Some award-winning challah recipes for Shabbat (2024)

FAQs

What is the special bread for Shabbat? ›

Challah is a special type of plaited bread eaten during the weekly festival of Shabbat, the Jewish day of rest. Shabbat begins every week on Friday at sunset and ends on Saturday at sunset. It is traditional to have two loaves of challah on the Shabbat table on a Friday night.

The term “challah” is applied more widely to mean any bread used in Jewish rituals. On the eve of Shabbat, two loaves are placed on the table to reference the Jewish teaching that a double portion of manna fell from heaven on Friday to last through the Saturday Shabbat.

Challah (/ˈxɑːlə/, Hebrew: חַלָּה ḥallā [χa'la] or Hallah [ħɑl'la]; plural: challot, Challoth or challos, also berches in Central Europe) is a special bread of Ashkenazi Jewish origin, usually braided and typically eaten on ceremonial occasions such as Shabbat and major Jewish holidays (other than Passover).

The word challah may be derived from an ancient Hebrew word that meant “portion.” In Biblical times, Jews were to give a portion of their bread to the kohanim, or priests, every Sabbath.

Motzei: Challah or bread

Barukh ata Adonai, Eloheinu Melekh ha-olam, hamotzee lehem min ha'aretz. Blessed are You, God, Ruler of the universe, Who creates bread from the earth.

Shabbat meals or Shabbos meals (Hebrew: סעודות שבת, romanized: Seudot Shabbat, Seudoys Shabbos) are the three meals eaten by Shabbat-observant Jews, the first on Friday night, the second on Saturday day, and the third late on Saturday afternoon.

No cooking, no washing, no sewing, no planting, no reaping, no burning, no extinguishing, no carrying … it's a long list. For the most strictly observant Jews, known as Orthodox, the faithful keeping of Shabbat means not violating any of these rules.

Why? So the challah can be dipped right after the beracha is recited. The Mishnah Berurah (167:27) explains that dipping in salt or condiments makes the first bite tasty and adds honor to the beracha.

Braided ones, which may have three, four, or six strands, are the most common, and because they look like arms intertwined, symbolize love. Three braids symbolize truth, peace, and justice. Twelve humps from two small or one large braided bread recall the miracle of the 12 loaves for the 12 tribes of Israel.

Reply. While most slice, there are indeed some who rip (such as Bukharian Jews). And some used to have the custom to always cut the bread with a knife except for on Friday day (before Shabbat), when they made a point to rip apart by hand and not cut.

What do they drink on Shabbat? ›

Drinking wine on Shabbat shows that this is a joyful, celebratory time. The bread (challah) is blessed and everyone takes a piece. Typically, the meal lasts for a few hours with everyone enjoying family time, often singing songs and telling religious stories.

Avoid giving a dairy dessert, even a kosher one, as most Shabbat meals feature chicken or meat, and we do not serve dairy in the same meal as chicken or meat.

Observances. The biblical ban against work on the Sabbath, while never clearly defined, includes activities such as baking and cooking, travelling, kindling fire, gathering wood, buying and selling, and bearing burdens from one domain into another.

From this perspective, the braiding of the challah symbolizes the weaving of our weekday mentality into a Shabbat state of mind, a braiding of the weekday mindset into a more sublime Shabbat-driven consciousness.

A quick lesson in Jewish custom and law

Every shabbat, there are three meals. Six challahs in total. It's a mitzvah — a commandment, good deed or Jewish law — to make the blessing over the challah. It is therefore, by extension, a blessing of sorts to make the challah.

Braided ones, which may have three, four, or six strands, are the most common, and because they look like arms intertwined, symbolize love. Three braids symbolize truth, peace, and justice. Twelve humps from two small or one large braided bread recall the miracle of the 12 loaves for the 12 tribes of Israel.

Typical Shabbat foods include challah (braided bread) and wine, which are both blessed before the meal begins. Eating meat is traditional on Shabbat, as Jews historically considered meat a luxury and a special food.

However, in the hierarchy of blessings mandated by the Sages, the blessing over bread should precede the blessing over wine. In order to preserve the priority of the wine, and not to "shame" the bread which should be blessed first, the bread is “removed” by concealing it from view with the challah cover.

When our weary ancestors thought of resting and being at peace, they were remembering their homeland. These three symbols of olives, wine and wheat represented that home – the Jewish homeland –the land of Israel.