I cant express how making some foods makes me feel emotionally. Even though Im not a religious person, I am very Jewish inside. One of the ways this manifests itself is the great pleasure I take in braiding Challah, the sweet, egg bread that we bake daily in the cafe and use for sandwiches, french toast and soup. Traditionally, the Challah symbolizes the coming in of the Sabbath in Judaism. The 3 braids represent truth, peace and justice and the 6 braid challah is meant to symbolize love since it looks like intertwined arms. The Challah is made on Thursday night and left to rise until Friday morning when the dough is punched down and then braided into one of many elaborate shapes. Religious Jewish women traditionally braid the challah and as its is being braided they pray for their children, loved ones and the world at large. But before the braiding begins, each woman will take a tiny pinch of dough and put it in the oven to burn up. They say a prayer to offer the small portion of dough, meant to symbolize a portion of the Torah, to the ancient temples of Jerusalem. Braiding the challah for me is a meditative and almost spiritual task. If I need to chill out for a few minutes I will use that time to braid the Challah for the restaurant and it never fails to make me feel better. Lately, for the soup of the day Ive been making teeny tiny challahs for people to eat with their soup. Its a lot of work to braid 50 of these minis but I like to think it makes people feel good to eat them. Since the whole world seems to be in chaos at the moment and particularly my homeland, I like to think that each challah Im braiding is for peace to come to Israel and the entire region. If only peace, truth and justice could come from baking bread I reckon the world would be a harmonious place right now.
Posted on: Thu, 28 Aug 2014 17:09:39 +0000
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