Shabbos Project challah bake draws 1,200 in 5 Towns

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Bringing 1,200 women together in one place to bake challah is astonishing. But getting 1,200 women to become silent while reveling in the unity and ruach of a unique Shabbos event — that is a miracle.

Yet that is exactly what happened as the MC of The Great Challah Bake, last Thursday at The Sands Atlantic Beach, called for the attendees to pause and reflect on what she deemed the holiest and most special point of the evening.

“Separating the challah is the moment we have been waiting for, everything has been a buildup to this,” said Judy Rubin, who led the bakers with instructions and the spiritual meanings associated with each step. “If you get a little emotional, it’s fine. The gates of tears are never closed” when we pray to G-d, she said, and suggested that the group pray as one for themselves, their families, loved ones who are ill, and the State of Israel.

After the bracha for taking challah was recited in both English and Hebrew by Malky Feldman, a big cheer went up, and the ladies and girls joined hands and started dancing around their tables.

The Great Challah Bake was the kickoff event of The Shabbos Project, a worldwide effort to get Jews to celebrate Shabbos together over Parshat Noach weekend, Oct. 24-25. Initiated in South Africa last year, The Shabbos Project was embraced by Jewish communities in 340 cities and 11 times zones around the globe last weekend. Events in the Five Towns area were spearheaded by Rabbi Ya’akov Trump, assistant rabbi of Young Israel of Lawrence-Cedarhurst.

The Challah Bake’s planning, coordination and success was managed by co-chairs Adina Fischlewitz and Sima Gefen, whose 210 female volunteers, half of whom were local high school students, set up each participant’s challah-making station at the Sands, measured out the ingredients for each participant, and signed up attendees.

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