Voila' Challah

It is amazing to me that a few simple ingredients can create memories, build bridges into lives that will last centuries, all the while causing us to look back, while simultaneously looking forward. But challah (pronounced Halla) can do all of those things.

The ingredients; flour, egg(s) oil, water, yeast, salt and a little sugar. One of my recipe books calls for 5# of flour. When I make this recipe I plan on giving away a couple of challah while baking the grandmother of all challah loaves in my oven. Bread has never been one of  those kitchen ventures that intimidates me...now making pie crusts...that's another story altogether. But my mother made bread, and if we were around at the right moment she might even let us punch our tiny little (clean) fists into the warm, spongy dough after its first rise.

God elevated food to a place of holiness when He commanded us to use food for sacrificial purposes, and challah is a bread traditionally baked on Friday and served at the Shabbath meal. It is typically a braided bread, which means a minimum of 3 ropes of dough. "For a chord of 3 is not easily broken" this applies to bread, twine, people, witnesses and many other areas representing unity and strength. I have been in kitchens where the mom makes the most beautiful challah using 6, and even 8 ropes of dough. It is only fitting that this food, the first consumed at a sabbath meal be blessed and shared.

My daughters now make challah and Aviva will grow up watching her mom, pull out the mixing bowl she always uses, and the bowl that the one extra egg gets cracked into, paying careful attention to the temperature of the water, watching to make sure the yeast is fresh and growing, in the smaller bowl she always uses,  the brush that is used to apply that last touch to the bread before it goes into the oven, that last touch that will cause the bread to glisten, and turn a beautiful shade of golden;. All of these things will be emblazoned into her memory, she will have to learn self-control, as she waits for the moment when the entire family sits down together and rejoices in another week past, another day lived, another moment to enjoy together, and another opportunity to break bread together.