Part 1 - While the challah is rising

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I’ve always thought that would make a good title for a poem but I never got past the title and not every good title pans out as a poem. (Feel free to try it yourself if you like.)

But indeed, the challah is rising – two weeks after Pesach ended, I was finally able to get my hands on some flour. Apparently there is something called stress baking going on, and people are hoarding flour – really friends, remember to share.  I’ve been subsisting on matzah but by the end I was prowling the kitchen unsatisfied, desperately “looking for something.” Arghh!

I’ve been baking challah my entire adult life, I’ve taught many others how, from the earliest days in Hillel at U of I to the 19 years at Princeton – one early Princeton grad now texts me photos of her twin grandchildren “helping her” to bake challah – nothing sweeter!

But while the challah is rising actually provides me with a good time to remember the week as Shabbos approaches. Meaningful work with rabbinic clients and students – I feel privileged to help; delivered material to the local mask-makers having admitted to myself my sewing by hand was inefficient; Zooms and Skypes with family and friends, celebrating at a Zoom birthday party, and on Yom HaShoah, watching a gripping docudrama telling the story of the Holocaust rescuer Aristides de Sousa Mendes who saved thousands of lives in the spring of 1940, including that of playwright and dear friend Jean- Claude van Itallie.

The sweet high note of the week was discovering a robin nesting at the corner of our porch roof. So discrete you could easily miss it, but some sharp-eyed neighbors have also noticed this small miracle. I discretely check on the bird several times a day, giving thanks for this gift

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What has been the routine of this week for you? What has been difficult, maddening, frustrating?

Remember, relax, and let go of the petty, the annoyances. Look at them from a bird’s eye view and let them drift away.

What special moments stand out?

Who were you able to help this week? How did you help, and how were you able to find energy and awareness to help?

Take some time now before Shabbos to notice, recall and write about small miracles.

Good Shabbos!