It has become a routine. Each Thursday my neighbour calls to ask whether I’ll be baking challa come Friday. I usually answer in the affirmative and in return get a name of a sick person to pray for while separating challa. The whole project of organizing 40 women each week is spearheaded by an amazing lady, who literally came back from the dead after giving birth to her last child.
Ever since I began baking challa in earnest a couple of years ago, it has become a cherished spiritual experience. And while at it, I take the time to say a short prayer for all the people I know could use a break in life.
This got me thinking. With so many potential challa backers on Twitter, wouldn’t it be a great medium to match them with those in need of a prayer? I know that some people are averse to segulot, but the mitzvah of challa, like any other mitzvah, creates a merit, which we could share with others by praying for them.
So, if this is up your alley, here is the deal:
- The hashtag for this scheme is #twitchalla
- To post a name for a prayer, tweet the name and problem with #twitchalla (for example: Itzhak ben Sara – refua shlema – #twitchalla). Note that most people bake their challot on Thursdays or Fridays, so time your messages accordingly.
- If you bake challot and would like to help out, use the search function to find tweets with this hashtag and include a prayer for as many people as you can when separating challa.
- If you don’t tweet, feel free to post the names as a comment to this post.
- Pass along.
As always, I welcome suggestions and comments.
Happy baking.
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[...] This post was mentioned on Twitter by Leah Aharoni, Leah Aharoni. Leah Aharoni said: Twitter Challa – for challa bakers and people in need – http://ow.ly/K20S #shabbat #jewish [...]
i don;t use twitter. any way for me to find names as you say without it?
I’ll try to post Twitter requests here. Others are welcome to include requests in their comments on this page.
[...] Leah has a great way to use Twitter for mitzvot in Twitter Challa! [...]
What a cool idea! Is it hard to learn how to make challah?
What format is the prayer?
Hi Vicki,
Thanks for reading. It’s not too hard, especially if you have a good food processor/mixer that does the kneading for you. There is a recipe for challa in my recipe section, and there are lots of other recipes online. I’ll try to put together a post on some challa-baking basics.
Thank you so much for reading.
When praying for a person it is important to mention the person’s Hebrew name and that of his/her mother (for example Yaakov ben Rivka). If the mother’s name is not known it is possible to substitute Sarah (Yaakov ben Sarah) because all Jews are the descendants of this matriarch.
Also, you should include the person in the general context of other people needing the same thing (“among other sick people of Israel” is the accepted wording). This way the prayer does not single out just one person when it can benefit many others.
Something along the lines of “Hashem, please send speedy recovery to (person’s Hebrew name) son/daughter of (mother’s Hebrew name) among the other sick people (or whatever the problem) of Israel” is an accepted form.