BAMIDBAR AND SHAVUOT

BAMIDBAR

Have a wonderful Shavuot.  Scroll down for a Har Sinai cake and Luchot Habrit cake.  Enjoy the fun Parsha cake too!

PARSHA PUZZLE:

We take something apart, time to count the men,

Carry it somewhere else and set it up again.

 From one month old, we are thought of separately,

The rest are into four and we are divided into three.

The firstborn were in charge, but then they all did sin,

So we changed roles with them and then we were let in.

One carried walls and pillars; we camped in the north,

We were extra careful carrying it back and forth.

Another carried curtains and roof coverings; we were blessed,

And when the day was done, we settled in the west.

And one group settled in the south and we were very able,

To carry the ark, menorah, vessels, screen, alter and a table.

In the counting, we’re 22,300 males,

Look in this week’s parsha to get all of the details.

So can you guess our shevet and name the three brothers too,

If you can find the answers you just guessed this clue.

PLAYING WITH THE PARSHA: 
This week we start reading the fourth of the five Seforim of Chumash. Sefer Bamidbar is called “Numbers” because of the numbering of the Shvatim.  There are many significant numbers in Jewish history.  We know for example that 40 is the number of years the Jews wandered in the midbar.  Play a numbers game around your Shabbos table.  Say a number and have everyone try to guess what it is connected to Judaism.  Give out a candy, cracker, chocolate chip etc… to the one who guesses the right answer.  See who has the most “number” of treats at the end.

Here are some examples and add as many as you would like:

49- Days we count sefira

10- Asweret Hadibrot

13- bar mitzvah

12- bas mitzvah, shvatim

969- number of years metushelach lived

613- mitzvoth

150- number of perakim in Tehilim

180- Years Yitzchak was alive

175- number of years Avraham was alive

120- life of Moshe.  We wish each other to live until 120

1-   1  is Hashem in the Heavens and the earth….

How many more can you think of?

Shavuot Luchot dessert!

FOOD FOR THOUGHT:

A dessert in the desert!

What you will need:

Sandy coffee cake recipe (see below)

Signs with all the shvatim names

Toothpicks to make flags

Signs for Gershon, Kehat, Merrari

Sign of the mishkan in rectangle shape or rectangle wafer.

Sandy Coffee cake:

3 cups flour

2 teaspoons baking powder

1 teaspoon baking soda

1 cup margarine

1 ½ cups sugar

5 eggs

1 cup orange juice

2 teaspoons vanilla

Directions:

Sift the dry ingredients. Cream the margarine and sugar. Add the eggs one at a time beating well after each addition. Add the flour with the orange juice. Add the vanilla. Pour the batter into a greased 9 X 13 inch pan. Pour the topping on top. Bake at 350° for 50 minutes to 1 hour.

Topping:

 2 cups sugar

2-2 ½ cups of flour

4 tbsp. ground cinnamon

1 cup margarine melted

3 tspns. Vanilla

Combine all the ingredients in a bowl and stir until the mixture looks crumbly.

After the cake has cooled assemble the shevatim the way they were encamped.

Yehuda, Yissaschar, Zevulun- on the right

Reuven, Shimon, Gad- on the bottom

Dan, Asher, Naftali on top

Ephraim, Menashe, Binyamin on the left.

Have a wonderful Shabbat!  Chag Sameach!!

(Shevet Levi- Geshon (west), Kehat (south) and Merrari (north) .

Shavuot Cake!