Bake Challah To Connect To Something Deeper

The aroma of fresh challah baking is a delight. The taste is pure pleasure. At the same time, more than any other food, challah represents elevating the physical to a higher, more spiritual level.

Nearly every challah recipe has seven basic ingredients: flour, sugar, yeast, salt, oil, water and eggs. In Jewish thought, each of these ingredients symbolizes a fundamental aspect of life.

While making bread can be a soulful experience on its own, making challah offers a chance to reflect and connect to something deeper while adding ingredients to the challah bowl one at a time.

FLOUR

Flour symbolizes livelihood. When adding the flour to your bowl, it’s an opportune time to thank God for the income you have and ask for help making wise financial choices. If you sift flour first, you can contemplate the things you want to sift out of your life, such as petty thoughts and jealousies, habits that waste your time and hurtful gossip.

SUGAR

Sugar symbolizes sweetness. As you add sugar to the challah bowl, you can ask God for a sweet life, surrounded by those you love. Think about what elements make life sweet for you. Which of those do you already have? If you’re facing a difficult trial or challenge, now is the time to visualize the sweetest possible outcome. You can also take this moment to consider what actions you can take to sweeten the lives of those around you.

YEAST

Since it’s the ingredient that makes the dough rise, yeast symbolizes growth. When adding yeast to your challah bowl, it’s a good time to consider areas in your life you’d like to expand. Perhaps you want to grow emotionally or spiritually. Maybe you’d like to move to a larger home. Perhaps you want to grow professionally or intellectually or you wish growth for someone specific in your life. The moments of adding in the yeast can be a good time to meditate on all the ways you can rise to your greatest potential.

SALT

By contrast, salt symbolizes limits, discipline, boundaries. When adding salt to the bowl, think about what healthy limits and boundaries would be helpful to put in place or reinforce. If you have children, you can ask God to help you and your partner discipline them in a healthy way. Salt is also used to purify. What negative influences would you like to eliminate from your life?

The Hebrew word for salt has the same letters as the Hebrew word for forgiveness. It looks like this. The letters are the same, just in a different order:

Salt: מלח (M-L-Ch)
Forgiveness: מחל (M-Ch-L)

While adding salt, also consider who you need to forgive and, perhaps, from whom you need to ask for forgiveness.

OIL

Oil represents softness. As you add the oil to your dough, think about how you can be more accommodating with your words. Are there issues over which you can stop fighting over by being a bit more flexible? Some people light oil on Shabbat and Chanukah. Take a moment to consider ways you can light up someone else’s life.

WATER

Water symbolizes life itself. All living things need water to survive and thrive. It is one of God’s many kindnesses to us that, for most of us, water is readily available. How can you nourish yourself and those you love with kindness? This is also a good time to contemplate other kindnesses God brings to your life that you might take for granted.

Water flows. As you add water to your dough, consider what additional blessings you would like to flow into your life. Water also connects all the other ingredients. With whom or with what would you like to forge a deeper connection in your life?

EGGS

Finally, eggs symbolize fertility and also potential arising from humble beginnings. As you crack the eggs, meditate on your own potential to bring something crucial into the world. If you desire children or grandchildren, this is a meaningful moment to ask God for new life.

Once you’ve added all these meditative thoughts to your challah dough, you’ll realize that you’re not just baking bread; you’re actually creating a vision for your future.