Challah bread, one of our most delicious traditions, is also one of our wisest. The golden, braided bread teaches us to live a balanced, meaningful life.
Preparing challah from scratch is not easy. Measuring and mixing the ingredients requires concentration. Kneading can work you into a sweat. Yet as hard as you work, at some point the most productive thing you can do is to take your hands off of the dough. The resulting bread will actually suffer if you spend the prescribed rise-time continuing to knead. For busy leaders, time for rest can seem like a scant resource. This is where the wisdom of challah becomes clear. The challah knows: Rest is part of the recipe.
Each Rosh Hashana, Jews are obligated to take a few days out of the busy work routine to reflect on the year, our own personal ‘annual review’. The challah continues to be our teacher during the practices around the High Holy Days. On the Rosh Hashana table, the challah is sweet and round. As we search for well-roundedness, we must do so with a drop of honey: a sense of humor and self-compassion.
As leaders, we serve others. We are passionate about changing the world. We love what we do. Yet without the proper balance, we risk burn-out. Just like challah, we too need a balance of work, rest, and enjoying the fruits of our labor.
Preparing challah is a practice in intention and nourishment. As you set out to make dough, it’s important to be aware of your attitude toward the work. Just as you hold tension in your body, you may also hold it in your thoughts, draining your attention and energy from what you really want to be doing.
Choosing an intention, or kavanah, infuses the challah with the nourishment we seek. The bread becomes a metaphor for attitudes we wish to express, qualities we wish to embody.
Consider these questions as a guide to infuse your challah:
• With what intentions will you infuse your challah?
• How do you want to nourish yourself and those you love in the new year?
• How do you approach your work? Is yours a frantic energy, a scrambling to get everything done? How can you make it more nourishing?
• How much energy do you spend thinking about what’s not getting done?
• Has my life been balanced this past year? In work? In rest? In play?
• What can I do (or stop doing) to find more balance in the coming year?
• How can I find balance so that I am leading from my over-flow rather than drawing on reserves, inviting burn-out?
Sweet Rosh Ha’Shana Challah Recipe by Deep Breath Baking
1 packet active dry yeast
1/3 cup brown sugar
1 ¾ cup warm water
½ cup vegetable oil
1/3 cup honey
4 eggs plus 1 for egg wash
3 ½ tsp salt
About 4 cups unbleached white flour
About 4 cups whole what flour
WORK
1. Stir one packet of yeast and 1/3 cup sugar with 1 ¾ cup warm water in a large mixing bowl. Let sit 5 minutes.
2. Mix in ½ cup oil, 4 eggs, 3 ½ tsp salt.
3. Add one cup at a time of flour (about 7-8 cups total) until no longer sticky and springs back to the touch.
4. Knead 8-10 minutes until smooth and elastic.
REST
5. Place dough in a bowl and cover with plastic or dampened towel. Keep it somewhere warm and nurturing to rest for at least 45-90 minutes (until doubled in size).
6. Gently press down dough and give it some more time to rest (it’s been working hard!)—about another hour.
PLAY
7. Preheat oven to 400 degrees F
8. Press down dough and separate into two chunks.
9. Roll each into a long rope with one end thicker than the other. For each, hold the thicker end still and wrap the thinner end around, creating a circular loaf.
10. Add eggwash (1 egg, 2 Tbs water) and toppings.
11. Let rise for another 20 minutes or so.
12. Bake about 12 minutes (until it’s firm on the outside and smooshy on the inside).
13. Reduce heat to 350 degrees F and bake for about 20 minutes more.
14. Enjoy the fruits of your labor!
Note: Deep Breath Baking may result in a feeling of relaxation and groundedness. It will definitely result in two delicious, medium-sized loaves of challah.
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