A Simple Pesach Meal

Here's my first experience cooking a kosher for passover meal. It was kosher for passover, except for the stringent kosher part ;) (Read this article for the modern history of Matzo... really interesting!) 

We had every part of the seder, and improvised, except for the shank bone, which we did not manage to obtain. 

The boiled egg (beitzah) broke into pieces :) We had some REALLY bitter chinese herbs for maror, lettuce with salt water as dressing for karpas. 

I made flour+water round matza, and that was the most authentic part of the meal (100% atta flour) I made my own charoset with apples, almonds, cinnamon, honey, and raisins - really tasty, and really looks like mortar.

For the main meal we had a Ashkenazi staple - latkes! Potato pancakes, with nothing dairy and absolutely no flour inside. In fact, there was absolutely no dairy in the meal. I made beef patties for meat - yum! And I deepfried crisp potato skins as a special treat!  Ribena substituted kosher wine (hee hee).. 

Below is the improvised matzo bag with compartments - a large napkin. 

We enjoyed the good Jewish food tremendously, and we ate everything together after a prayer, not a long and complicated seder in Hebrew - though I would have enjoyed it - it would go down rather unappreciated. I had a good meal and a good time cooking it. We did not light candles, though after dinner, I enjoyed singing "Dayenu" "Adir Hu" "Eliyahu HaNavi", and of course, "Ma Nistana" - which really was meaning. It was fun, and after dinner we read through portions of Scripture relating to passover from 3 different versions :)

This meal was our first "Lord's Supper" together as a family. It was a good "Holy Communion" meal.

This is my first year doing Passover. The most important thing to do, I believe, is to pray and hope for God to open eyes and unstop ears. Especially this year we as a family renounced and repented of anti-semitism in the church that has slaughtered millions of innocent Jews during this season, claiming (of all things ) that they "killed Jesus". Of course we were the bloodthirsty ones. (See Our Hands Are Stained With Blood) We really have to repent with much tears.

May God bless Israel with peace, and may He sanctify us and perfect in all truth. Thank God for Yeshua, who died and was the atoning lamb for our sins.

Next year in Jerusalem!

Shalom,

Beka. 

To God's Chosen People!

Have a joyous and special Pesach this year my dear friends.

Why did I write such a song?

While practicing my violin, the day before Pesach, Passover, I heard a
distinct tune. Immediately I put the words to it. "My people, they do not
hear, nor do they understand". I opened my Bible the only place where I
remember this passage could not be found, Acts 28, and sang. And I sang and I sang and I could not forget this song.

"Go to this people and say:
"Hearing you will hear, and shall not understand;
And seeing you will see, and not perceive;
27 For the hearts of this people have grown dull.
Their ears are hard of hearing,
And their eyes they have closed,
Lest they should see with their eyes
and hear with their ears,
Lest they should understand with their hearts and turn,
So that I should heal them."
Such a melancholic song. Such depressing words. Blindess, hardness,
deafness. What does it mean? How can God say such a thing? This was and is God's message to His people. I almost wanted to cry but I could not.
There's something so yearning deep in the words of Isaiah that God spoke to
him. HOW LONG, ADONAI?

Last night I opened my Bible and immediately fell upon Isaiah 6. Ah...
that's where the passage is found.
Somehow this pass week I have been saying, "Here I am, send me." Then I had the same reply at Isaiah, "Go to this people and say..."
I have to tell you. I cannot feel the same way YHWH did when He spoke these
words. I cannot imagine what God has to go through. The pain of a people
who see but cannot see, hear but cannot hear.
And yet, all of us, see but cannot see, and hear but cannot hear. All of
us, have a veil that lies over our hearts.
I can only hope. I can only hope for the day when YHWH, in His own time and
in His own way, opens eyes, unstops ears, and gives His people a new heart.
(Ezekiel 36).

And this, only He can do.

Here's an explanation by Art Katz about Christ and Passover. I listened to this and it was very helpful and interesting. Here's another one,  and one more specifically about the Passover lamb and its significance. 

Hebrew4Christians.com has a detailed and informative guide to Passover proper, and you can download the Passover Seder guide here. 

Dr Brown did a recent radio show about Easter and Passover. It's rather long, two hours, but it's nice because you can turn on your "radio" and listen to it like a radio show while on a long drive, etc. 

Here's a Chabad-Lubavitch site about Passover, very informative and colorful with many links, resources, recipes, etc. You can watch a movie about Moses here

Scripture Readings of significance Passover are Exodus 1-15, Matthew 26, Mark 14, and John 13, besides other places in Scripture.  

  

And how do you eat matzo? I had some with peanut butter, and also nice with cold apple-almond-raisin-honey-cinnamon charoset! Had a yummy passover dinner which I spent all afternoon cooking - photos to come!

I exhort of my brothers and sisters to understand and to share the light of Yeshua this Pesach. 

Shalom, Beka. 

Today's Meditation - Flesh and Spirit

Author’s note: This is not a thesis. The author is not teaching. The author is honestly trying to find an answer. Writing is the author’s way of expressing herself and meditating on scripture. And she found the answer, right at the end. And not everything in-between is complete truth, but merely a sifting to find the truth. 

 The Spirit and the Flesh in Worship.

Yesterday I realized, while singing, “Do you really think God is enjoying this, or are you?” That’s true. Then suddenly I realized something that I heard Art Katz expound on, the Spirit and the Flesh. God, is Spirit, and those who worship Him must worship Him in Spirit and in Truth.

You must know I that delight in Jewish music greatly. I cannot tire of minor key Klezmer tunes. I used to love Negro spirituals (Go down, Moses, especially) and sang them non-stop. When I discovered the Jewish scale, well I fell in love with it. However now I realize, sometimes it is worship to God, and sometimes it is Rebekah going into one of those “orgies”. How can I tell when is what and what happens when? Who can really tell what is flesh or spirit? Are you trying to say that anything that I enjoy is not worship? What really is worship?

Worship is drawing near to God and bringing something pleasing to Him, like in the days of the temple. Worship is offering my body as a living sacrifice, holy, acceptable to God, which is but my reasonable service. Then only is my worship pleasing to Him.

Let us return to my present situation. Am I worshipping God or not? I thought I was. I was enjoying it immensely too. Is physical enjoyment something to be shied away from as spiritually demeaning? I believe the only way to test is to put it through the fire. If the physical is removed, can I still worship? When everything goes through the fire and through the sword only one thing will remain and that of God. So now, how? Even in the blandest of worship songs someone will find it enjoyable. The key is not to shy away from songs you like. Everyone has songs you like. But can you worship God without it? 

I have a very real, physical hope. I want so much to be in eager anticipation, expectant hope and anxious longing for the very real Kingdom of God, for the literal restoration of Israel, and for the literal salvation of the Gentiles. Yet I don’t have that kind of same excitement for that as when I anticipate an email from my friend! I don’t grieve over lost souls the way I get upset when something small goes wrong in my life. What is wrong with me!

Two Masters.

You cannot hold God in one hand and the world in the other. You cannot serve to masters. One calls to you, the other enslaves you. One is eternal, the other temporal. You can only desire for one and chose one. You can only give your life to one. Unconsciously we serve the internet. We give our life to it. We spend excessive amount of time on it. We desire it. We contribute to it. We create our own world on it. The internet is the epitome of all that is the mind - From mind to mind; an invention of man. How else could we live? How else could we learn anymore? Books were of the mind. Now the internet. Wait, isn't God's word in book form? Books will pass away. Even without the form of a book the word of God endures. The word of God is more than a physical book and its pages.

There is nothing wrong with the mind or with the internet. It's the same as yesteryear when people bought books and wrote letters. Now it's on a greater scale. But even those actions are works of the physical and of the mind. Now the internet we can do those things on a greater scale. Paul served God and not his letters and not his ministry. Everything he did was consecrated. Can I say my internet use is set-apart, consecrated? Because of the speed and intensity of the internet it can readily become a controlling force, a master in our life. It is not the internet, but we, who make the internet our "lord".

Don’t blame the internet J

Internet is communication between humans. We can become addicted to communication with humans. Our primary communication should be with God.  The Internet is just a name. A face. You can use it for whatever you want. In that way, there's nothing wrong with the internet. Who is this master thatcomes between you and God? Don't blame the internet. You are looking at his back. You serve him, you feed him, you nourish him, and you subject yourself to him. Now you resent him, because he stands between you and God. Let the internet turn around. Who really is the master that you serve and what is his face?

It's me! It my flesh! The real master behind the internet is you. You are the one that stands between you and God. You cannot serve God and your flesh. You have to choose one. The internet is a service with which you serve your self. The problem then, has nothing to do with the internet but with you. The internet is an arena where you can showcase yourself. The internet is the platform on which you parade yourself. The internet is your master and your slave. WHY? Your self has become your master. You have become your slave. The internet has become the means by which you serve your mind, your eyes, your ears, and your heart.

I speak of myself. Because I can make of the internet whatever I want of it, I have built a kingdom for myself. A kingdom of words I want to read, videos I want to watch, and friends i want to keep up it. The internet is a service to the flesh. The internet is my servant. Every one of use now has a castle, an empire, and a hoard of servants that will do our good pleasure. I don't have to read, watch, or see anything i don't want. I can see, learn, and do whatever  I want.

Fasting from the internet and removing your heart from it is essentially a removal of the greatest way to serve your flesh. There are, however, still other ways to serve yourself. It's just that they're not so efficient. In fact, most activities are serving your flesh. Cooking, cleaning, studying, is all the service of yourself.

God's Word is antithetical to the internet's words. Why? I can't choose what I want to hear or read. It is not natural to me. I cannot find it in something to suit my tastes and my style of reading. I cannot find it pleasure. I find in it words I have to wrestle with. Why? When I read the word of God I am not feeding myself. I am feeding my spirit. And my flesh (self) does not delight in it. My flesh and my spirit are enemies. One wants to serve itself, the other God. God’s Word is not comfortable to me. It is not a playground of the flesh.  It does not come to where I am. In fact, God’s Word is the place of the cross, and is antithetical in its very nature to the flesh.

When I say I want to serve God and I mean it with all my heart, I am dedicating myself to Him. That means I can no longer serve myself. I have but one master, God. God is my master. Now everything I do must be consecrated to Him. What is pleasing to me is not pleasing to Him. It is up to Him to decide what is glorifying to Him, not what I hope to be glorifying to Him.

What then is serving God? Some ways of serving God we enjoy, some we do not. Just because I enjoy it, does it mean that I am serving my flesh? No, because my flesh is dead. I now exist primarily in the Spirit. Whether I enjoy the flesh or not is no matter. It’s very my spirit profits. Some activities are like junk food to the flesh, some like wholesome health food to it. The point is, you are not supposed to be feeding your flesh at all. You are supposed to be spiritual creature. Feed you spirit. Serve God. Worship Him in Spirit.

The whole problem arises, and this is God’s wisdom which we cannot understand, because we still exist bodily. We still have a body. Our old man is dead, right? Then why doesn’t God, at the point of salvation, zap up, resurrect us physically, and give us a literal, shining, new, perfect body that has no evil “flesh”. That is the mystery of sanctification.

Even the flesh can be “spiritual”.  Even the flesh can be good. ARGH! Consider any daily dilemma. Confusion arises. The flesh and spirit are mutually indistinguishable because they “blend”, so to speak, to form a person. That’s why we cannot judge another. We can’t even properly judge ourselves. We can’t decide whether this is flesh or spirit because, wouldn’t that be an act of the flesh?

Only a person completely in the spirit can tell us whether we are still in the flesh. However, no one living and breathing is completely a spiritual man, right?  No one is perfect, except Yeshua. Yeshua was perfectly God and perfectly man and we are being made to be like Him and be transformed into His image. That’s why Yeshua is the way. He had to become flesh to save flesh. Yet He was completely Spirit. So is the flesh good, or bad and why does this author seem to make so many conclusions and then contradict them? Isn’t this full of contradictions?

Here’s where this long and drawn out question is solved in one answer. That answer is Yeshua. All this complicated discourse about flesh and spirit can be solved in one simple obedience to one simple command of Yeshua. What is that?

And okay, let's be "spiritual" about it... 

A MUST - LISTEN

CHRIST IN THE JEWISH PASSOVER and more at Art Katz Ministries