A Peek at the New Torah Sisters Magazine - Passover Special Edition

Have you seen the latest issue of Torah Sisters Magazine? It is just beautiful and stuffed full of ideas for Passover and the Spring feasts! It is 56 pages of tangible encouragement, ideas, and inspiration - not just for the feasts, but for daily life as a follower of YHWH.

Even though it's called Torah Sisters, I think Hebrew men would also enjoy its content, and there are even a few activity pages for children. With more than fifteen contributors, topics in this issue include: recipes for Passover, spiritual housecleaning, DIY tzitzit holder, 10 Scripture verses on gardening, Torah portions list, Passover bucket list, Scripture poster for Passover, how to make kombucha, plans for deep cleaning your home, saving a bad homeschool day, Passover coloring pages and lots more.

I loved this piece from Kayte Abaffy about spring cleaning your diet. It had practical and doable advice for healthier eating habits, and I especially enjoyed how she tied that into the process of cleaning the leaven out of our homes before the Feast of Unleavened Bread.

The Torah portions page is just beautiful, and you can easily remove it from the magazine to put on your fridge or bulletin board or in your Bible. In this issue there is another poster, coloring pages, and my Passover Bucket List that you can also remove for real life use!

Can I just add that I even like the advertising in the magazine? I know that sounds crazy - most of the time when an article title lures me on the front of a magazine, I turn page after page of ads and eventually give up without finding what I actually wanted to see. That is definitely not the case here: there are only a few ads (maybe six in this issue?), and they are actually pertinent to your life as a believer! Advertisements are from companies selling things like Hebrew apparel, tzitzits, and resources for teaching Scripture to children. Yay!

There are lots of pictures of different ideas for Passover tablescapes. You will hear from a number of believers about how they celebrate this feast. It's so nice to have something tangible that is an inspiration for keeping Torah and celebrating the feasts. I think that it's fun and lighthearted make it easier for others to approach the Hebrew faith when they see it sticking out of your bag or in the break room at work or on your coffee table. It's a great way to start a conversation about faith!

You can head to the Torah Sisters website to order your copy of the magazine in time for Passover. It is also available as a PDF if a digital version would better suit your needs. Amy and Crystal have done a wonderful job of putting together a beautiful magazine that you will certainly enjoy. It would also make a great Passover gift for a friend.

Beautiful Things for Passover

I wanted to share a few items to make your Passover even more beautiful this year. Decorate your home, add a special touch to your Seder table, or use as gifts. Whether you buy things for the feast days or make them yourself hopefully you have a few special things to help set apart these special times.

Seder Plate or Dishes from Turtle Lane Pottery - $57
Talk about a family heirloom piece!

Chag Sameach Matches from Tchotch Shop - $5
Use these to light up your menorah for the feasts.

Hello Sabbath Decal from Torah Sisters -$4.95
This would be a great gift for a friend!

He is Risen Shirt from Juliet Rose Boutique - $21.99
Wouldn't this to be great to wear on First Fruits? Heart eyes.

Menorah Challah Plate from Turtle Lane Pottery - $49
This could definitely work as a matzah plate, don't you think?

Dayenu Flags from Tchotch Shop - $10.50
If you're not familiar, Dayenu is a beautiful Passover song. The word translates as, "it would have been enough," and the song extols the many things YHWH has done for us. 

Celebrate Passover Wooden Sign from HeartnSaw - $12.99
Love the idea of decor you can use year after year.

Isaiah 51:5 Pouch from Kevin Ohlin - $15
A great depiction of the significance of the Passover season.

Lotzah Matzah Spatula from Modern Tribe - $6
Mine actually just broke and I am so bummed about it. A fun design for sure.

Go Feast Card Game from Rebekah Co - $25.95
Like a regular set of cards but the suits are menorah, torah, trumpets, and crowns.

Matzah Leggings from Shalom Squad -$36/$28
Um, these are amazing! They come in adult and kid sizes. :)


Check out Spring feast gift ideas for kids here!

Six Things You Can Do Now to Get Ready for the Spring Feasts

What can we do to start preparing for the Bible holidays of Passover, Unleavened Bread, and First Fruits?

When you're new to celebrating the Bible holidays, it can be hard to know what to do or how to spend this time. Take some time to consider what your goals are for this year's feast days. Maybe that's doing something for Passover for the first time ever. Maybe that's putting up decorations around your home. Maybe that's taking the week off from work. That could be be traveling to celebrate with a group of believers or inviting friends over to learn about these special times. Whatever your hopes, now is the time to prepare to make that happen.

Six things you can do now to get ready for the Spring feasts:

Prepare your calendar. Different groups use different calendars, but Passover is coming up around the beginning of April. Decide on which calendar you're using and then be sure to clear your schedule then! Put in for time off work, don't schedule any appointments or major home projects then, clear other commitments from your schedule if need be. Let your children's teachers know if they'll be missing any school, etc.

Make plans. Do you want to have your family over for a Passover supper? Invite them and start thinking about a menu. Do you want to celebrate with a group of believers? If so, see about finding a group you can join, and find out when they'll be gathering. Could you invite friends over for a Bible study or see about having your small group have a time of communion and foot washing?

Study to learn about Passover and the Feast of Unleavened Bread. Whether this is your first year celebrating or fiftieth, there is something new to be learned this year. Read through the stories of Exodus and the crucifixion. You could also read books on the feasts by Eddie Chumney or Anne Elliott, among others. Studying Scripture always gives me fresh ideas and motivation for honoring YHWH's set apart times.

Do your shopping. Do you want to deck your house in crepe paper and balloons? Or give a Passover themed gift to family members? Do you need to order matzah? Are you hoping to find Passover shirts or signs? Do you need supplies to make Passover craft projects with your kids? Make a list of what you'll need for Passover and Unleavened Bread and get your times ordered or make it a point to go to the store so you don't have to rush at the last minute.

Start getting the leaven out of your house. Go through your cupboards and freezer and see what leavened items you have to use by Passover. Get those used up or donate anything you can't use to a food pantry. Leavened items are mostly breads, and things with breadcrumbs in them such as meatballs or breaded chicken. If you're not familiar with leavening, start learning now!

Take time to spiritually prepare. Removing the natural leaven from our homes is a picture of removing the spiritual leaven from our hearts. Has YHWH been speaking to you to let go of something or an area that hasn't been fully surrendered to him? Pray and ask to see what he wants to do and is doing in your life. Spend time worshipping and studying his word.

Preparing for any of the Biblical holidays is a special thing, but if you're reading this smack in the middle of the week of Unleavened Bread, don't despair! The Bible's directions for these holidays are simple enough so that anyone can participate in them. Start now and do what you can to join in the holidays the Creator made for us and to remember the amazing works of the Messiah that happened during these days!

More posts to help get ready for the Bible holidays:
Preparing Spiritually and Emotionally for Passover
The Beginner's Guide to Unleavened Bread
Kids Crafts for Passover, Unleavened Bread, and First Fruits

Scratch Off Omer Counter

I'm excited to share with you a new way to count the omer...with scratch offs!

Why count the omer? This is actually something we are instructed to do in Leviticus 23:15-16. The fifty days we are to count link the Feast of Unleavened Bread to Shavuot or Pentecost. This is the time period that the Messiah spent still on earth after being resurrected from the dead. What is an omer? Omer is the Hebrew word for sheaf - which is a bundle of grain. First Fruits during Matzah Week is when part of the barley harvest would be waved to YHWH, and then at Shavuot the same would be done with sheaves of wheat.

This is an easy DIY to put together since it's really just two things, a print and stickers. There is also some flexibility with how you use it. I liked the large size of this, but there's no reason you couldn't print this as an 8" x 11" in a normal printer if you would prefer. If you don't have time to order the scratch off stickers, using regular stickers to cover up the days as they go by would work. Or even just cross them off with a pen. It's up to you!

You will need:
Printable omer calendar
One inch scratch off stickers (I used gold ones from here)

Directions:
Print off the omer calendar. I got an 18" x 24" engineer print at Staples, which at $2.99 was the most cost effective option I found. The paper is thin, so it's not ideal for photographs, but works just fine for our purposes.
I used scotch tape to place my counter on the wall. You could also glue it to a foam board or attach to canvas if you prefer.
Then place your scratch off stickers above the numbers and you are set to go! Each day scratch off another sticker until we get to Shavuot.

Update: A friend told me she is going to take hers to an office supply store to get it laminated. Her plan is to mark the days with dry erase markers and use it each year!

The past couple of years of counting have brought me more than a few days where I'm not sure if I already did my omer count or not. I remember doing it, but maybe that was yesterday? Anyone else with me? So I decided to put seven days in each row to make it easier to double check. Just make note of what day you started counting on and things will add up. You could also make a habit of counting at a certain time each day or even saying the traditional blessing of, "Blessed are You, YHWH Eloheinu, King of the Universe, who has sanctified us with your commandments, and commanded us concerning the counting of the omer."

If you look closely in the photos you may notice something is amiss. Funny story about assembling my counter: I expected to be left with one of my fifty stickers when I got done, but there were strangely two left. How could this be? Every row has seven numbers...with the exception of the second row which somehow has only six. Upon closer inspection of the photos I discovered that I had inadvertently left off day 13! I have no idea how that happened, but it is corrected in the downloadable version. Ha! 

Other ideas for counting the omer:
DIY Flair Calendar
Making a paper chain
Printable Cards from Torah Sisters Magazine
Kids Counter
Kosher on A Budget's Omer Counter
Writing the count in your planner

A Watercolor Daffodil Seder

Chag sameach! I hope you have spent the past days celebrating in the Spring Festivals - Passover, The Feast of Matzah, and First Fruits. We had an especially lovely Seder meal this year and I wanted to share some photos.

Here is this year's one page haggadah! 

Daffodils are in full bloom here in the Midwest. They made gorgeous (and free) centerpieces.

I realize these aren't all technically daffodils.

We also use these super fun coasters from Matanote.

The Seder plate while this is traditional and not required by Scripture, describing the Besorah in seven courses is a beautiful portrayal of the story.

The sandwich!

Reading, "The Story of Yisrael."

This is our new favorite Pesach menu, taken from the Seder plate. We had:

Roasted Lamb

Einkorn Matzah

Tabbouli

Romaine Salad with Tahini Dressing

Veggies with Hummus

Hard-boiled Eggs

Baked Charoseth

Dessert was mini pavlovas, with chocolate coconut cream, and berries.

Happy Feast of Unleavened Bread!

Spring Feast Printable Roundup

My first Passover was more than ten years ago. It was new to us and we had no idea what it was supposed to look like. I remember scouring the internet for something, anything to get a better idea of how to celebrate and finding almost nothing of help. You could hardly find anything online about Passover, let alone the Feasts of Unleavened Bread and First Fruits. Today it is so exciting to see other bloggers sharing their creativity to help us celebrate YHWH's feasts! Today I am sharing with you a few free resources that will help you celebrate the Spring Feasts this year, whether or not you are new to it.

1. Passover Printable - Land of Honey
- I shared this last year, but it's still a great way to decorate!

2. Passover Busy Book for Kids - Torah Sisters
- With puzzles, coloring pages, and mazes this will keep kids occupied at the Seder table or use it for fun throughout the week of Unleavened Bread.

3. Why Is It Place Cards - Almost Makes Perfect
-A quick way to make your Seder table a little more sophisticated and have the Ma Nishtana at the ready.

4. Ten Plagues Finger Puppets - Tori Avey
-Tori thoughtfully made two versions, one is in color ready to print, and the other is black and white to color yourself.

5. Happy Passover Cards - The Climbing Tree
-Since Passover things aren't easy to find, this is just what we need to spread the joy of the Spring Feasts and say, "Chag Sameach!"

6. Find the Afikoman Game - Joyfully Jewish
-This sounds so fun! Go on a treasure hunt and work on your Hebrew. Print off a set in a different color for each child participating.

7. Seder Plate Labels - Chai and Home
-An elegant addition to your Seder Plate that will teach a little Hebrew.

8. Four Cups of Wine Printable - Hebraic Roots Network
-A fun decoration to remind us of the Seder meal.

9. Unleavened Matzah Verse - Land of Honey
-Keep this up for the duration of the Feast of Unleavened Bread.

10. Count the Omer Calendar - Kosher on a Budget
-A simple way to count the days until Shavuot.

11. He is Risen Printable - Kraft and Mint
-Use this to celebrate First Fruits!

12. Passover Matching Cards - The Climbing Tree
-Two activities in one. Decorate the cards, then play memory games.

I would recommend printing on a thicker cardstock type of paper. It's sturdy and gives it a better look I think. Of course you can also opt to have these professionally printed if that works better for you. If you know of any other great printables for the Spring Feasts please share with us below!