Shabbat part 8

I have found that the concept of the Shabbat meals is one of the hardest for people to understand. Yes, they are celebratory. Yes, they are commemorative. Yes, they are an opportunity for the family to sit together and reconnect. But the Shabbat meals are all of these, but also much more than all of these. They are themselves a mitzvah. Even the kiddush, a Biblical command unto itself, cannot be recited except where there is a meal. (The Ashkenazi custom of reciting kiddush in the synagogue Friday night, dates back to a time when wayfarers lodged in the synagogue, and needed to hear kiddush before partaking of a meal.) Like the three prayers , the Shabbat meals have different themes and moods. As I have noted, Friday night is the Feminine. The mood is soft and quiet; filled with anticipation. Before partaking of the meal, all participants wash their hands (some do this before kiddush). This is done at every meal featuring bread, but is of special significance on Shabbat. Bread is also a feminine symbol. "The bread that he eats"(in the story of Joseph) is a euphemism in the Torah for one's wife. Bread is the only actual requirement for fulfilling the obligation of the Shabbat meals. We are required to have two whole loaves of wheat bread.  Spelt os ok, with barley bread usable in a pinch.This represents the "remember and observe" discussed previously. But it also represents the Manna that sustained the Israelites in the wilderness. Manna fell daily from Heaven, except on Shabbat. But a double portion came down on Friday. The bread is placed between the table cloth and a decorative "Hallah (loaf) cover". This represents the two layers of dew that encased the Manna. (Other "reasons" came in during the seventeenth century, but the dew element is the real one.) Any bread may be used, but different communities treasure various forms of bread. Yemenites take a loose batter, and pour it into a frying pan. This forms a unique bread that is more like a pancake. Most Middle Eastern Jews use various types of flatbread. I was privileged to witness the dying Moroccan art of baking "frenna". When we lived in the Negev during our last three years in Israel, we lived in a community of southern Moroccans. Each woman had an igloo-shaped oven in her yard, with a stone floor. Pre-dawn on Friday mornings, they would prepare a batter, as they fired up the oven. They would pour the batter onto the stones, making a bread that resembled the lunar surface. IT WAS DELICIOUS! Store-bought facsimiles were never the same. The women would allow Sima to bake with them, but did not allow her to touch the oven. A woman would guard her frenna oven as she would her husband! Bucharian Jews have a much crunchier type of flatbread, with beautiful patterns in it. Ashkenazi Jews have the lovely braided Hallot. Despite legends to the contrary, the origin of the Hallah is from pre-Christian Germany, and had pagan religious significance. However, by the time the Jews reached Germany at the time of Charlemagne (c. 800), its pagan origins had been forgotten. It is, to this day, a form of bread used by non-Jews for festive occasions in many parts of Europe. For most Ashkenazim, Shabbat would not be Shabbat without the braided Hallah. Some communities have sweet Hallah (although chocolate-filled is a modern innovation), while others prefer "Water Hallah", an unsweetened bread, for fear that a sweet hallah would actually be considered "cake" rather than bread. Whatever type of bread is used, two loaves await the head of the household to bless. Kabbalistically oriented Jews usually have either twelve loaves, representing the "Show Bread" (lehem hapanim) offered in the Temple every Shabbat, or four loaves, representing the Divine name (I do twelve, and meditate on the Name over four of the loaves). After the "hamotzi" blessing is said, one of the breads is cut (some communities have the custom of tearing, rather than cutting). The piece is then dipped in salt. The simple reason for this dipping is twofold; it was believed that salt would detoxify any impurities in the bread, and also to remember that salt was essential to be put on sacrificial meat. Our table, especially on Shabbat, represents an altar, with the bread the sacrifice. For this reason, German Jews omit the Friday night dipping, as no sacrificial meat was offered on the altar at that time. For Kabbalists, however, there is another dimension to the salting ritual. Bread, as noted, is feminine. The Torah refers to salt as "an eternal covenant". "Covenant is "brit", which also means circumcision. Salt is the ultimate Masculine symbol. More next time.