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Eastern toilets are a challenge to Westerners. To overcome this challenge, I googled how to deal with these toilets. In Johor Bahru, so far, I have come across Western toilets with the Eastern shower piece attached. How to use: you spray your butt and hope you don’t spray the whole bathroom. Actually, the spraying nozzle sprays quite accurately. The public toilets are just public toilets where people probably could not care less whether they create swimming pools or not. You can get really messy toilets in any country. There are amusing sites to google to see how to use the real Eastern toilet which is a hole in the ground. This site is quite useful: 

http://www.wikihow.com/Use-a-Squat-Toilet

My new home is now Permas Jaya, Johor Bahru, Johor, Malaysia. This is quite a mouthful. I live in this skyscaper condominium overlooking the Johor Strait and into Singapore. Very beautiful during the day and also at night. I read that the Malay people and the Malay language are the majority, but sometimes I wonder if the Chinese are not giving them a good go in numbers. I was going to learn only Bahasa Malayu, but I have decided I had better learn Chinese as well.

This is the stitch and bitch crochet book. Just as good as the knitting handbook. Good to have for beginners and nice as a handbook to refer to for experienced crocheters. Instructions are clear. Nice patterns. Also a fun and practical book to have.

The knitter’s handbook. You can look up probably anything you need to know how to do. The instructions are clear and the matching drawings or photos as well.

This is a fun and yet very practical book to have. Good for beginners and also handy for experienced knitters.

This is such a fun book to have. These dolls are easy to knit. I have adjusted the pattern to knit the dolls in the round and I do icord for the arms and legs. Then of course one starts buying all these cute little hair clips and elastics and little charms to use for necklaces. These dolls are also not just for little pre-schoolers. Teenagers like them too as they are so funky and adorable.

Awesome! What an experience! Festive and holy! And he is so funny! We were so blessed.

What did I learn?

- I learnt what he word Jew means. It means Praiser of the Living God. Am I a Praiser of the Living God – like the Jew? Makes one think.

- The Lord inhabits the praises of Israel, as is written in Psalm 22:3b ‘you are the praise of Israel’. I don’t read ‘your are in the praise of other nations’. Makes one think.

- Ialso learnt that the phrase ‘Here I am’ in the Bible comes from ‘hineini’ which means – you have my full attention, my all. That is what the Lord wants, not casualness. When the Lord called Abraham, Abraham said hineini. Oh boy, then he was tested to make sure he was serious. He had to sacrifice his only son from his wife. Isaac became a picture of the Messiah. They were both special babies from the Lord. They were both sacrifices. They were both willing sacrifices. Isaac, being in the region of 20something, young, strong could easily out manouvre his dad of 100something. He had to get onto the altar himself. Abraham would not have been strong enough to pick him up. He was tied up purely to stop him jerking and falling off when the knife was to kill him. Both Isaac and Abraham. They were both obedient and acted out the meaning of hineini:  Here I am – you have my all. I am yours. How do we answer? Makes one think.

Chag Sameach

 A greeting used to mean ‘Happy Holiday’ during the festivals.

Lulav and Etrog: Unity of the Jewish People
One of the most important customs of Sukkot is the recitation of the blessings over the Four Species: an etrog (citron), a lulav (palm frond), three sprigs of hadassim (myrtle) and two branches of aravot (red willow).
According to the Midrash, the Four Species represent the four types of Jews that comprise the People of Israel, whose unity is emphasized on the holiday of Sukkot:
1.The etrog, which has a good fragrance and taste, represents a person with both wisdom (Torah learning) and good deeds
2.The hadas has a good fragrance, but cannot be eaten, representing a person with good deeds, but who lacks wisdom
3.The lulav is edible, but has no scent, representing a person with wisdom but without good deeds, and
4.The aravah has neither taste nor smell, thus representing the person who lacks both good deeds and wisdom or Torah learning.
The lulav is only considered kosher if all four species are taken together – if one is missing, the entire lulav is invalid. So too it was with the incense mixture used in the Holy Temple in ancient times, of which there were 11 ingredients. One of those, the chelbanah was a spice with a terrible smell, and yet the entire mixture was considered invalid if that or any other spice, was omitted.
From this, we learn that all Jews must work together and remain united, as one People, regardless of our differences.

For more info: www.israelnationalnews.com

“Build for Me a sanctuary that I may dwell amongst them.” (Exodus 25:8)

For more info: http://www.templeinstitute.org/events.htm

Simhat Torah for 2010 will be on 1 October.

Through the years a (manmade) observance was added to the Feast of Tabernacles on the 8th day. Simhat Torah means ‘Rejoicing in the Law.’  The Torah or the first 5 Books of the Bible is split up into 54 portions, 1 portion for each Sabbath of the year. The Rabbis added corresponding sections from the Prophets to these readings. Messianic Rabbis also added corresponding sections from the New Testament. The connection between the different sections are amazing.

On Simhat Torah the last section of Deuteronomy is read as well as the first section of Genesis.

For more info and reading:

The Jewish Festivals – Hayyim Schauss

Christ in the Feast of Tabernacles – David Brickner

www.hebrew4christians.org