Baking Challah in Oklahoma

As Lily Talebi’s hands kneaded a ball of dough, the Oklahoma City woman envisioned teaching her young daughter the prayers and techniques central to baking challah bread.

She said the experience will be most meaningful during Rosh Hashana, the Jewish New Year that begins at sundown Wednesday.

Talebi and 16 other women recently joined together to learn to make round challah bread at the Chabad Jewish Community Center, 3000 W Hefner Road.

Challah in Hebrew means “loaf.” It is the bread typically eaten on the Jewish Sabbath, but during Rosh Hashana, the bread takes on special significance when it is baked in the shape of a circle to symbolize the desire for a new year that rolls around smoothly, without sorrow.

“We bake the round challah because we want our blessings to never end,” Nechoma Goldman, a center leader, said at the recent women’s gathering.

During dinner, Goldman, whose husband, Ovadia, is the center’s rabbi, said many bakers put raisins in their challah or dip the baked bread in honey “for a sweet new year.”

After the meal, she gathered the women around a worktable laden with flour, oil, honey, Craisins, mixing spoons and bowls. The bread-baking ritual began with a prayer.

As they kneaded the dough, Goldman told the group that baking challah and breaking off a portion for the L-rd is one of the greatest honors of a Jewish woman. She said Jewish women or whoever bakes the challah are commanded to break off a piece of the dough to be baked and given to the temple as an offering to the L-rd, as chronicled in Numbers 15: 17-21.

Each of the women had a different reason for participating in the baking exercise.

Religious tradition

Talebi, 30, said she bakes challah for Shabbat, the Sabbath, but wanted to learn about the prayers associated with the bread-baking ritual. She said she grew up in an Orthodox Jewish community familiar with the ritual. She said she learned how to bake the bread from her mother who died at an early age. Talebi, a member of Temple B’nai Israel, said she drifted away from practicing the traditional bread baking during her college years but wants to teach her daughter Raechel, 10, about the rituals that have connected many generations.

She said the baking gathering was a wonderful time of fellowship and information gathering.

“I am looking for women who are doing traditional things,” she said.

Irina Aizenman attended the gathering with her daughter-in-law Jenna Aizenman and aunt Ella Bagdasarova.

Like Talebi, Jenna Aizenman, 24, said she also stopped baking challah during her college days. The recent baking class brought back memories of baking the bread during Sunday school and midweek torah studies, she said.

“It’s just something I looked forward to, and I miss it,” Jenna Aizenman said. “This reminds me of my childhood.”

Her mother-in-law, Irina Aizenman, said the gathering provided an opportunity to be with other Jewish women, particularly as the High Holy Days — the 10-day period between Rosh Hashana and Yom Kippur — approach.

“It’s a good time to be part of the small community that we have here,” she said.

How it is done

The women gathered around bowls to make the bread dough, then Goldman brought out two huge bowls of dough that she had prepared in advance. She said their dough would take two hours to rise and in the interest of time, she had prepared enough for challah to be baked within the hour.

The women cut off pieces of the dough and Goldman taught them how to braid it using four or six braids of dough. When the braided dough rounds were placed on a baking sheet, an egg wash was brushed over them to create a glossy shine.

Taking her finished challah round hot out of the oven, Talebi couldn’t help but grin.

She said she couldn’t wait to take the bread home to her family and create the traditional food for the approaching holidays.

“My daughter loves baking, and this is something we can do together.”