girls & Link-Up Party Thought Provoking Thursdays at 3D Lessons 4Life     Thursday  Favorite Things 

 Home and Garden Thursday at Delightsome Life 

Friendship Friday 

 

 

Yom Kippur 5775

On Yom Kippur, we dress ourselves, the bema, the ark, and the Torah in white.

Each year at Yom Kippur, we pause to acknowledge our sins, ask forgiveness of G-d and others, and make amends for any broken relationships. We read a long list of sins that may have crept into our lives over the past year.  The one that always seems to show up for me is complaining.

Have you ever thought of complaining as a sin?  It is a sneaky sin for sure.  It's easy to fall into a pattern of negativity, especially when you watch the news.  I am guilty of being discouraged and complaining about the government.  Complaining does no good.  Because we are a part of a representative government, we have a responsibility to take an active part in the running of our governments (local, state and national).  So, I have asked G-d's forgiveness, and renewed my commitment to pray and take action in the process of our government.

At Yom Kippur, I'm also reminded of the grace of G-d in providing a payment for sin.  Yeshua's blood took the place of animal sacrifices.  I express my gratitude, not only for that blood, but for the power of ADONAI living inside me.  He is the Living Word written on my heart, and I just have to praise Him.

I wanted to share a couple of new things in our service this year.  First, a member of our congregation made a replica of the priest's breastplate, and Rabbi Jem wore it during the service:

My wonderful husband

 
We also added circle dancing to the service which may seem strange since Yom Kippur is a solemn time of reflection and confession of sin.  We are humbled as we recognize more sin in our lives.  But then as we acknowledge G-d's grace in forgiveness, we thank Him for providing the payment for our sins.  We have overflowing joy,  and we have to praise Him for his provision in Yeshua the Messiah.  So, this year, we added a circle dance to our service.  Everyone joined in, at least at the beginning.  It was a long song, so some gave out, including me.

Here are a few pictures of the service, our dancing, and then a video of the song we danced to.  Enjoy!

The blowing of the shofar

Henei Ma Tov - How beautiful to dwell in unity

Our children love to dance

Here is the song we danced to.  Mashiach ben David by Lenny and Varda Harris.  Yes, He is the reason that we sing (and dance).



You can learn more about Yom Kippur by clicking on the subject in the index on the left side of this blog.
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Rosh Hashanah 5775

 

 

 L'SHANA TOVAH 

HAPPY NEW YEAR, 5775

The High Holy Days are a busy  time for us at Ma'gen Da'vid Synagogue, so I am glad to back to my regular postings.  

We held our Rosh Hashanah service on Wednesday evening, September 24.  This holiday is also called Feast of Trumpets because the blowing of the shofar is the focus.  We also make the challah round on this holiday as a reminder that the time has come around once again for us to refocus our lives on ADONAI.  The cycle begins and we rejoice.

During the service at our synagogue, there are 100 notes blown on the shofar. Below is a video so that you can hear how it sounds.  The chanting by the rabbi tells the musician how many times to blow the shofar. I'm sorry my video of the event at our synagogue did not turn out because Jeff, our musician, is very talented and did a great job. Thank you to Youtube (and Temple Shalom) for this:







That last note is very long.  I am amazed at how long the one in the video continued, because blowing the shofar is not easy, and blowing  it for 100 notes is even harder.  To have the breath to end like that is great.
 
The shofar blasts are a call to repentance and prayer and a reminder to be in awe of our Holy G-d.  Thus, the time between Rosh Hashanah and Yom Kippur is known as The Ten Days of Awe. 

For the ten days, we take time to reflect on our lives and ask G-d to reveal any hidden sins.  We also ask Him to show us if any relationships need to be mended.  If so, we go to that person and ask forgiveness.  It is a solemn time of humbling ourselves before Him.  You can learn more about the Feast of Trumpets HERE

After the service, we ate lots of apples dipped in honey, and wished each other a sweet year ahead. 

I love this song about Rosh Hashanah, by MiYah. You can visit her website and hear more of her music  HERE


One of the things that awes me about the High Holy Days is that all Jews come aside to observe this holiday. In some towns, all businesses close down for the entire ten days.  I saw this quote and it caused me to think and I hope you, my Gail-Friends, will consider it, too:

  “Since the days of Pentecost, has the whole church ever put aside every other work and waited upon him for ten days, that the Spirit’s power might be manifested? We give too much attention to method and machinery and resources, and too little to the source of power” –J. Hudson Taylor

Did you know that Pentecost is actually the Jewish holiday of Shavuot?  The Jews were in Jerusalem that day to obey G-d's command.  The observance of Rosh Hashanah and the Ten Days of Awe are also commanded by Adonai.  

My next post will be about our observance of Yom Kippur, and I hope you will come back by for that.
*****

  I'm linking up today with:

 Spiritual Sunday

The Gathering Spot Link-Up
GRAND Social

Modest Mom Monday Link-up 
Meet-Up Monday

Growing Homemakers Link-Up

Titus 2 Tuesday 

Tuesdays with a Twist 
Share Your Stuff Tuesday

A Hope in Every Season Homemaking Link-Up  
Wordless Wednesdays 

Winsome Wednesday

A Wise Woman Builds
Whole Hearted Wednesday 
Wake Up Wednesday

Jenny Marie's Wordless Wednesday 


Favorite Things 
Hearts for Home 

Fab Creative Friday
Friendship Friday 
Freedom Friday