Happy Shavuot if you are celebrating today! If you already celebrated I hope your set apart time was a lovely burst of growth and truth. If you are new to celebrating the Festivals of YHWH, hang in there! It gets better each time, as we understand more. The best is still ahead.
I wanted to share a few passages of Scripture that I enjoy reading at this time of year to prepare for and celebrate Shavuot. Since this is a time to reflect on the Word of YHWH and the Ruach HaKodesh I picked Scriptures related to that, but this is by no means an extensive list! The Set Apart Spirit is mentioned hundreds of times throughout all the books from the very Beresheet to the judges and prophets and the Psalms, Yahusha spoke of the Spirit, and it appears throughout Revelation. Not to mention how hard pressed you would be to find a passage of the Word that doesn't emphasize or point to the importance of the instructions of YHWH. So feel free to add your favorites to this. Here's a few of mine.
Scriptures to Read During Shavuot:
Exodus 19-20 - the giving of the Covenant after the Israelites left Egypt.
Vayikra 23:15-21 - this passage is about Shavuot itself.
Deuteronomy 16:9-12 - this passage gives further instruction for Shavuot.
Ten Commandments - this is in Exodus 20:1-17. I like to emphasize these because of course the infamous Golden Calf story also happened around Shavuot, so it's important to know how to live correctly so we also do not break Covenant with YHWH.
Book of Ruth - this is traditional to read because the story takes place around the spring harvest time, like Shavuot itself. It also beautifully parallels the story of many of us who weren't born into a Torah based community but chose that path with the help of a redeemer.
Jeremiah 31:33 - the Torah will be written on our hearts.
Ezekiel 36:27 - talks about the Holy Spirit helping us to keep YHWH's instructions.
2 Chronicles 8:13 - Israel kept the Feasts under King Shlomo.
John 14:15-29 - Yahusha talks about the Ruach HaKodesh.
Luke 24:49 - Yahusha's instruction to wait.
Acts 1:4-5 - the disciples wait to be immersed.
Acts 2 - this is where the Ruach HaKodesh was poured out on believers, just ten days after the ascension of Yahusha. It happened at Shavuot.
Book of Acts - I love Acts because it is about those who lived both as followers of Yahusha and as keepers of Torah. This is the lifestyle we should have today.
1 Corinthians 12 - the gifts of the Spirit.
Galatians 5:22 - the fruit of the Spirit.
Because Shavuot is a special time of celebrating both the giving of the Holy Spirit and the giving of YHWH's instructions I thought a printable of the ten commandments would be fitting. Recently I admired a simple ten commandments piece of art in a friends home and decided to make a more Hebrew version of that. My free printable uses YHWH, as well as Shabbat. The structure of the commandments is also a bit different. I studied wording in various versions and arrived at an amalgamation of my own.
Did you know there is some dispute over the ten commandments themselves? For the most part, Christian teaching and translations start the list of ten commandments off in Exodus 20:3 - "you shall have no other gods before me." But the Hebrew movement would argue that the first and most significant commandment is found in the second verse. "I am YHWH your Elohim who brought you out of the Egyptian house of slavery." Because knowing the name of the God we serve is incredibly important, right? This goes along with the third commandment of not forgetting the name of YHWH or bringing it to vain emptiness and ruin.
I am really happy about this new piece of art in my home! Hanging the ten commandments is a great way to learn them by heart, and keep your focus on how YHWH wants us to live. It also shows visitors that his word is important to you. While I think this is especially fitting for the Shavuot season, I plan to keep mine up year round. In a cute frame this would also make a great gift!
Click here to download my ten commandments printable. It is free for your personal use.
You can get a large print of this at a local printing place to have it as more of a statement piece. Mine was printed as an 18" by 13" for about $8.00. Or this prints great at home in a regular printer as an 11" by 8" or even smaller if you prefer.
A very happy Shavuot to each of you!
These ten commandment gummies are a perfect treat for Bible school, Passover, or any of the Biblical holidays! Made with beef gelatin, they are Biblically clean and kosher, and you can use most any type of fruit or juice to make them. Use these to teach kids about Moses and the giving of the ten commandments, or as a healthy treat to enjoy at Shavuot or the Feast of Tabernacles.
The secret to this lies in the awesome candy mold used to make these into the commandment tablets. I found this one and love it! You'll notice that it has the first ten letters of the Hebrew alphabet - each letter stands for one of the ten commandments given by YHWH to Moses in Exodus 20, right near the time of Shavuot. Since we celebrate the giving of the written Word and the Ruach HaKodesh writing his Word on our hearts at Shavuot this is a perfect treat for this time of year. You could make them together as a family or surprise someone with a gift of real food, kosher sour gummies.
These are simple to make and they should work with any real food 'gummy' recipe out there, just be sure to use kosher gelatin! I used Great Lakes grass-fed beef gelatin but you could certainly experiment with agar agar as well. My candy mold holds just over half a cup of liquid. As you can see, these recipes will make for a bigger batch than that. I experimented with halving the recipes but found with that little liquid it didn't blend completely smooth in my blender, and harder bits of gelatin in my gummies are no good in my opinion. So I would recommend making the full recipe. If you have two candy molds that should work out about perfectly. If not, just pour the extra in a dish to set up. It won't be as cute but still tasty.
Strawberry Lemonade Gummies
2/3 cup strawberries (I used frozen but fresh works too)
2/3 cup lemon juice
5 tablespoons kosher gelatin (I used Great Lakes which is kosher and grass fed)
Ten commandments candy mold
Over medium heat in a small sauce pan combine your berries and lemon juice. Cook gently for 3-5 minutes until berries are softened. Place in the blender and blend until smooth. If you want to do a taste test this is the point to do it. If it's not sour enough to your liking add an extra tablespoon of lemon juice. If it's too sour add a few strawberries or a spoonful of honey.
Once you are happy with the taste add the gelatin and blend until smooth. At this point, it is going to smell a little, uh, meaty and that's okay. I promise the smell and funkiness will go away once the gummies are set.
Pour into your ten commandments mold. If you see any large air bubbles you can poke them with a toothpick. Any extra can be poured into a ramekin or small baking dish to set.
Refrigerate one hour or until set. Use a toothpick or butter knife to loosen the tablets from one side of the mold and then peel them out. You're done!
Blueberry Rhubarb Gummies
2/3 cup of blueberries (I used frozen but fresh works too)
1/3 cup rhubarb juice (see below)
1/3 cup lemon juice
5 tablespoons kosher gelatin
Ten commandments candy mold
To make rhubarb juice: place approximately 1 cup of fresh or frozen rhubarb into a saucepan with 1 cup of water. Simmer 15 minutes or until the rhubarb loses it's color. Strain and use the liquid for this recipe.
Over medium heat in a small sauce pan combine your berries with the rhubarb and lemon juice. Cook gently for 3-5 minutes until berries are softened. Place in the blender and blend until smooth. If you want to do a taste test this is the point to do it. If it's not sour enough to your liking add an extra tablespoon of lemon or rhubarb juice. If it's too sour add a tablespoon or two of blueberries or a spoonful of honey.
Once you are happy with the taste, add the gelatin and blend until smooth. You can see adding the gelatin turns the mixture opaque.
Pour into your ten commandments mold. If you see any large air bubbles you can poke them with a toothpick. Any extra can be poured into a ramekin or small baking dish to set.
Refrigerate one hour or until set. Use a toothpick or butter knife to loosen the tablets from one side of the mold and then peel them out. You're done!
Grape Juice Gummies
1-1/3 cups grape juice
5 tablespoon kosher gelatin
Ten commandments candy mold
You don't need a blender for this one. Whisk your gelatin into 2/3 cup of grape juice. Meanwhile bring the other 2/3 cup of juice to a simmer. Whisk the heated juice into the gelatin mixture until smooth.
Pour into the mold and let set in the refrigerator about one hour until hardened.
Use a toothpick or butter knife to loosen the tablets from one side of the mold and then peel them out. You're done!
I think this might be a new Shavuot tradition at my house. Has anyone used a ten commandment candy mold? I think I'm going to try chocolate next! :)
American Indians have a ton in common with ancient Hebrew culture.
Before I came across this book that was an unknown idea to me. As you guys know I've spent some time studying and considering the Lost Tribes of Israel, and even heard of a few mentions of Hebrew culture showing up in South America, but never here in my own country. I've even read about the possibility of King Solomon sending out workers to what is now Michigan's Upper Peninsula to harvest enormous amounts of copper (see 1 Kings 10:22), but I hadn't really thought about Hebrews staying here. If you grew up being told that Native Americans had somehow arrived in North America from Asia, it is startling to realize, as Adair points out, the Native tribes have almost no similarities to the cultures of Asia. What is even more shocking is just how many strong connections some of these tribes have to the culture of ancient Israel.
Who is James Adair?
Born in Ireland around 1709, Adair lead an adventurous life coming to the American colonies where he traded and practiced medicine. He spent something like forty years of his life living among Native American tribes in the south, primarily the Chickasaw. He clearly was convinced that the tribes he interacted with descended from the tribes of Israel, devoting about half the pages of his notes to his observances on this. The book was supposed to teach the English how to interact with the Indians.
According to Adair, American Indians:
-do not bow to others, but bow in religious practice
-call deceitful people snakes
-do not consider the bear as clean as the deer
-priests wear breast plates, a wreath around the head, and an ephod
-paid 10% of their produce to rainmakers
-have a celebration called 'feast of the new-sanctified fruits'
-insult others with the phrase, "you resemble those beaten in Canaan"
-observe ritual washings, even in cold water
-practice marital separation during the woman's menstrual cycle
-married couples stay have a separation of forty days after the birth of a child
-are separated from the tribe for three days after funeral duties
-separate wounded warriors from the camp the same way YHWH instructed Israel to separate the lepers
-had the unmarried brother of the husband marry the widow
-refered to rabbits with a form of the word, "not to meddle with"
Are these tribes observing the instructions of YHWH or are all of these things just coincidental? Perhaps the people living in this country when the Europeans arrived were not as pagan and heathen as we have been told to believe. According to Adair, "The American Indians are so far from being Atheists....that they have the great sacred name of God that describes his divine essence, and by which he manifested himself to Moses." He confirmed that tribes refer to the Deity as Yo He Wah and that name is used in their religious ceremonies. Isn't that incredible?!
One of the downsides of this book is that it is tough to read. It is written in a more formal, academic way and the 200+ years it's been since the book was written make some passages difficult to understand. He seems to use 'Indian' as a blanket label for the Chickasaw, Cherokee, and Muskogee tribes, but it is not always clear which specifically he is talking about. Something else to be aware of is the word 'Jew' is used incorrectly in place of 'Hebrew.' Since this type of reading is not everyone's cup of tea I thought I would share a few of quotes from the book that I found most interesting as an introduction to a couple of things. Firstly, that the Lost Tribes of Israel are not lost at all to YHWH. He has been faithful to preserve his people through the ages. And also that true history is more connected with Scripture than we realized in middle school social studies.
Quotes from The History of the American Indians:
They flatter themselves with the name hottuk oretoopah, "The beloved people," because their supposed ancestors, as they affirm, were under the immediate government of the Deity who was present with them, in a very particular manner, and directed them by prophets; while the rest of the world were aliens and out-laws to the covenant. -89
The Indian language, and dialects, appear to have the very idiom and genus of the Hebrew. -93
They say, "Yah" at the beginning of their religious dances, with a bowing posture of body. -101
Let us now turn to the copper colour American Hebrews. 141
While dancing they never fail to repeat those notes; and frequently the holy train strike up Halelu, Halelu; then Haleluiah, Halelu-Yah, and Aleluiah and Alelu-Yah. -142 (Whoa! Native Americans knew the phrase hallelujah and used it to praise YHWH!)
And may we not reasonably suppose, that they formerly understood the psalms, or divine hymns? at least those that begin with Halelu-Yah. -142
After which, they go to some convenient deep water, and there, according to the ceremonial law of the Hebrews, they wash away their sins with water. -143
The Indians formerly observed the grand festival of the annual expiation of sin, at the beginning of the first new moon, in which their corn became the full eared. -144 (Compare that with Leviticus 23:39, which tells us celebrate Sukkot to YHWH after the corn has been gathered in.)
...annually observed their festivals, and Neetak-Yah-ah, "days of afflicting themselves before the Deity." -144 (Sounds like Yom Kippur)
He charges them to be sure not to give the children a bad example of eating any unsanctified, or impure food. -150
When the Indians meet at night to gladden and unite their hearts before Yohewah, they say Yohewa-shoo, Yohewa-shoo, Yohewahshee Yohewashee, and Yohewahshai", with much energy. -156 (Very similar to our modern pronunciations of Yahusha or Yahushua.)
That these red savages formerly understood the radical meaning, and emblematic design, of the important words they use in their religious dances and sacred hymns, is pretty obvious, if we consider the reverence they pay to the mysterious divine name Yo He Wah. -156
Indian women always throw a small piece of the fattiest of the meat into the fire when they are eating. -157
They commonly pull their new-killed venison (before they dress it) several times through the smoke and flame of the fire, both by the way of a sacrifice, and to consume the blood, life, or animal spirits of the beast, which with them would be a most horrid abomination to eat. -159
Robert Williams, the first Englishman in New England, who is said to have learned the Indian language, in order to convent the natives, believed them to be Jews...that their language bore some affinity to the Hebrew. -227
Indian women of Canada purify themselves after travail, thirty days for a male child and forty for a female. -238
Isn't it amazing to think that the Native Americans knew the god of Israel? It's important to know that Adair wasn't saying any of these tribes did everything perfectly or had it all of Scripture figured out. Throughout the book he pointed out that some tribes had compromised and defiled themselves by eating unclean animals and so on. He was saying that there is a lot of evidence that suggests these tribes descended from the Twelve Tribes of Israel. 1 Kings 10:22 tells us that King Solomon sent people very far out to collect fine things from all over the world, and it even mentions these journeys took three years, so there is a possible hint of this in Scripture as well.
Have you ever heard of Israelites settling in North America? Which of the quotes really strikes you?
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