Challah

My little family observes the Sabbath on Saturdays. "What? Are you Jewish?" you ask. No, not Jewish...but...this quote about sums it up: "I am not Jewish. But I follow the God of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob. I am a disciple of the Jewish Messiah. I live as a Jewish person lives. Messianic Judaism is my faith. But I was born a gentile, and by grace I have been grafted in." (Rick Spurlock of BereansOnline.org) Because we put our faith in Jesus (we like to call him by his Hebrew name, Yeshua), we are able to be a part of God's people, so we follow his instructions for life, the Torah. We are learning more every day how to do this. Because the Jewish people have been following Torah since it was given, we have adopted many of their traditions and customs, which are full of SO much meaning.

All that to say: Every Friday night we have a special Family dinner to welcome in the Sabbath. I light the candles and my husband says the blessings over the wine (well...juice) and bread and prays for the children. On most Fridays I do as many Jewish women do and make two braided loaves of challah. As the mother of the family kneads and braids this bread, she prays for her loved ones who will be eating it. I LOVE this! It is a special privilege for me to make challah for my family and entwine my prayers for them within the braids. I recently learned how to make a six stranded braid, and it turns out so beautiful! I learned by watching this video:






Shabbat shalom!