Feast Days Record Keeping

This was the fourth year that I've celebrated the Pesach seder. When I started planning for this year I was having difficulty remembering past years' plans. My very sketchy notes were scattered in various files or notebooks. In light of this fact, I decided to start keeping a dedicated notebook for the feast days for future reference. I took a composition notebook that I already had and covered the front and back with cardstock and did a little decorating on the front. It isn't fancy but now I will be able to accumulate vital information to use for the future with each passing year.

(I know you'll forgive me for letting my long hair hang in the camera's lens.)

Getting Ready For Passover

The wonderful thing about getting ready for Pesach is that every Spring your house is made fresh and clean. There is so much to do to get ready. I don't beat myself up, however, if I don't get it spotless. The important thing is to remember to work on getting the leaven out of my temple.

 I'm taking a break from readying my household for Pesach to give you a little teaser. I've made a table runner for my seder table this year. I find it interesting that the fabric  I chose coordinates with the colors of the goblet that I purchased three years ago to dedicate for Elijah's cup. Was I ever surprised when I took the goblet from the cupboard and placed it by the runner. It wasn't planned by me. It definitely was a Yahweh thing!

I'll be busy for the next few days like the rest of you but I'll post again next Thursday.

                                         Chag Sameach

A Basket For Matzah

With Passover approaching I wanted to add to our Seder table this year. So, among other ideas, I decided to make a basket to hold the matzah. I researched and found this tutorial. http://www.rowleycompany.com/images/DIYFrench_Bread_Basket.pdf  

I purchased matzah printed fabric here. http://www.1-800-dreidel.com/matzahandpassoverfabrics.aspx

The finished basket

I altered the size of the pattern to fit the matzah and the fabric on the outside of the basket came from my fabric stash.

The Finished Project

On a past post http://asweetsavor.blogspot.com/2013/02/tzedakah.html I described decorating a new Tzedekah box by using a cocoa box to replace a dollar store gift box that I was using for that purpose. If you look close you'll see that the paper on the box has little dots of glitter glue to emphasize the design . I didn't care for the fact that the top to the box was molded with the brand name of the cocoa and pondered how to decorate the top for a while. I came up with a simple solution. The top was traced onto a piece of card stock (any cardboard will do) and cut out to fit into the recess on the top. I glued a piece of fabric to the card stock and then glued the assembly to the top. I then proceeded to glue ribbon matching the color of the paper that decorated the outside of the box. If you desire you could add a slot to the top so you don't have to take off the lid every time you added to your offering.

Every time you come before Yahweh make sure you bring a gift. It may not be much, what ever you can afford, even a penny or two. The whole point of the exercise to to make this a habit that you become accustomed to while you are still in the nations. Make it a way of life that will be with you eternally.

Pomegranates

Did you know that there are eight verses in the Torah with the word pomegranate in them?  those verses are:
Exo 28:34 A golden bell and a pomegranate, a golden bell and a pomegranate, on the hem of the robe round about.
Exo 39:26 A bell and a pomegranate, a bell and a pomegranate, round about the hem of the robe to minister in; as the LORD commanded Moses.
1Sa 14:2 And Saul tarried in the uttermost part of Gibeah under a pomegranate tree which is in Migron: and the people that were with him were about six hundred men;
Son 4:3 Your lips are like a thread of scarlet, and your speech is comely: your temples are like a piece of a pomegranate within your locks.
Son 6:7 As a piece of a pomegranate are your temples within your locks.
Son 8:2 I would lead you, and bring you into my mother's house, who would instruct me: I would cause you to drink of spiced wine of the juice of my pomegranate.
Joe 1:12 The vine is dried up, and the fig tree languishes; the pomegranate tree, the palm tree also, and the apple tree, even all the trees of the field, are withered: because joy is withered away from the sons of men.

The Pomegranate

The pomegranate is a symbol of righteousness in Jewish tradition. It supposedly contains 613 seeds (I don't know if that is true but let's suppose it is.) that remind us of the 613 commandments (mitzvot) of the Torah.

And so I have designed a 'stylized' pomegranate wall hanging that includes the word pomegranate in Hebrew. You'll find I will sneak words in Hebrew into most of what I create.

Pomegranate in Hebrew pronounced ree-mon (with a long o sound)

Fitting Your Faith Into Everyday

I have a little hutch in my kitchen where I display some of my favorite things. On this hutch is where I keep my shofar. Behind my shofar was a blank space in the hutch. What better way to compliment  the shofar than to show a Scripture pertaining to it. So a banner was born!

An appropriate Scripture was chosen.

Fitting the banner into my display.

I made the banner by simply hemming a piece of linen and making a pocket to fit a dowel through at the top of the banner. Then I penciled in the words and painted over the pencil marks using a liner brush and acrylic paint. I gathered some various colored ribbon to match my design and tacked it to the top corners of the banner.

If you are not a sewer you can still make the hems of the banner by using an iron on binding tape. Instead of painting words on the surface of the fabric you could embroider the letters. There are so many ways to do these things.

And just think.  Every time you look at what was added to your surroundings Yahweh will be gorified and your spirit will be edified.

Bookbinding And The Amidah Prayer

I have a booklet with the Amidah prayer. The booklet gets a lot of use and is wearing out. So I decided to make a new booklet. I made my cover design and constructed the booklet. All that is left is to write the prayer in the book.

I researched some bookbinding videos on YouTube and found a good one to share with you that I found suitable for my project. This YouTube channel has other bookbinding techniques also.

It was fun to make, something I had never attempted before. However I need to work on my stitching technique and I plan to add other books of prayers to my 'collection'. 

There are numerous versions of the Amidah prayer (recited three times a day...the 3rd hour, the 6th hour and the 9th hour). One version is located on the Hebrew for Christians site http://www.hebrew4christians.com/Prayers/Daily_Prayers/Shemoneh_Esrei/shemoneh_esrei.html