01 Feb Baking challah in El Salvador
In the Biblical tractate of Pirkei Avot, it is written “Im ein kemach, ein Torah,” which means that “without sustenance [kemach], there cannot be Torah.” But kemach is also Hebrew for bread, and on Shabbat the phrase could be read “without a yummy challah or two, it’s not really the Sabbath.”
Creative interpretation? Perhaps. But the women of the Bnei Anousim community in El Salvador took that message to heart.
At a recent event in the capital city of San Salvador, several dozen Jewish women got together to prepare lots and lots of challah.
It was a competition: each woman received a bowl with all the ingredients she needed and – ready set go! The nicest challah won a prize for its proud baker.
El Salvador’s Bnei Anousim community come together to celebrate Shabbat every week without fail at San Salvador’s Beit Israel – even when a challah baking contest is not on the agenda.
We have pictures. Which challah would you vote for?
