Baking Challah / A Spiritual Act

I have been baking bread for many years.  I love the smell (ah, the aroma) that fills the house when the bread is baking.  I like the knowing that I can say all the ingredients in the bread (flour, water, eggs, yeast, oil, sugar, salt).  And yes, I like the "no artificial anything," that comes with making bread, or any food from scratch. 

The best part for me, maybe you, is biting into a piece of warm, still steaming, just out of the oven, bread.  And, as you may already know, I like it with a big slab of butter that melts and drips off the sides.  Yummy.

I like kitchen gadgets.  And I like kitchen gadgets that make my job in the kitchen easier.  So, I've made (and still make) bread using a bread maker from start to finish.  (I've also made it completely by hand.)  I've used a food processor, a stand mixer, and even a hand mixer to knead dough.  Hand mixer, not so good.

To make Challah,  I have found, I like using my stand mixer first and then finishing the kneading by hand.  The stand mixer works twice as fast as my hands, and the final minutes of kneading by hand take the dough from sticky to tacky, and then to just right.

Challah is a moist, sweet dough, bread that is served on Shabbat.  Jewish women have been baking Challah for centuries.  At least two loaves are baked.  Two loaves symbolize the double portion of Manna that the Jewish people gathered in the wilderness on Friday, before the start of the Sabbath. 

Making Challah is a wonderful, spiritual act.  As I handle the dough, I pray for my family and friends.  Those on my prayer list can need healing, restoration, more faith, direction, and so on. In my mind as I knead and handle the dough, I imagine HaShem touching those areas in the lives of my family and friends that need healing, restoration, peace, faith and strength.  It is not a "chore" to bake Challah.  It is a blessing.

Centuries ago, in Israel during Temple times, Jewish women reserved a portion of the Challah dough for the priest.  Today, because there is no Temple in Israel (yet), Jewish women separate a small piece of Challah dough and burn it in the bottom of their ovens.  Jewish women say a prayer blessing G-d before separating the dough. 

For Messianic Jews the Challah symbolizes G-d's provision, as well as, the living bread -- Yeshua, the bread of life.