Let’s hope for a sweet, healthy, prosperous year.
That’s the meaning of challah, the traditional braided bread that’s enjoyed by Jews on every Sabbath and on holidays like Rosh Hashana, the Jewish New Year.
Sundown today marks the start of the year 5775 in the ancient Hebrew lunar calendar. Last week, Clark County’s orthodox Chabad Jewish Center held a workshop at the Vancouver Community Library for anyone who wanted to learn the hows and whys behind challah and Rosh Hashana, a little ahead of time.
“It was a good opportunity to remind the community and get them involved in the traditions of the holiday,” said Rabbi Shmulik Greenberg, the leader of Chabad.
Traditional challah is made of eggs, white flour, water, sugar, yeast and salt — no butter or milk — plus optional sweeteners like raisins, poppy seeds, sugar and cinnamon. It’s usually long and braided on Sabbath observances, but on Rosh Hashana it’s made round to “symbolize the cycle of the year,” Greenberg said.
“Every year’s seasons and holidays repeat themselves, and the New Year is a reminder of this cycle of life. At the same time, we also remind ourselves that this year we will aim for change,” he said. “Yes, the same cycle, but on a personal level we each aim that our efforts will make for an even better, more productive year.”
Greenberg said making challah involves a particular mitzvah, or precept: once the dough has risen, a piece is pinched off, blessed and burnt; this symbolizes the “priestly portion” that is due to the community’s leaders and to God.
The workshop at the library was hosted by Greenberg’s wife, Tzivie, and other women because that’s the Jewish tradition: the homemaker is in charge of the challah. “In baking bread, she isn’t just providing physical nourishment, but also spiritual sustenance to her family,” Tzivie Greenberg told the group.
Although it begins with sweet celebration, Rosh Hashana is actually a time of serious reflection and prayer. Its central observance, Greenberg said, is the ritual blowing of a ram’s horn, or shofar. “It is the cry of the alarm,” he said. “It’s telling the people, it’s time to get serious.”
Greenberg likened Rosh Hashana to an appeal to your local city council: “They are waiting for you to come and advocate and express what your hopes are. So too, God hopes to hear from us — the gates of heaven are open — and waits to hear our prayers and requests before he makes his judgment.”
Rosh Hashanah lasts from sundown today until the beginning of the Sabbath — Friday night — and is the start of what Jews refer to as the High Holy Days, a 10-day period of reflection and repentance. It all winds up on Yom Kippur, the holiest day of the Jewish year, which begins this year on Oct. 3. Strict adherents undertake 25 hours of fasting and intensive prayer on Yom Kippur.
On the first full afternoon of Rosh Hashana, Congregation Kol Ami, Clark County’s reform Jewish congregation, will host its annual Tashlich ceremony at 4:30 p.m. at Klineline Pond, 1112 N.E. 117th St. Tashlich means “to throw” and the people who do it will be symbolically casting off their sins as they toss bread into the water. The public is welcome.
Learn more — and register to attend services if you’re not a member — at www.chabadclarkcounty.com and at http://jewishvancouverusa.org.
