840 Vernon Blog

During the quarantine, I’m noticing that many people are baking challah, which elicits lessons of patience and time. As we wait for the yeast to proof, the dough to rise, and the loaves to transform, we’re reminded to slow down and smell the bread baking. And the dough teaches us some great life lessons: Overwork it — and you end up with a tough loaf. Don’t give it a long enough rise time — and it’s dense and flat.

We’re all the dough in this story, of course. Our lives are better when we take time to see who we are and who we want to be. These days that feel so hard give us the opportunity to cultivate patience and to seek blessings that, like challah, rise from within.

Rabbi Phyllis Sommer