30B430 #28

When I got an email from Esther at Chabad about a challah baking class, I figured that this would kill a few birds with one stone: I would check something off my 30B430 list, I would get to make some delicious challah and I would get to see Esther and some of the Jewish women in the valley. There ended up being a lot of Israeli women there as well and it was so nice to speak in Hebrew again and find out where everyone was from. I also invited Caitlin and she and I partnered up to make the dough and experiment with the different types of braids that Esther taught us. While I’m sure that I’ve made challah before- definitely in first grade- it certainly hasn’t been in years but it’s a cool experience to watch yeast and water bubble and to knead the sticky dough until it forms a ball that someone becomes light and fluffy bread.

While we were waiting for the dough to rise, Esther took us through a short lesson about the role of women within Jewish society and how there are certain things that only women are allowed to do- things that make us definitively women. We light the candles for Shabbat, we keep marital purity, and we bake the challah. We talked about the small portion that you remove when you’re preparing the challah and she gave us some articles about what these three tasks mean for us as Jewish women. And of course, there was eating- we had some challah and fruit and all sorts of spreads, which were just delicious (unless you don’t like olives and then wasn’t as delicious). We took our challah home and I baked mine the next day and I’m pretty sure that by the end of the week, it was gone. It’s not a hard thing to make, just a bit time consuming, so I don’t know when I’ll make it again, other than a special occasions, but I know it’ll be delicious when I do!