Wednesday, June 15, 2011

From manna to challah

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Tomorrow it will be time to stock up from the stacked up loaves of challah.
You can see signs of their braided shape on the fallen paper.
If you like challah with sesame seeds, enlarge the photo.
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At the Sabbath table two challot are held together and the Hamotsi bread blessing is said over both.
This is in remembrance of our 40 years in the desert when each morning the Israelites found manna on the ground, encased in two layers of dew to preserve its freshness.
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But on Saturday, the Holy Sabbath day, no manna fell from heaven.
Instead, the people would gather a double portion on Friday.
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Moses explains this in Exodus 16:22-26.
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10 comments:

  1. Coming to your blog means learning something new. The stories from the bible are familiar but seeing them through your eyes gives them a new dimension. Thank you
    Dina!

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  2. I am not a huge bread eater normally, but I pop the challah in a low oven on friday evenings and eat the thick slices with melty butter *sighs happily*. Life can be very good :)

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  3. I do really like challah, even if it is quite different from our usual bread.

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  4. I just had the thought that even GOD took a day of rest. I remember a restaurant on 2nd Ave (about 11th st) in NYC, Called the "Kiev" in the 1980's. They made the best French toast from challah. Now I am hungry!

    Have a great Sabbath, Dina.

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  5. The Quran also tells this story of Moses and Jews receiving the blessing from God in the form of manna (shallots?) and salwa (bread, honey? [I wonder if this is the sama challah you refer to here]) in their exodus journey through the desert.

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  6. Friends, thanks for the fun comments. I couldn't agree more. :)

    Eki, thanks for this about the Quran. Shallots--onions? Eew, I hope not. I wonder of what you call salwa can be like the Hebrew word slav. A slav is the bird called quail. This was the Israelites' daily miraculous food, together with the manna.
    More at
    http://webcache.googleusercontent.com/search?q=cache:XWQ3vxyQU8AJ:www.biu.ac.il/JH/Parasha/eng/beshalah/846zec.doc+manna+and+quail,+slav&hl=en

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  7. A delicious photo! Hmmmm, how could I try a taste of that bread.....

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  8. I remember this story well from the Bible. Though I've never eaten challah I want to try it.

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