Today is the final day of the Jewish month of Tishrei. For some of my readers, the mere mention of Tishrei will be enough to explain why I haven’t posted since late September. It is a holy, solemn month, and naturally it gets in the way of absolutely everything, doubly so if you happen to be a member of the clergy. It starts off with Rosh Hashana, followed by Yom Kippur (collectively called in English the High Holidays, or in Hebrew the yamim nora’im), and then continues with the week-long harvest festival of Sukkot, which is capped off with the holiday of Shemini Atzeret. (I recently heard a rabbi friend of mine explain it to a Christian thus: Imagine how it would feel if there were only seven days between Christmas and Easter, and if Easter were somehow followed by another Holy Week.)
I wasn’t even able to bake challot for Ha’azinu or Vezot Haberakha. No time, not my home kitchen, too much going on. I did get a chance to bake for Bereshit last week, but I didn’t have a chance to photograph anything. The theme was tohu vavohu (usually translated “without form and void”; I like Everett Fox’s “wild and waste”) and yehi or (“let there be light”). Read the rest of this entry »
