Challah

{{Main|Dough offering}}

The term {{Lang|hbo|challah}} in Biblical Hebrew meant a kind of loaf or cake.{{cite web|url=https://biblehub.com/str/hebrew/2471.htm|title=Strong's Concordance.}} The targum is {{lang|arc|גריצא}} (pl. {{lang|arc|גריצן}}, var. {{langx|syc|ܓܪܝܨܐ / ܓܪܝܣܐ}}) which also means loaf.{{cite book |last=Payne Smith |first=J. |author-link=Jessie Payne Margoliouth|title=A compendious Syriac Dictionary: founded upon the Thesaurus Syriacus of R. Payne Smith |publisher=Clarendon Press |date=1903 |location=Oxford |page=78 |language=syr, en |url=https://archive.org/details/ACompendiousSyriacDictionary |oclc=251355373 }} The word derives from the root {{Lang|hbo|chet-lamed-lamed}} ({{Lang|hbo|hallal}}), which means "pierced." According to {{Interlanguage link|Ludwig Köhler|de|Ludwig Köhler}}, challah was a sort of bread with a central hole, designed to hang over a post.{{Cite journal |last=Köhler |first=Ludwig |date=1948 |title=Miszellen |url=https://www.e-periodica.ch/digbib/view?pid=thz-001%3A1948%3A4%3A%3A164 |journal=Theologische Zeitschrift |volume=4 |issue=2}}

In Rabbinic terminology, challah often refers to the portion of dough which must be separated before baking, and set aside as a tithe for the Kohen,Jastrow, [https://www.sefaria.org.il/Jastrow%2C_%D7%97%D6%B7%D7%9C%D6%B8%D6%BC%D7%94.1?lang=bi&with=all&lang2=en חַלָּה (meaning 2)] since the biblical verse which commands this practice refers to the separated dough as a "challah". The practice of separating this dough sometimes became known as separating challah ({{lang|he|הפרשת חלה}}) or taking challah.{{cite web|url=https://www.myjewishlearning.com/article/ask-the-expert-taking-challah/|title=Ask the Expert: Taking Challah |quote=What does it mean to take challah|website=MyJewishLearning.com}} The food made from the balance of the dough is also called challah.{{cite web|url=https://mg.alhatorah.org/Dictionary/2471|title=AlHatorah Concordance-Dictionary, s.v. חַלָּה}} The obligation applies to any loaf of bread, not only to the Shabbat bread, but it is traditional to intentionally bake bread for the Sabbath in such a manner as to obligate oneself, to dignify the Shabbat.{{Cite web |title=Shulchan Arukh, Orach Chayim 242:1 |url=https://www.sefaria.org/Shulchan_Arukh,_Orach_Chayim.242.1?vhe=Maginei_Eretz:_Shulchan_Aruch_Orach_Chaim,_Lemberg,_1893&lang=he |access-date=2024-03-03 |website=www.sefaria.org}} By synecdoche, the term challah came to refer to the whole of the loaf from which challah is taken.File:Sephardic Rose-Encrusted Challah.jpg]]

There is no consensus as to the source of challah’s braided form. Author of A Blessing of Bread, Maggie Glezer, writes that the braiding began in 15th century Austria and Southern Germany, "with Jewish housewives following their non-Jewish counterparts, who plaited the loaves they baked on Sundays".{{cite news

|title= A Short History of Challah Bread, and How It Got So Sweet in America|date=16 Dec 2020 | url= https://www.myjewishlearning.com/the-nosher/a-short-history-of-challah-bread-and-how-it-got-so-sweet-in-america}} The braids were meant to symbolize the Sabbath bride’s hair, according to Professor Hasia R. Diner. Another food historian Hélène Jawhara Piñer, a scholar of medieval Sephardic cuisine, has suggested that a recipe for a leavened and braided bread found in a 13th-century Arabic cookbook from Spain, the Kitāb al-ṭabīẖ, may have been a precursor to challah.{{Cite book |last=Piñer |first=Hélène Jawhara |url=https://www.worldcat.org/oclc/1200038942 |title=Sephardi: cooking the history: recipes of the Jews of Spain and the diaspora, from the 13th century to today |date=2021 |isbn=978-1-64469-531-9 |location=Boston |pages=16–17 |oclc=1200038942}} However, while this bread closely resembles the preparation of challah, it was flavored with saffron and fried, was described in the book as 'the making of braids,' translated into Spanish as {{'}}guedejas{{'}}, and can be translated to Hebrew as {{'}}peot{{'}}. According to Piñer's analysis, following their expulsion from Spain, Sephardic Jews brought this bread northward through Italy in the 15th and 16th centuries.{{Cite journal |last=Jawhara Piñer |first=Hélène |date=2020 |title=The Sephardi Origin of the Challah Braided Bread |journal=Meldar: Revista Internacional de Estudios sefardíes |volume=1 |pages=69–71}}

File:Challahbread.jpg

Challah may also be referred to as cholla bread.{{cite book |author=Arnold E. Bender |title=Dictionary of Nutrition and Food Technology |year=1975 |publisher=Newnes-Butterworths |location=London |isbn=0-408-001437 |page=54 |edition=4th}}{{cite news|title=Loaves For Jewish Festivals "Not Bread"|work=The London Times |issue=55124 |date=4 July 1961 |location=London |page=8}} In Poland it is commonly known as {{lang|pl|chałka}} (pronounced {{IPA|pl|ˈxawka||pl-chałka.ogg}}; diminutive of {{lang|pl|chała}} {{IPA|pl|ˈxawa|}}), in Ukraine as kolach or khala and {{transliteration|Cyrl|khala}} ({{Script|Cyrl|хала}}) in Belarus and Russia.{{cite encyclopedia |encyclopedia=Энциклопедический словарь истории советской повседневной жизни |author=Леонид Беловинский |title=Хала |publisher=Новое Литературное Обозрение |year=2015|isbn=978-5444803783 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=rA92BwAAQBAJ&q=%D1%85%D0%B0%D0%BB%D0%B0&pg=PT1317 |language=ru}}Barbara Rolek. [https://www.thespruce.com/polish-egg-twist-bread-chalka-recipe-1136837 Polish Egg-Twist Bread Chalka Recipe]. The Spruce, 2017.

Yiddish communities in different regions of Europe called the bread {{transliteration|yi|khale}}, {{transliteration|yi|berkhes}} or {{transliteration|yi|barches}}, {{transliteration|yi|bukhte}}, {{transliteration|yi|dacher}}, {{transliteration|yi|kitke}}, {{transliteration|yi|koylatch}} or {{transliteration|yi|koilitsh}}, or {{transliteration|yi|shtritsl}}.[http://forward.com/articles/6171/come-round/ Come ’Round]. Forward.com, 2004.[http://www.forward.com/articles/2303/ South African Challah?]. Forward.com, 2005. The etymology of kittke is given as Kitt + -ke: Kitt in German means "putty" [http://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/Kitt#German]; "-ke" is the Slavic diminutive suffix found in many Yiddish words and names. Kitke referred not to the whole challah but simply to the braids or decorations that were attached to the challah like putty before baking, and the word must have originally referred to these. Some of these names are still in use today, such as {{Lang|yi|kitke}} in South Africa.

The term koylatch is cognate with the names of similarly braided breads consumed on special occasions by other cultures outside the Jewish tradition in several European cuisines. These are the Russian kalach, the Serbian {{Lang|sr|kolač}}, the Ukrainian kolach the Hungarian {{lang|hu|kalács}} (in Hungary, the Jewish variant is differentiated as Bárhesz), and the Romanian {{lang|ro|colac}}. These names originated from Proto-Slavic kolo meaning "circle", or "wheel", and refer to the circular form of the loaf.[http://dexonline.ro/definitie/colac/440242 Colac] (in Romanian). DEXOnline: Dictionar Explicativ al Limbii Romane (Romanian online dictionary). References: Miklosich, Slaw. Elem., 25; Cihac, II, 67; Conev 66[http://dic.academic.ru/dic.nsf/vasmer/41283/колач Колач] (in Russian). Max Vasmer. Russisches etymologisches Wörterbuch. Winter, Heidelberg 1953–1958 (in German). Russian translation by Oleg Trubachyov: Этимологический словарь русского языка. Progress, Moscow, 1964–1973.

In the Middle East, regional Shabbat breads were referred to by the local word for bread, such as {{transliteration|fa|noon}} in Farsi or {{transliteration|ar|khubz}} in Arabic.{{Cn|date=December 2024}}

{{More citations needed section|date=December 2024}}

File:Challah Braiding.jpg

Most traditional Ashkenazi challah recipes use numerous eggs, fine white flour, water, sugar, yeast, oil (such as vegetable or canola), and salt, but "water challah" made without eggs and having a texture like French baguette also exists, which is typically suitable for those following vegan diets. Modern recipes may replace white flour with whole wheat, oat, or spelt flour or sugar with honey or molasses.

According to Sephardic Jewish observance of halachah, a bread with too much sugar changes the status of the bread to cake. This would change the blessing used over the bread from Hamotzi (bread) to Mezonot (cake, dessert breads, etc.) which would invalidate it for use during the Kiddush for Shabbat.{{Cite web|last1=Spolter|first1=Rabbi Yair|last2=Simmons|first2=Rabbi Shraga|title=10. Three Mezonot Categories|url=https://www.aish.com/jl/jewish-law/blessings/10-Three-Mezonot-Categories.html|access-date=2021-03-01|website=aishcom|date=7 September 2015|language=en|archive-date=6 March 2021|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210306103825/https://www.aish.com/jl/jewish-law/blessings/10-Three-Mezonot-Categories.html|url-status=dead}} While braided breads are sometimes found in Sephardic cuisine, they are typically not challah but are variants of regional breads like çörek, eaten by Jews and non-Jews alike.

Egg challah sometimes also contains raisins and/or saffron. After the first rising, the dough is rolled into rope-shaped pieces which are braided, though local (hands in Lithuania, fish or hands in Tunisia) and seasonal (round, sometimes with a bird's head in the centre) varieties also exist. Poppy or sesame (Ashkenazi) and anise or sesame (Sephardi) seeds may be added to the dough or sprinkled on top. Both egg and water challah are usually brushed with an egg wash before baking to add a golden sheen.

Challah is almost always pareve (containing neither dairy nor meat—important in the laws of Kashrut), unlike brioche and other enriched European breads, which contain butter or milk as it is typically eaten with a meat meal.

Israeli breads for shabbat are very diverse, reflecting the traditions of Persian, Iraqi, Moroccan, Russian, Polish, Yemeni, and other Jewish communities who live in the State of Israel. They may contain eggs or olive oil in the dough as well as water, sugar, yeast, salt, honey, and raisins. It may be topped with sesame or other seeds according to various minhagim.

File:ShabbatableS.jpg

According to Jewish tradition, the three Sabbath meals (Friday night, Saturday lunch, and Saturday late afternoon) and two holiday meals (one at night and lunch the following day) each begin with two complete loaves of bread.Maimonides (d. 1204), [http://kodesh.snunit.k12.il/i/3130.htm Mishneh Torah Hilchot Shabbos, Chapter 30, Law 9.] (Hebrew) This "double loaf" (in Hebrew: {{Lang|he|לחם משנה}}) commemorates the manna that fell from the heavens when the Israelites wandered in the desert after the Exodus. The manna did not fall on the Sabbath or holidays; instead, a double portion would fall the day before the holiday or sabbath to last for both days.Sol Scharfstein, Understanding Jewish Holidays and Customs, page 16 (1999) While two loaves are set out and the blessing is recited over both, most communities only require one of them to be cut and eaten.{{Cn|date=December 2024}}

In some Ashkenazi customs, each loaf is woven with six strands of dough. Together, the loaves have twelve strands, alluding to the twelve loaves of the showbread offering in the Temple. Other numbers of strands commonly used are three, five, and seven. Occasionally, twelve are used, referred to as a "Twelve Tribes" challah. Some individuals – mostly Hasidic rabbis – have twelve separate loaves on the table.{{Cn|date=December 2024}}

Challot - in these cases extremely large ones - are also sometimes eaten at other occasions, such as a wedding or a Brit milah, but without ritual.{{Cn|date=December 2024}}

File:Challa Teller aus Basel.jpg, 20th century, in the collection of the Jewish Museum of Switzerland.]]

File:Shabbat Challos.jpg challah cover]]

It is customary to begin the evening and day Sabbath and holiday meals with the following sequence of rituals:

File:Serwetka szabasowa na chałę, MŻ 42 01.jpg

• The challah is covered, customarily with a dedicated challah cover cloth. (Normally, in the order of saying blessings, bread would precede wine. Covering the challah allows the Kiddush blessing to come first.)
• Kiddush is recited over a cup of wine.
• Each attendee ritually washes their hands in preparation for eating bread. (In some communities, the hands are washed before the Kiddush. It is customary not to talk between this washing and the consumption of the bread.{{cite encyclopedia|title=Salt|url=http://jewishencyclopedia.com/articles/13043-salt|encyclopedia=Jewish Encyclopedia|access-date=7 March 2013}})
• The challah cover is removed.
• The two loaves are held up together.
• The head of the household recites the blessing over bread: "{{Lang|he|Baruch atah Adonai, eloheinu melech ha'olam, hamotzi lechem min ha'aretz}}" (Translation: "Blessed are you {{Lord}} our God, King of the Universe, who brings forth bread from the earth").
• The bread (one or two, depending on minhag) is sliced (or torn) and salted, and the pieces are distributed to each person at the meal to eat.

The specific practice varies. Some dip the bread into salt before blessing the bread.{{cite book|title=Isserles, in Shulcḥan 'Aruch, l.c}} Others say the blessing, cut or tear the challah into pieces, and only then dip the pieces in salt, or sprinkle them with salt before they are eaten.Both practices are based on different parts of the same verse in Leviticus Some communities may make a nick in the bread with a cutting knife.

Normally, the custom is not to talk between washing hands and eating bread. However, according to some, if salt is not placed on the table, it is permitted to ask for someone to bring salt before the blessing on bread is recited.{{cite book|title=Shulchan Aruch, Oraḥ Ḥayyim 167:5; Jacob Zausmer, "Bet Ya'aḳob," No. 168; comp. Berachot 40a}}

Salting challah is considered a critical component of the meal. Customs vary whether the challah is dipped in salt, salt is sprinkled on it, or salt is merely present on the table. This requirement applies to any bread, though it is observed most strictly at Sabbath and holiday meals.{{Cn|date=December 2024}}

The Torah requires that Temple sacrifices to God be offered with salt.{{Bibleverse|Leviticus|2:13|HE}} Following the destruction of the Second Temple, Rabbinic literature suggested that a table set for a meal symbolically replaces the Temple altar; therefore, the blessing over food should only be recited with salt present on the table. Should one eat a meal without performing a commandment, the covenant of salt protects him.Tosafot, Berachot 40a

To the rabbis, a meal without salt was considered no meal.Berachot 44a Furthermore, in the Torah, salt symbolizes the eternal covenant between God and Israel.{{cite web|last=Silberberg|first=Naftali|title=Why is the Challah dipped in Salt|url=http://www.chabad.org/library/article_cdo/aid/484194/jewish/Why-dip-in-salt.htm|publisher=Chabad.org|access-date=7 March 2013}} As a preservative, salt never spoils or decays, signifying the immortality of this bond.{{cite encyclopedia|last=Rabinowitz|first=Louis Isaac|title=Salt|url=http://go.galegroup.com/ps/i.do?id=GALE%7CCX2587517364&v=2.1&it=r&p=GVRL&sw=w|encyclopedia=Encyclopedia Judaica}}

On Rosh Hashanah, the Jewish New Year, the challah may be rolled into a circular shape (sometimes referred to as a "turban challah"), symbolizing the cycle of the year, and is sometimes baked with raisins in the dough. Some have the custom of continuing to eat circular challah from Rosh Hashana through the holiday of Sukkot. In the Maghreb (Morocco, Tunisia, Algeria) many Jews will simply bake their challah in the shape of "turban challah" year-round.{{Cn|date=December 2024}}

Sometimes the top is brushed with honey to symbolize the "sweet new year." According to some traditions, challah eaten on Rosh Hashanah is not dipped in or sprinkled with salt but instead is dipped in or sprinkled with honey. As above, some continue to use honey instead of salt through the Sukkot holiday.{{Cn|date=December 2024}}

File:חלת מפתח.jpg

For the Shabbat Mevarchim preceding Rosh Chodesh Iyar (i.e., the first Shabbat after the end of Passover), some Ashkenazi Jews have the custom of baking {{lang|yi|shlissel}}{{efn|or schlissel}} challah ("key challah") as a segula (propitious sign) for {{lang|he|parnassa}} (livelihood). Some make an impression of a key on top of the challah before baking, some place a key-shaped piece of dough on top of the challah before baking, and some bake an actual key inside the challah."Second Thoughts: The Key to Parnassah." Hamodia, Feature Section, p. C3. 23 April 2009.

The earliest written source for this custom is the {{lang|he|Ohev Yisrael}} of Avraham Yehoshua Heshel (1748–1825), published in 1863. He refers to {{lang|yi|schlissel}} challah as a preexisting custom and offers several kabbalistic interpretations.{{Cite web |title=Ohev Yisrael, For the Shabbat After Pesach 1:1 |url=https://www.sefaria.org/Ohev_Yisrael,_For_the_Shabbat_After_Pesach.1.1?vhe=Ohev_Yisrael,_Zhitomir,_1863.&lang=bi |access-date=2024-07-07 |website=www.sefaria.org}}

The custom has been criticized for allegedly having its source in Christian or pagan practices.Shelomo Alfassa, [http://www.mesora.org/Shlissel.html Shlissel Challah – “The Loaf of Idolatry?”]

Challah rolls, known as a {{Lang|yi|bilkele}} or {{Lang|yi|bulkele}} or {{Lang|yi|bilkel}} or {{Lang|yi|bulkel}} (plural: {{Lang|yi|bilkelekh}}; {{langx|yi|בילקעלע}}) or {{Lang|pl|bajgiel}} (Polish) is a bread roll made with eggs, similar to a challah bun. It is often used as the bread for Shabbat or holiday meals.{{Cn|date=December 2024}}

Similar braided, egg-enriched breads are made in other traditions. The Romanian colac is a similar braided bread traditionally presented for holidays and celebrations such as Christmas caroling {{Lang|ro|colindat}}.{{Cite web|title=Reteta Colaci impletiti|url=https://www.bucataras.ro/retete/colaci-impletiti-71408.html}} The Polish {{Lang|pl|chałka}} is similar, though sweeter than challah. The Czech vánočka and Slovak vianočka is very similar and traditionally eaten at Christmas. In Bulgarian and Romanian cuisine there is a similar bread called cozonac (Bulgarian: {{Lang|bg|козунак}}), while tsoureki bread (also known as {{Lang|hy|choreg}} or {{Lang|tr|çörek}}) is popular in Armenian,{{Cite web|title=Adventures in Armenian Cooking|url=https://www.saintsarkis.org/breads.htm|website=St. Sarkis|url-status=dead|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20080521063848/http://www.saintsarkis.org/breads.htm|archive-date=21 May 2008}} Greek and Turkish cuisines. A sweet bread called milibrod (Macedonian: {{Lang|mk|милиброд}}), similarly braided as the challah, is part of the dinner table during Orthodox Easter in Macedonia. Zopf is a similar bread from Germany, Austria and Switzerland, with a sweeter variant known as {{Lang|de|Hefezopf}} or {{Lang|de|Hefekranz}}. In Finnish cuisine, pulla (also known as cardamom bread in English) is a small braided pastry seasoned with cardamom that is very popular in Finnish cafés. Brioche is an egg-enriched bread, but it is not braided.{{Cn|date=December 2024}}

Unlike challah, which by convention is pareve, many of these breads also contain butter and milk.{{Cn|date=December 2024}}

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• [http://www.5tjt.com/schlissel-challah-an-analysis-by-rabbi-yair-hoffman Schlissel Challah – An Analysis BY Rabbi Yair Hoffman]

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