Temple New Jerusalem€¦ · page 3 Temple Teenz Ch eck-In TeenzR Corner The Skinny emple Teenz...

ContentsWord from the Rabbi .. 1

A Personal Note ............2

Teenz Corner ................3

Tribez Report ...............4

Recipes ..........................8

News ............................. 9

Calendar ......................10

Temple New JerusalemCongregation Newsletter • Vol. 3 Issue 3 • Winter 2013

Contact Info:Temple New Jerusalem 1190 E. Lake Rd. S.Tarpon Springs, FL34688Phone: 727.940.5886Fax: [email protected]

Supporter of:

mazingly, the first day of Ha-nukkah this year coincided with Thanksgiving day. So,

many people called the holiday “Thanks-givukkah.” It is an extremely rare con-vergence. Many people think of Hanukkah as the “Jewish Christmas,” but that’s really not a good comparison in terms of the history and meaning of the holiday. It is because the date is so close to Christmas that it is often thought of this way, which is why the tradition of gift giving on Hanukkah began in America.

Freedom and Thanksgiving Actually, Hanukkah is all about two things “freedom” and “giving thanks.” So how awesome that it coincided this year with Thanksgiving! While Jews traditionally do not partici-pate in traditional Christian holidays,

interestingly, Thanksgiving, which is a feast based on giving thanks to God, has always been a holiday that is near and dear to the Jewish heart. In my home, growing up as a kid, Thanksgiving was almost like a Passover seder. Our house was filled with Jewish family and friends. We went around the table and each one of us gave a shpiel about what we were thankful for.

Jewish Connection Why do Jews connect with the feast of Thanksgiving? On Thanksgiving, Amer-icans celebrate the freedom God gave to the Pilgrims who were fleeing the reli-gious persecution of Europe when they came as pioneers to settle in America. Meanwhile, Hanukkah is a festival of freedom - a time to give thanks to Maoz Tzur, the “Rock of Ages,” for delivering the Jews from the religious persecution

AWord From the Rabbi

www.TempleNJ.org

continued on page 6

A Personal Note“Appreciation with Love”

Trust in the Lord

ur God is great and mighty. He is so mar-velous that we cannot even begin to compre-

hend His supreme love, direction and guidance He has for each one of us. This applies on a personal level to each of us. He knows all of our de-sires and hears all of our prayers. It is comforting to know that we are taken care of all the time. Even when we see fit to think otherwise. Do you believe that God is trustwor-thy and He is who He says He is? 1 Thessalonians 5:21 is a marvelous bit of wisdom. “But test and prove all things; what is good hold fast.” In

other words, wait until you can rec-ognize that which is right for you.

Let’s Be Clear In the Bible, we are told that God wants us to prove Him and prove His word. Let’s take a closer look at what this means and what Scrip-tures back it up. “Present your case,” the Lord says. “Bring forward your strong argu-ments ...” (Isaiah 41:21) It’s very clear that He wants us to present to Him our case, to present the evidence as to why He will do what He says He’ll do. As a reminder, we are to reason with God in all things. He’s saying,

“Come on, talk to me and let’s work this challenge out together!”

Be Born Again God and His word through His son are one in the same. “Ask and it shall be given, seek and you will find, knock and the door will be open unto you ...” ( Matthew 7:7) Claim your healing, claim financial prosperity, claim your son or daugh-ter as a child of the living God, speak life to your body to regenerate. If you are born again, washed in the blood of Yeshua (Jesus) and by faith commit and believe in all His ways,

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Tem

ple Teen

z Check-In

Teenz CornerR R R R R R The

Skinnyemple Teenz will celebrate Ha-nukkah on Friday, December 6th, with a pizza party, dreidel games, making and

lighting menorahs, and a discussion about what Hanukkah means and what the lighting of each candle means.

* Teenz recently fi nished a series on “My Heart - Christ’s Home”. The series was just awe-some and Yeshua went into each room of the home of each Teen and did some house cleaning. If you have not read this, you must. It takes a good look at your life and helps you clean things up.

* On Saturday, October 19, the Teenz enjoyed a canoeing trip. We journeyed down Weeki Wa-chee River on a three-hour excursion. We enjoyed seeing manatees, fi sh and swimming in the cold crystal-clear water. It was a fun trip for all! We are so blessed to have these amazing Teenz.

* Ruthie Stepakoff will be leaving our Temple Teenz group in January, as she will be heading off to Florida State University. We are going to miss her, but we are excited for her as she starts a new journey in her life. Lisa Demo has already started college and visits us when she comes home on weekends. Please keep both girls in prayer.

* The Teenz will head to Celebration Station on Thursday, January 2, 2014, from 4-8 p.m. The cost is $10. Must have permission signed before attending. This will be our fi rst trip together with our new middle schoolers.

Looking forward to another great year! Desiree Naumann

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#kayakingfun

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#Biblicalcostumes

Temple Tribez Report

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Temple Tribez Set Good Example

halom, Yeladim! Our Temple Tribez had a fun-filled Fall season and beginning of Winter at

Temple New Jerusalem. Lots of mazel and congratulations to all of the Tribez who put forth the effort and time to raise $76 for our local outreach at Gulf Coast Jewish Family Services (GCJFS). Our children did their Tzedakah project throughout the Summer till September for the Yad B’ Yad pro-gram at GCJFS. This is the “Hand in Hand” pro-gram that involves Jewish adult volunteers acting as mentors, com-panions, and positive role models to Jewish children from single-parent homes.

In fact, the appointed leaders at GCJFS used the Temple Tri-bez as a wonderful example of what it means to serve, care and give back to the community a good deed.

All Are Welcome Our TNJ Tribez are always up to something fun. They embrace Bible truths in fun and innovative ways. We encourage you to invite your friends, family and their children to our Shabbat services on Friday evenings. We will share with them the joy of learning about the God of Israel, Yeshua the Messiah.

Light of the World For Hanukkah, we have planned a party with dreidel games, delicious

latkes that the children will help make, a gift exchange, crafts and treats. The story of Hanukkah will be told about how Yeshua the Messiah is the light of the world. Parents, if you have a child inter-ested in giving a personal testimony to the other children, please call the TNJ office. We’d love to here from you. Our Tribez are very special and the Lord has given each one of them many special talents to praise His name and be a good example to their friends. Until next time ... Keep on smilin’ with God’s love and His Shalom.

In His Glory, TNJ Education Team

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TNJ offi ce, 1190 E. Lake Rd. S., Tarpon Springs, FL 34688 • 727.940.5886 • www.templenewjerusalem.org

Rabbi Michael Stepakoff

Teachings by

Get your copy today!

R abbi Michael Stepakoff was born into a Conservative Jewish family. He accepted Yeshua as his Savior in 1992 and has been in ministry serving as a Messianic Rabbi since 1998. Through the years, the Lord has blessed Rabbi Michael with numerous

creative gifts and talents. He is a recognized Messianic songwriter and his inspired songs have been recorded by such artists as Ted Pearce, Jonathan Settel, Kol Simcha, Deborah Klein, Paul Wilbur and more. His talent to deliver powerful messages brings the scriptures to life for Jewish and non-Jewish people around the world. These teachings share power-packed messages centering on Yeshua, as seen thru Jewish eyes, and as revealed thru the word of God in both Old and New Testaments. Get your copy today.

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abbi Michael Stepakoff was born into a Conservative Jewish fam-ily. He accepted Yeshua as his Savior in 1992 and has been in ministry serving as a Messianic Rabbi since 1998. Through the years, the Lord has blessed Rabbi Michael with numerous cre-ative gifts and talents. He is a recognized Messianic songwriter and his inspired songs have been record-ed by such artists as Ted Pearce, Jonathan Settel, Kol Simcha, Deborah Klein, Paul Wilbur and more. His talent to deliver powerful messages brings the scrip-tures to life for Jewish and non-Jewish people around the world. These teachings share power-packed mes-sages centering on Yeshua, as seen thru Jewish eyes, and as revealed thru the word of God in both Old and New Testaments.

R

TNJ offi ce, 1190 E. Lake Rd. S., Tarpon Springs, FL 34688 • 727.940.5886 • www.templenj.org

from page 1 Word From the Rabbi

of the Syrian Greeks. Just as America became a safe ha-ven for Christians coming out of Europe to worship God freely, Jew-ish people came to America for the same religious freedom. America was founded as a land for all peo-ples, from every nation, tribe and tongue, to worship God without fear of being persecuted.

Messianic Uprising One wonders ... Was the celebra-tion of Thanksgiving, initiated by early Americans, a kind of prophet-ic foreshadowing of the persecution coming against the Jews in Europe? There certainly is a connection that resonates with the people of Israel. In America, where Jews are safe, this generation is seeing for the first time since the days of the Apostles, the great spiritual awakening of the Jewish people - Messianic Judaism – as Jews recognize Yeshua as the promised Messiah and Savior of the world. Messianic Judaism in the 21st cen-tury is a worldwide movement that clearly began in America, is cen-tered here and is spreading around the world to every city where Jews can be found worshiping together with Gentiles that love Israel. It is

also returning to Eretz Yisrael (the land of Israel), where Messianic synagogues are springing up like flowers blooming in the desert.

A Great Victory

This season, we remember that a great miracle hap-

pened in Israel, just about 160 years before the Messiah was born. We give thanks for that. He was born to a virgin daughter of Israel and his parents dedicated him in the Tem-ple, as required by the Torah. None of this could have happened if God had not delivered the Jews in a great victory led by Judah Macca-bee against the Greco-Syrians. The mighty Syrian army was de-feated and the Temple was liberat-ed from the pagan worship of their King, Antiochus IV Epiphanes. If ever there was a type of the An-tichrist, it was Antiochus. If ever there was a picture of the end times, it was those days which we recount during Hanukkah. Antiochus came into Israel a con-queror with a mighty army and brought a culture and way of life that many deemed superior. He out-lawed the Jewish faith in the God of Abraham and began putting people to death for studying the word of God, keeping the basic command-ments of the Torah and worshiping the Lord. He set up pagan animal sacrifices in the Temple and forced the Jews to worship Greek gods. It was a time where you had to make a choice. To

believe in God meant that you were risking your life. The easy way out was to go along with society and be like them, but that required forsaking the God of Israel. Maybe you could keep a low profile, hide your faith and hope no-body bothered you. Some did. Oth-ers were bolder. They made an open show of their rebellion against An-tiochus. Some paid for it with their lives. What would you have done?

A Sign Did you know that the scriptures say a Jew looks for a sign? You may find this interesting ... Hanukkah has never occurred this early on the calendar. In fact, since the time when Abraham Lincoln de-clared Thanksgiving a national holi-day in 1863, only one time has Ha-nukkah begun on Thanksgiving day, as it is happening this year. That was in 1888. Even then, it was only possible be-cause Thanksgiving often occurred a week later than it does now. It was changed by President Franklin D. Roosevelt to the fourth Thursday instead of the last Thursday in No-vember. The converging of Hanukkah and Thanksgiving won’t happen again for thousands of years. Which means this year, 2013, is probably the last Thanksgivukkah in human history! So is it some kind of a sign? I will leave that up to you to decide. One thing’s for sure - It’s a good time to celebrate freedom and give thanks to Yeshua who made it all possible! Give glory to Yeshua and say, “Thanks a-latta-kah!”

Shalom! Rabbi Michael Stepakoff

then you can go to the throne of God with joy, humbleness and strength.

The Lord’s Power Let’s look at an example from the Bible about how people took God at His word. We all remember the story of Pe-ter and John in the book of Acts. As they walked into the Temple, as was their custom, they saw the same lame man who, from birth, could not walk. Filled with the Ruach HaKodesh (Holy Spirit), Peter took the lame man’s hand and declared boldly, “In the name of Yeshua of Nazareth, get up and walk!”

Many onlookers were amazed and in complete awe as the man leaped to his feet praising, rejoicing and glorifying God. After being ques-tioned by the Sadducees about what power could do such a thing, they stated with assurance that the power of the risen Lord Yeshua whom was crucifi ed is at work. They walked the walk. Yeshua had promised to send the Comforter to work in signs and wonders. We can walk in His righteousness and love. The disciples proved God to the people of that day. Remember, you are the only one who can claim your part in the King-dom of God today. Let the Lord use

you as a vessel for His eternal plan in your life. For prayer requests, email me. May the Lord bless you and keep you.

Shalom to each of you! Rebbetzin Tara Stepakoff

page 7

from page 2 A Personal Note

Dough: Combine yeast, 1 tbsp flour, 1 tbsp sugar and 2 tbsp warm water in the bowl of a stand mixer; let stand until yeast starts to foam, about 5 minutes. Whisk in egg yolks, whole egg, milk, orange zest, orange juice, brandy, salt, vanilla, 2 cups flour and remaining 1/4 cup sugar. Mix on low speed with dough hook until com-bined, about 2 minutes. Add 6 tbsp butter 1 piece at a time, mixing well between additions. (Any small lumps of butter will get worked into dough when more flour is added.) Gradually add remaining 2 cups flour (may not need all of it), mixing until mostly combined between additions, un-til dough is soft, smooth and shiny. The dough will begin to pull away from the sides of bowl and climb up dough hook. (*If you don’t have a stand mixer, you can

get the same results by mixing the dough with a sturdy wooden spoon and knead-ing on a lightly floured surface.)Knead and proof the dough: Turn dough out onto a floured work surface and knead, adding more flour as needed, until no longer sticky, about 5 minutes. Transfer to a buttered bowl, turn to coat, and cover with a clean kitchen towel. Let rise in a warm, draft-free place until dou-bled in size, about 1 hour.Cut the dough: Roll out dough on a light-ly floured surface until 3/4” thick. Using a floured cutter, cut out rounds of dough, twisting cutter to release the dough (this strengthens the edges so the dough puffs when frying). Reroll scraps once. Trans-fer rounds of dough to a parchment-lined baking sheet and cover loosely with an-

other kitchen towel. Let rise until not quite doubled in size, 40–50 minutes. If you are not ready to fry dough, refrigerate rounds up to 3 hours.Fry the dough: Fit a large heavy sauce-pan with thermometer; pour in vegetable oil to measure 4” and heat over medium-high heat until thermometer registers 350°F. Working in batches, fry dough un-til golden, about 1 minute per side. Trans-fer to a paper towel-lined baking sheet and let cool slightly before filling.Fill and finish the sufganiyot: Pulse jam in a food processor until smooth (this will make it easier to pipe). Scrape jam into piping bag fitted with 1/4” tip. Insert tip into top of sufganiyot and gently fill un-til jam just pokes out of hole. Dust with powdered sugar just before serving.

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Ingredients:• 2-1/4 tsp active dry yeast)• 3-4 cups all-purpose flour, divided• 1 tbsp plus 1/4 cup sugar• 2 large egg yolks• 1 large egg• 1/2 cup warm whole milk• 1/2 tsp finely grated orange zest• 2 tbsp fresh orange juice

• 1 tbsp brandy (optional)• 1 tsp kosher salt• 1/2 tsp vanilla extract• 6-8 tbsp unsalted butter, room temperature, cut into pieces• 8 cups vegetable oil• 1-1/2 cups strawberry jam• Powdered sugarSpecial equipment: A deep-fry thermometer, piping bag, 1/4” round tip, 2-1/2”-diameter biscuit or cookie cutter

STRAWBERRY SUFGANIYOTSource: Bon Appétit, November 2013

any people ask, why are there eight days in Ha-

nukkah? There are two reasons ...

Joyful Time One reason is because the big fall feast of in-gathering, known as Sukkot (Tabernacles), was the most joyful time of the whole year. Though Sukkot was about two months past already, when the Temple was liberated from the Syrian Greeks, the Jews decided to celebrate Suk-kot anyway, because they loved it so much! So Ha-nukkah was really a Suk-

kot celebration.

Lord’s Light Secondly, according to legend, although there were just a few drops of oil found in the Tem-ple with which to light the Menorah, the lamps stayed lit for the entire eight days of celebrating. We sure missed every-one last week. On Friday, December 6th, we will fi nish off the festivities of Hanukkah with a party. Following service, there will be delicious latkes and special treats for the kids. It’s going to be a great time together with Yesh-ua, so don’t miss out.

Eight Daysof Hanukkah

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abbi Michael Stepakoff and family are cele-

brating their son David’s Bar Mitzvah and they would like to invite you to join them.

Special Service Rabbi will have a Shab-bat service in honor of the Bar Mitzvah on Sat-urday, January 18th, 11a.m.-1 p.m. All are welcome to cel-

ebrate this momentous and proud occasion. A big luncheon will fol-low at the synagogue. A sign-up sheet with more details will be out soon.

Stepakoff Bar Mitzvah

Temple News

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n Sunday, D e c e m b e r 8th, from 1-3

p.m., the TNJ Sisterhood will gather with friends to celebrate Hanukkah.

All Are Welcome It’s an event that always attracts alot of guests. If you have a friend(s) that would like to join us, please bring her along. All are welcome! The annual luncheon will take place at Ba-hama Breeze. Our ladies are always thrilled with

this special holiday gath-ering. We’ll enjoy great food, games, fellowship and a fun gift exchange. Please bring a $10 gift for the exchange.Location: Bahama Breeze3045 N Rocky Pt Dr E, Tampa

SisterhoodHanukkah Lunch

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___________________Temple New Jerusalem1190 E. Lake Rd. S.Tarpon Springs, FL 34688

Shabbat ServiceFridays, 8 p.m.

All are welcome to our main event at Temple New Jerusalem. It’s a weekly appointment with Yeshua! Praise, Dance, Teach-ing, Torah and Ministry, always under the presence of the Ruach HaKodesh (Holy Spirit).

BirthdaysAnniversaries

Yahrzeits

We would like to men-tion your birthday, an-niversary and Yahrzeits in upcoming newsletters and weekly announce-ments.Please give our offi ce a call at 727.940.5886.

Happy Birthday and An-niversary to everyone celebrating this winter!

MJAA Southeast Regional Conference, December 20th-22ndJoin TNJ and enjoy this weekend of Messianic praise and worship. This annual conference features Davidic worship, kids’ program, singles’ events, personal prayer, daily classes, Torah service, market-place, great fellowship, youth activities, dance symposium and Yeshiva teaching.

C A L E N D A R

CongregationHanukkah PartyFri, December 6th, 8 p.m.

Sisterhood Hanukkah PartySun, December 8th, 1-3 p.m.

MJAA Southeast Regional Confer-ence, December 20th-22nd

DecemberGeneral

No Shabbat Service, Friday, January 17th

David Stepakoff’s Bar Mitzvah and Special Shabbat ServiceSaturday, January 18th, 11 a.m.-1 p.m.

January 2014General

DecemberTeenz & Tribez

January 2014Teenz & Tribez

Tribez & TeenzHanukkah PartyFri, December 6th, 8 p.m.

Teenz Celebra-tion Station TripThursday, Janu-ary 2nd, 4-8 p.m.

David Stepakoff’s Bar Mitzvah and Luncheon, Satur-day, January 18th, 11 a.m.-1 p.m.

Get your copy today!Rabbi Michael’s new book, “Arubot Ha-Shamayim: The Floodgates of Heaven”,explores the topic of tithing as the Bibli-cal key to walking in the covenant bless-ings of God. It will transform your life into fi nancial prosperity and blessings!

$5

Birthdays

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