Spiritual Kneading though the Jewish Months is an evocative collection of challah recipes, Jewish spiritual insights, and Torah study as it relates to each Jewish month, called Rosh Chodesh.
Dahlia Abraham-Klein, pulls from Jewish texts a book that enhances women’s spiritual growth via the tradition of challah baking while meditating upon the Jewish theme of the month. The book gives an extensive history of Rosh Chodesh and why it’s traditionally been a woman’s holiday. The book covers all twelve months of the Jewish year, with specific Torah text for each month as well as a specific challah that relates the Torah theme to that month. In essence Spiritual Kneading is palatable Torah.
Each Jewish month includes a meditation guided through the kneading of the challah dough. The kneading is an action meditation, best understood as the performance of commandments and rituals. The inner essence of the dough elucidates divines in the challah and becomes a springboard to reach God. This conversation in turn is kneaded into the dough and becomes part of the spiritual wisdom transmitted to your loved ones. When commandments are seen in this light, particularly baking challah, the challah takes on a greater spiritual significance. Each chapter then goes on to give sources, ideas, and questions to be discussed by the group while the challah dough is rising. The purpose of baking challah in this particular way is to develop ones own personal spiritual growth within the context of a Rosh Chodesh group.
Recipes and Shapes include:
- TISHREI Spiral Challah with Apple and Silan
- CHESHVAN Rainbow Shaped Challah
- KISLEV Cheese Loaf
- TEVET Star of David Challah
"You don’t have to be a Jewish baker to fall in love with challah, especially the challah of Spiritual Kneading. In this unique and beautiful challah journey, in the form of a comprehensive recipe book that takes you on a monthly meditation along with a challah theme, you’ll remember afresh or learn for the first time, the honour of this ancient bread. Artfully laid out in a majestic year of bread, fused to biblical prose and traditions, this is a book for the baker with soul. Abraham-Klein generously shares the sacred magic of challah for a year of baking, feeding you body, mind, spirit and soul. In a word, this is a wondrous book - transformational and inspiring on every level."
"Seldom is one given the opportunity to experience the literal fusion of both body and soul on such a tangible level. In "Spiritual Kneading Through the Jewish Months", Dahlia Abraham-Klein manages to do just that. She builds the sacred through the Challah baking process, taking you on a year-long journey you wish will never end. Every stop along the way is infused with a measure of heaven, a dash of love, and the enormous blessings that flow freely as the Jewish woman, whether alone in her home, or accompanied by others, caresses and weaves the physical dough into something far more meaningful than an ordinary loaf of bread... A beautiful book that rightfully belongs in the Cookbooks, Judaism & Judaica, Religion & Inspiration, and Self Help & Self Improvement sections all at once... A treasure you will want to share with everyone you know."
"For a wonderfully inspiring, deeply learned, and delicious experience, read this book! With great spiritual delicacy, Dahlia Abraham-Klein is restoring a beloved but neglected Jewish mitzvah that you will love."
