A million loaves of fresh, warm, golden bread will link the Jewish community around the world on Thursday 10 November, as communities in more than 900 cities gather together to make challah, the traditional plaited bread eaten on the Jewish sabbath.
The Great Big Challah Bake is an annual event that began in South Africa in 2013 and has now expanded to 85 countries. In Australia this year, Melbourne and Perth will each be holding one large Great Big Challah Bake, where thousands of people will gather together in one place to make bread, while in Sydney there will be several smaller events around the city in an effort to allow more people to participate.
The Great Big Challah Bake is part of , a community movement that centres around the Jewish sabbath, shabbat, which runs from sunset on Friday until after sundown on Saturday. The start of shabbat is traditionally marked by Jewish families with dinner on Friday night.
"The movement was created to drive unity back into the community," says Daniel Sekers, co-chair of the board of the Sydney Shabbat Project. "When you sit down to a shabbat dinner it's an opportunity to reflect and catch up with family and friends. It has this amazing unifying power. You can be a visitor to almost any country and find yourself invited to a shabbat meal."
And challah is central to the shabbat meal. Sekers says its origins are thought to stem from the biblical story of manna falling from the sky when the Jews were wandering in the desert after their exodus from Egypt. On shabbat, two portions fell instead of one, which is why there are usually two loaves of challah on the shabbat table.
There are two methods of plaiting the bread, one with six strands and one with three, and several different theories on why it is plaited. Sekers says one of them is that as shabbat represents unity, the different strands are plaited together to create a unified whole.
Participants in the Great Big Challah Bake all work with the same recipe. Source: Shabbos Project Sydney
Female solidarity
Challah was traditionally baked by women, with recipes passed down from mothers to daughters, but these days most people buy it. The Great Big Challah Bake is an opportunity to get back to basics and make the dough from scratch, surrounded by other women.
Sydney-based Amanda Lieber has taken part in The Great Big Challah Bake for the past two years, and last year she went with her mother, Joy. "It was such fun," she says. "There was such a feeling of community, with all these women working together. I met other people around the table and also got to have special one-on-one time with my mum."
Amanda and her mother Joy; right, Amanda's challah from the Big Bake last year. Source: Shabbos Project Sydney
Participants are given the ingredients and a recipe – the same one is sent out every year to all the events around the world – and are instructed on how to make the dough and plait their bread, all while sharing stories and meeting new people. And they get a finished product to take home to bake in time for shabbat, as well some risen dough so they can make their own at home.
Though it is mostly women who attend the events, this year there are special Great Big Challah Bakes for children of both sexes in Melbourne and Sydney and at retirement homes in Sydney.
Smiles all round at one of last year's events in Sydney. Source: Shabbos Project Sydney
Young bakers also enjoy the Big Bake. Source: Shabbos Project Sydney
"It's been amazing to see so many people coming together to make challah," says Sekers. "It all goes back to the concept of breaking bread. And it's delicious!"
Click to book for the Perth Great Big Challah Bake. Find details on the Melbourne and Sydney bakes and other Shabbat Project events .
