As we add the eggs to our dough, we imagine that our shared
soul roots, humanity, and love are bringing all the disparate
pieces together and creating a perfect circle of acceptance and
wholeness.
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T H E I N G R E D I E N T S : T H E E X T R A S
Adding the Extras
Flour, water, sugar, yeast, salt, oil, and eggs are the basic building
blocks of a challah dough.
And here’s where you start to have fun!
Challah baking is about creating something alive, warm, and
nurturing. It’s about bringing your own brand of homemade
love and intention to the table. So, now it’s time for you to add in
the elements that make the challah your own.
In my “classic recipe” on page 173, you will see that I offer
the option of adding vanilla. I adore vanilla. I would spray it on
myself as perfume and bathe in it if I didn’t fear that my children
would mistake me for baked goods. Vanilla added to challah
makes the whole thing just a little more sweet, cakey, and won-
derful and that’s how I like it.
Throughout the recipe section of the RISING! cookbook, I offer
suggestions for other tasty additions—sometimes savory, some-
times sweet—to enhance your challah. Go crazy or stay simple;
either way, a challah that is baked with intention and love is a
representation of your best self and will be received as such by
all who partake of it.
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R I S I N G
The Challah Bowl
: where it all comes together
I write this in the lovely Catskills, looking out at a large grassy
area filled with children and happy noise. I have been coming here
with my children for the better part of twenty years, and it is here
that I mixed my challah dough today, making do with a large, flat
tin pan instead of my old trusty challah bowl that I’ve left at home
back in Brooklyn.
It was here, while mixing, that I had my latest realization: It’s
not just the ingredients that make up the challah dough. The
vessel that receives them and allows them to combine is signif-
icant, as well.
Bread has been mixed in bowls for thousands of years. Try
mixing the ingredients on a flat surface and you will understand
why. The water starts sliding away from the center, the eggs go
runny all over the place, and the flour just sits there, inert. As you
can tell, challah baking in the Catskills has been a whole lot of fun!
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T H E I N G R E D I E N T S : T H E B O W L
True, many recipes call for the dough to be turned out onto
a flat surface for the kneading stage, but until it is a solid mass,
ready for kneading, it really needs a vessel that is shaped like a
bowl.
A bowl creates a linear sink force, which causes all objects,
regardless of their distance to arrive at the center at the same
time. No matter where the ingredients start off, when put into
a bowl, they come together in the center to become something
more than when they began.
Women contain a bowl within them, as well: the womb, which
is the container of life. It receives all the necessary ingredients
for life and nurtures them, creating independent life.
According to Kabbalah, the feminine energy is a vessel that
receives. This receiving is not a passive energy, rather one that
takes in in order to bring forth. This receiving is the work we do
everyday on this earth. We take the raw materials of life, gather
them into ourselves, and shape them into something wonderful.
This is the challah bowl. And it is from here that we watch our
challah rise.
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R I S I N G
No greater thing is created suddenly, any more
than a bunch of grapes or a f g.
If you tell me that you desire a f g. I answer you
then bear fruit,
then ripen.
that there must be time. Let it f rst blossom,
—Epictetus
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No greater thing is created suddenly, any more
Chapter VI
If you tell me that you desire a f g. I answer you
The Rising
then bear fruit,
then ripen.
that there must be time. Let it f rst blossom,
"The nature of the soul is to rise."
—Reb Schneur Zalman of Liadi (Tanya, Chapter 19)
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R I S I N G
Washington State University’s bread lab bakers think they may
have solved the mystery of the large recent increase in gluten in-
tolerance.1
Aside from those who have Celiac disease and really can’t pro-
cess the gluten in wheat, most people should have no problem
with it. The main reason for the inability to digest gluten today
is the lack of rising time in industrial bakeries. Most industrial
bakers allot only a few minutes for rising, resulting in a dough
in which the yeast and bacteria have not had have enough time
to digest all the gluten in the flour and the gluten structure does
not have time to develop and strengthen. This creates a bread
with an incompleted gluten process that is difficult for most
people’s digestive system to handle.
The rising time is crucial. In order to promote a healthy rising,
we need to take a step back and allow time to do its thing.
1 Philpott, Tom. “Could This Baker Solve the Gluten Mystery?” Mother Jones.
N.p., 12 Feb. 2014. Web. 18 Mar. 2015.
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T H E R I S I N G
Sometimes, we may find that our dough is too tough or too
sticky, or just not coming together properly. However, when giv-
en time to rise, these problems mostly seem to resolve them-
selves.
There is a method of allowing the dough to come together on
its own, before starting the kneading process, which many pro-
fessional bread bakers swear by. This resting period, where the
ingredients are allowed to just merge naturally, is called the au-
tolyse. The autolyse is most commonly done with just the flour
and water, allowing for better absorption of the flour, as well
as helping the gluten and starches align. And then comes the
hands-on (or machine) kneading process.
I like to think of this as a lesson in our own nurturing. There is
a time for hands-on care, when we need to put our whole selves
into the process, getting down into the trenches and “getting our
hands dirty.”
Then there is the wisdom of knowing when to take a step
back. So many of the things we spend so much energy on, both
physical and emotional, will resolve themselves if given the time
and space to work themselves out.
I like to call this aspect of our caretaking “benign neglect.”
And, as my children have grown, I have come to appreciate this
as a crucial aspect of nurturing.
When we leave our dough to rise, we make sure to put it in the
most conducive environment, a place of warmth and moisture,
yet we are also careful to allow it enough space to rise on its
own, undisturbed. We don’t forget about our dough but we go
about our business, keeping an eye on it from a distance. We
allow it to do its thing while looking out for anything out of the
ordinary that may call for our gentle interference.
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R I S I N G
Sometimes, we notice that the dough isn’t rising. It is then that
we need to troubleshoot and figure out how to get it to grow to
its full potential. At times, we see that it is rising too quickly and
we need to punch it down to bring it back to its proper form.
Facilitating the rising process is an especially apropos meta-
phor for the adolescent stage. However, the act of stepping back
and giving our children, or ourselves, some space to rise, is real-
ly something that applies throughout all our lives.
In child raising this begins in infancy. In the early years, it may
be that parents are rushing their children to toilet-train, or pres-
suring them to act socially proper before they are really ready. In
this case, as nurturers, they are putting their children in a situa-
tion for which they are not fully prepared and this can negatively
affect their rising.
In all our nurturing capacities, be it in friendship, marriage, or
mentorship, this aspect of taking a step back to allow for rising
is a deep and necessary truth. Oftentimes, we just feel like we
want to do something. . . anything, when the most effective thing
is simply to do nothing.
This does not mean disappearing and checking out. On the
contrary, this is just like rising a challah dough.
We keep a watchful eye on the rising, establishing a conducive
environment and checking in occasionally to ensure that all is
well. Even a situation that calls for silence still requires our pres-
ence, be it physical or simply our presence of mind.
Try practicing benign neglect, or, to state it more positively,
emotional liberation! Leave the dough alone. It will do its thing
brilliantly. And you can watch from a distance with pride.
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T H E R I S I N G
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R I S I N G
In his formation on the sixth day of creation, Adam's body was
"KNEADED [LIKE A DOUGH] FROM THE [EARTH OF THE] GROUND,"
(SANHEDRIN 38B)
into which G-d exhaled a Divine soul
to elevate and uplift him from a purely materialistic existence.
“ADAM IS THE “CHALLAH OF THE WORLD.”
(BEREISHIT RABBAH 14:1)
This indicates the humans’ exalted status that relies on our ability
to elevate ourselves and the world around us
just as the portion of challah is sanctified to G-d.
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Chapter VII
Hafrashat Challah,
Separating the Challah
: a Weekly Invitation to Reconnect
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R I S I N G
So, here we are! I’m glad you’ve made it this far.
We’ve come a long way on our challah journey. We’ve explored
the idea of challah as a gift, revealed the joy of the process, re-
flected on the great female triad of challah, and discovered the
recipe for challah as the perfect nurturing tutorial.
Now, I want to take you to the very beginning – before we ate
challah, before we even ate bread – to when we were but new-
borns feeding off white manna “milk.”
Let’s travel a bit back in time, shall we, and discover how and
where this challah thing began.
A Journey Ends, a Journey Begins
They are in the desert. All of them. The Israelites stand at the
banks of the Jordan River, their miraculous journey of epic pro-
portions about to culminate in its original purpose. All the pain
and suffering of hundreds of years are coming to an end with
their arrival to the land that has been gifted to them by G-d and
will be for them and their children as an inheritance forever.
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S E P A R A T I N G T H E C H A L L A H
They are being handed this magical land of milk and honey on a
giant proverbial silver platter. All that needs to be done is to step
forward and enter. It is incredible.
They are terrified.
This journey was not just a geographical one, although there
was a lot of that happening, too. It wasn’t simply about travel-
ing from Egypt to Israel. The Hebrews had evolved from a small
tribe, to an enslaved people, to a ragtag bunch of escapees, and,
somewhere along the way, to a nation. A family. A chosen people.
Having been given the Torah, they were now being entrust-
ed to lead humanity in the marriage of heaven and earth. They
were being thrust into the universal limelight where they would
remain forever as a shining beacon, an example of the very best
that humanity has to offer.
Their time in the desert was an oasis. Having just experienced
the peak of Divine revelation, during which they received the
wisdom that would guide them for all time, they were in a state
of spiritual bliss. All their needs were being magically met and
there were no worries as to sustenance, location, and bodily
needs. The Jewish nation was fledgling, newborn, and cradled
protectively in G-d’s radiance.
This was all about to end. It was time to grow up.
The men were unhappy about this. It felt like a step down.
Here, in the desert, they were cradled and protected and occu-
pied only with lofty, spiritual matters. Now, they were tasked
with entering a land they would need to conquer with their
hands and then toil over, digging, planting, and reaping in its
soil. It felt like dirty work and a descent from their exalted des-
ert existence.
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R I S I N G
But the women understood.
Women are the first line of defense in nurturing and creating
life. Producing and cultivating is messy work. So much of what is
required in the nurturing endeavor is repetitive and mundane.
But women hold within them an awareness of the intrinsic holi-
ness camouflaged within the most earthly of tasks.
What the Women Know
After forty years of wandering, it was Yehoshua who was to
lead the people into the land. Hoshea, as he was known then,
needed this energy from the women who understood.
A small letter, a Yud, was added to his name. It was a gift to him
by an ancestor long deceased: his foremother Sarah. Her name
had been Sarai, but G-d had changed it to Sarah. The Yud that
had been removed from her name was then gifted to Yehoshua,
along with Sarah’s deep sense of earthly awareness and ability
to see beyond matter, qualities that would prove essential as he
led the Jewish people into their new existence.
Sarah’s tent was one of holiness, a place of light and truth. The
three wonders of her tent – the cloud of glory resting above it,
the candles that always remained lit within it, and the challah
that stayed fresh from week to week – were representative of
the fact that she w
as fully aligned and constantly connected with
the Source of all life.
In her relationships, in her home, and in her nurturing, she lo-
cated the Divine within the mundane. Sarah, as the representa-
tive of all women, understood, with a sensibility far beyond her
time, that the greatest of light can be excavated from the deepest
of the dirt.
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S E P A R A T I N G T H E C H A L L A H
As the fledgling nation stood on the precipice of their new re-
ality, they were scared. They worried that in their association
with the earth, they would lose their connection to heaven. They
needn’t have worried. Heaven was coming with them. The laws
of the new land would keep the awareness of a Higher Presence
with them at all times.
Of these new laws of the land, there was one that stood out. It
was different than the others and would endure—through time,
space, and the evolution of human spiritual awareness—it was
the mitzvah of challah.
A Message for All Time
As mentioned earlier, while the word mitzvah is usually trans-
lated as “commandment,” the etymology of the word also allows
us to understand it as a Divine invitation to connect. Through
the intentional (and even unintentional!) act of a mitzvah, we be-
come aware of our continued and inherent connection to our
higher self and our very Source.
Such is the mitzvah of challah.
“Vehaya b’achalchem milechem ha’aretz . . . . Raishit arisote-
ichem challah tarimu terumah . . . ./[A]nd it will be when you eat
from the bread of the land . . . the first of your dough shall be
“challah,” separated, and given as a gift” (Bamidbar 15:19, 20).
The next verse continues and states that this is a gift that will
be separated for future generations, as well, creating a unique
situation. Challah is a gift that continues to be given, wherever
in the world we may be and whichever generation we find our-
selves in.
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R I S I N G
The Challah Awareness
Some two thousand years ago, when our Temple stood, chal-
lah translated into a gift of dough for the priests in the Temple,
whose sole occupation was the service of G-d. Giving them the
first and best of our sustenance was our way of expressing rec-
ognition of the service they provided for the entire nation, keep-