Page 52 - Indulge October/November 2016

Challah:
The bread that beckons Day of Rest
By Ruth Knafo Setton
On October 10, 2013, thousands of women and girls gathered
in Johannesburg, South Africa, to bake challah together. “The
Shabbos Project - Keeping it Together” was the inspiration of
Rabbi Dr. Warren Goldstein, chief rabbi of South Africa, who
called Jews to keep the Shabbat day [or Sabbath, the day
of rest] sacred and thereby connect with the global Jewish
community. Since that day, there have been Shabbos [Shabbat]
Projects and Challah Bake-o s in hundreds of cities all over the
world, including Buenos Aires, Melbourne, Hong Kong, Tokyo,
Toronto, New York City and Jerusalem.
This Jewish outreach initiative brings Jews together for a
day, and the dough that kneads and braids them is … challah:
the spiritual bread of life, the heart of Shabbat ritual, as varied
and diverse as the Jewish diaspora. Most Americans are familiar
with Ashkenazi challah: a dense braided loaf made with eggs.
Born in Morocco, Ruth Knafo Setton is the author of the novel, “The Road to Fez,” and the recipient of awards from the National
Endowment of the Arts, Pennsylvania Council on the Arts, PEN, Writer’s Digest and The Saturday Evening Post. Her poetry, fiction
and creative nonfiction have appeared in many journals and anthologies. She teaches creative writing at Lehigh University and on
Semester at Sea, and is presently working on a screenplay.
14 Shalom Lehigh Valley | October/November 2016
But Sephardic chefs in
the Middle East and
North Africa often use
olive oil rather than
eggs to enrich the dough
and can season their challahs, simply called Shabbat bread, with
sa ron, za’atar, coriander, sesame seeds, almonds, raisins and honey.
In temple [ancient] times, “challah” was the portion of dough
set aside to donate to the priests. Baking bread was a female
ritual, and in some contemporary Rosh Chodesh [New Moon]
gatherings, 40 women come together to make challah while
focusing their prayers toward the same spiritual goal — for
example, a pregnancy or recovery from an illness. Author Dahlia
Klein Abraham calls it “spiritual kneading,” and Rabbi Weiman-
Kalman says, “Challah symbolizes being fed by God.”
I have eaten delicious challahs — chocolate chip, cinnamon bun,
flatbread studded with aniseed — but the most memorable was the
most surprising. While sailing the Pacific Ocean on a Semester at
Sea voyage, no land in sight, a handful of Jewish Lehigh University
faculty and students wanted to celebrate Shabbat. The Filipino chef
found a recipe, baked a long elaborately braided loaf and presented
it to us with great ceremony. We tore o chunks of the warm
challah, drank grape juice and sang songs that made us think of
home until the red sun sank into the sea.