Introduction: How Judaism Reads Scripture:
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Sample Biblical Studies Course (History):
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Sample Talmud and Mishnah Course (Textual Studies):
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New (Folk) Melody: How to Chant the 23rd Psalm/ איך לשיר את התהילה כג
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Die Deborah – Keeping Women’s (“Ladies’”) Yiddishkeit in the 19th Century Midwest
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How to Make Shabbat at Home – Human and Jewish Connection over COVID -2021, Lima, OH
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Sample Liturgy Instruction (Lima, OH):
Weekday Tefillah Minhag at Beth Israel-Shaare Zedek:
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Personal Recipe for Challah at Home (Rabbi Freddi Cooper’s Recipe) from Emanu-El, “Weekly Update, 19 March 2024”
For my contribution this month, I am taking seriously the dictum in the Mishna that “אִם אֵין קֶמַח, אֵין תּוֹרָה” (m. Avot 3:17) meaning “if there is no flour/ bread, there is no Torah [to learn].” We also say all the time in Judaism that we are a religion of “doing” and not faith alone. So, here’s something to learn and do, to nurture yourself and the world–something deeply personal to my own spirituality and Jewishness. Food draws us together as a community, and food connects us across communities and to our ancestors. Please allow me, then, to share a deep connection of my own to Judaism, and I hope you’ll try it.
No Excuses, Half Bread Machine Challah
(Rabbi Freddi Cooper’s Recipe)
This is the “traditional” recipe taught to first-year rabbinical students at the Reconstructionist Rabbinical College in Wyncote, PA. Rabbi Cooper developed this recipe from an Israeli one at her daughter’s kibbutz to make the dough in a bread machine and then shape and bake in a traditional oven. She designed it this way so that no rabbinical student could have any excuse not to make their own, homemade challah every Shabbat. You can also let the bread machine keep going to bake it for you, which is even easier. Or, if you can make the time, the recipe works excellently for making the whole thing by hand. The bread is parve —“neutral” and compatible with everything if you keep any degree of Kosher.
Wet Ingredients:
200 ml Soy Milk (has to be soy for the protein content)
5 tablespoons Non-Butter Spread (Earth Balance works best)
4 large Eggs
1 tablespoon (Bill and Mary’s) honey
Dry Ingredients:
1 teaspoon Salt
4 cups Bread Flour
3 teaspoons of Bread Machine Yeast
Additional:
1 Egg, beaten, to brush the challah before baking
Method:
- Combine the wet ingredients first into the mixing container in your favorite bread machine. Sprinkle in the salt.
- Next, pile the dry ingredients in the middle of the wet with flour first in a mound, and place the yeast in a well in the middle of the dry ingredient pile.
- Turn the bread machine on the “sweet bread” setting (or whatever you use for Brioche) according to the manufacturer’s instructions.
- The machine should have a signal or timing between the last rise cycle and the start of the automated baking. If you want to braid and finish in the oven, open the machine and stop the cycle at this point and take out the dough. I usually make two small loaves out of the dough.
- If baking outside the machine, glaze with the beaten egg. You can top with poppy seeds or sea salt if you like.
- Baking outside the machine should be at 375 F and somewhere between 30-35 minutes, approximately, depending on the shape and size of the loaf or loaves.
Optional commentary:
- Bread machines apparently make terrible gifts, and are frequently available cheaply in second hand shops.
- If you would like to braid according to an arcane mathematical puzzle to produce a work-of-art bread sculpture, reach out to someone with a really cool hairstyle or YouTube; I lack these skills entirely.
- You can knead in raisins, chocolate chips, coconut flakes, etc., between the last rise and the baking, but before your glaze.
- I was warned, if you try to “monkey” with this recipe, according to Rabbi Freddi Cooper, she will know and not be thrilled. She always knows 😉 She filed for an addition to the Babylonian Talmud to set this prohibition into Halacha. Request pending, and I have passed on the warning that I usually ignore (see 3). Follow this LINK to learn more about this amazing human, woman, rabbi, and mentor!