Challah: The Blessing in the DoughSample

Bringing Our Blessings into Our World

By the sweat of your face you shall eat bread, till you return to the ground, for out of it you were taken; for you are dust, and to dust you shall return. — GENESIS 3:19 (ESV)

When God created the world, the final thing He did was make man. When God created man, He took dust of the earth, mixed it with water, shaped the mixture, and breathed life into it. The Jewish sages explain at that moment the world was like a large lump of dough, and the first man was separated out from it like “the challah of the world.”

Just as bread is made from flour and water, shaped, and given time to rise with air, man was made from earth, water, and God’s breath. Just as we are commanded to take a piece of dough and dedicate it to God when making bread, humanity was the part of the world separated and designated for holy purposes.

For that brief time on what is considered in Jewish tradition the first Friday afternoon, the world was in a state of perfection. Adam and Eve resided in Eden in a state of complete harmony. However, as we all know, that paradise was short-lived. Adam and Eve ate from the prohibited Tree of Knowledge, causing a deep cosmic fracture that shattered all humanity as well as our relationship with God.

According to one opinion among the Jewish sages, the forbidden tree in the garden was a “wheat tree.” As a result of the sin that entered the world, the wheat tree was symbolically splintered into many pieces and became lowly wheat sheaves – a mere grain – no longer a great and whole tree.

It’s no coincidence then that just after this first sin, humanity was told that they would eat bread. When we make bread, we are symbolically bringing the wheat back together into a cohesive dough; in essence, restoring our world and ourselves back to the state of Eden.

Challah is traditionally braided, illustrating our desire to reunite the scattered fragments that resulted from sin. When we perform the commandment of taking the piece of challah dough and dedicating it to God, we demonstrate our determination to return to the state of humanity before the sin – designated and dedicated to serving God in harmony and obedience.

Challah is the bread of restoration. We traditionally bake it on Friday afternoons, not just because it is the eve of the Sabbath, but because that is when, in the Jewish tradition, Adam and Eve sinned. Baking our challah brings us closer to the world of perfection as it once was. It’s no wonder that biting into freshly baked challah is like a taste of paradise.