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Challah or hallah ( ; , ; c hallot, challoth or c 'hallos, ), also known as berches''' in Central Europe, is a special bread in Jewish cuisine, usually braided and typically eaten on ceremonial occasions such as Shabbat and major (other than Passover).
Ritually acceptable challah is made of dough from which a small portion has been set aside as an offering. Challah may also refer to the dough offering. The word is biblical in origin, meaning "loaf". Similar (usually braided) breads with mainly the same ingredients including brioche, kalach, kozunak, panettone, pulla, tsoureki, vánočka are found across .
In Rabbinic terminology, challah often refers to the portion of dough which must be separated before baking, and set aside as a tithe for the Kohen,Jastrow, חַלָּה (meaning 2) since the biblical verse which commands this practice refers to the separated dough as a " challah". The practice of separating this dough sometimes became known as separating challah (הפרשת חלה) or taking challah. The food made from the balance of the dough is also called challah. The obligation applies to any loaf of bread, not only to the Shabbat bread, but it is traditional to intentionally bake bread for the Sabbath in such a manner as to obligate oneself, to dignify the Shabbat. By synecdoche, the term challah came to refer to the whole of the loaf from which challah is taken.]]
There is no consensus as to the source of challah’s braided form. Author of A Blessing of Bread, Maggie Glezer, writes that the braiding began in 15th century Austria and Southern Germany, "with Jewish housewives following their non-Jewish counterparts, who plaited the loaves they baked on Sundays". The braids were meant to symbolize the Sabbath bride’s hair, according to Professor Hasia R. Diner. Another food historian Hélène Jawhara Piñer, a scholar of medieval Sephardic cuisine, has suggested that a recipe for a leavened and braided bread found in a 13th-century Arabic cookbook from Spain, the Kitāb al-ṭabīẖ, may have been a precursor to challah. However, while this bread closely resembles the preparation of challah, it was flavored with saffron and fried, was described in the book as 'the making of braids,' translated into Spanish as guedejas, and can be translated to Hebrew as peot. According to Piñer's analysis, following their expulsion from Spain, Sephardic Jews brought this bread northward through Italy in the 15th and 16th centuries.
Yiddish communities in different regions of Europe called the bread , or , , , , or , or . Come ’Round. Forward.com, 2004. South African Challah?. Forward.com, 2005. The etymology of kittke is given as Kitt + -ke: Kitt in German means "putty" [5]; "-ke" is the Slavic diminutive suffix found in many Yiddish words and names. Kitke referred not to the whole challah but simply to the braids or decorations that were attached to the challah like putty before baking, and the word must have originally referred to these. Some of these names are still in use today, such as kitke in South Africa.
The term koylatch is cognate with the names of similarly braided breads consumed on special occasions by other cultures outside the Jewish tradition in several . These are the Russian cuisine kalach, the Serbian cuisine kolač, the Ukrainians kolach the Hungarian kalács (in Hungary, the Jewish variant is differentiated as Bárhesz), and the Romanian cuisine colaci]]. These names originated from Proto-Slavic kolo meaning "circle", or "wheel", and refer to the circular form of the loaf. Colac (in Romanian). DEXOnline: Dictionar Explicativ al Limbii Romane (Romanian online dictionary). References: Miklosich, Slaw. Elem., 25; Cihac, II, 67; Conev 66 Колач (in Russian). Max Vasmer. Russisches etymologisches Wörterbuch. Winter, Heidelberg 1953–1958 (in German). Russian translation by Oleg Trubachyov: Этимологический словарь русского языка. Progress, Moscow, 1964–1973.
In the Middle East, regional Shabbat breads were referred to by the local word for bread, such as in Farsi or in Arabic.
According to Sephardic Jews observance of Halakha, a bread with too much sugar changes the status of the bread to cake. This would change the blessing used over the bread from Hamotzi (bread) to Mezonot (cake, dessert breads, etc.) which would invalidate it for use during the Kiddush for Shabbat. While braided breads are sometimes found in Sephardic cuisine, they are typically not challah but are variants of regional breads like çörek, eaten by Jews and non-Jews alike.
Egg challah sometimes also contains raisins and/or saffron. After the first rising, the dough is rolled into rope-shaped pieces which are braided, though local (hands in Lithuania, fish or hands in Tunisia) and seasonal (round, sometimes with a bird's head in the centre) varieties also exist. Poppy or sesame (Ashkenazi) and anise or sesame (Sephardi) seeds may be added to the dough or sprinkled on top. Both egg and water challah are usually brushed with an egg wash before baking to add a golden sheen.
Challah is always pareve (containing neither dairy nor meat—important in the laws of Kashrut), unlike brioche and other enriched European breads, which contain butter or milk as it is typically eaten with a meat meal.
Israeli breads for shabbat are very diverse, reflecting the traditions of Persian, Iraqi, Moroccan, Russian, Polish, Yemeni, and other Jewish communities who live in the Israel. They may contain eggs or olive oil in the dough as well as water, sugar, yeast, salt, honey, and raisins. It may be topped with sesame or other seeds according to various .
In some Ashkenazi customs, each loaf is woven with six strands of dough. Together, the loaves have twelve strands, alluding to the twelve loaves of the showbread offering in the Temple. Other numbers of strands commonly used are three, five, and seven. Occasionally, twelve are used, referred to as a "Twelve Tribes" challah. Some individuals – mostly Hasidic Judaism rabbis – have twelve separate loaves on the table.
Challot - in these cases extremely large ones - are also sometimes eaten at other occasions, such as a wedding or a Brit milah, but without ritual.
The specific practice varies. Some dip the bread into salt before blessing the bread. Others say the blessing, cut or tear the challah into pieces, and only then dip the pieces in salt, or sprinkle them with salt before they are eaten.Both practices are based on different parts of the same verse in Leviticus Some communities may make a nick in the bread with a cutting knife.
Normally, the custom is not to talk between washing hands and eating bread. However, according to some, if salt is not placed on the table, it is permitted to ask for someone to bring salt before the blessing on bread is recited.
The Torah requires that korban to God be offered with salt. Following the destruction of the Second Temple, Rabbinic literature suggested that a table set for a meal symbolically replaces the Temple altar; therefore, the blessing over food should only be recited with salt present on the table. Should one eat a meal without performing a commandment, the covenant of salt protects him.Tosafot, Berachot 40a
To the rabbis, a meal without salt was considered no meal.Berachot 44a Furthermore, in the Torah, salt symbolizes the eternal covenant between God and Israel. As a preservative, salt never spoils or decays, signifying the immortality of this bond.
Sometimes the top is brushed with honey to symbolize the "sweet new year." According to some traditions, challah eaten on Rosh Hashanah is not dipped in or sprinkled with salt but instead is dipped in or sprinkled with honey. As above, some continue to use honey instead of salt through the Sukkot holiday.
The earliest written source for this custom is the Ohev Yisrael of Avraham Yehoshua Heshel (1748–1825), published in 1863. He refers to schlissel challah as a preexisting custom and offers several Kabbalah interpretations.
The custom has been criticized for allegedly having its source in Christian or pagan practices.Shelomo Alfassa, Shlissel Challah – “The Loaf of Idolatry?”
Unlike challah, which by convention is pareve, many of these breads also contain butter and milk.
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