January 15th was Shabbat Funday

Shabbat was the theme of our lesson this week, we took a closer look at everything and more that was in our Shabbat box.

We lit the candles, practised the kiddush, washed hands and blessed the warm challah before eating it, then it was time to hit the kitchen, roll up our sleeves and learn to make and braid our very own challah to take home. 

We read the story of creation, how God separated light from darkness on the first day, then on the second day made the heaven up above so the sun, moon, and stars had a place to live. Then on the third day, he made all things that grow from seeds and that gives us fruits and vegetables to eat, (all our favourite ones and even those we don't like so much).  On the fourth day God made the sun, moon, and stars to light up the sky by day and night.  On the fifth day he made the fish to swim in the waters and the birds to fly in the air, on the sixth day he made the animals big and small. He also made Adam and Eve the first people to live on the earth. They all live together and took care of one another.
On the seventh day, after all this work, God stopped making things, he took time to give a blessing for the seventh day.  A blessing (in hebrew we say a bracha) which is a way of giving thanks for something wonderful.  This day that God blessed is called the Shabbat.  It is a day that we copy God and we too rest.  Shabbat a day of rest...

Once our story was done and learnt the brachot, we took turns to say something wonderful about the person sitting next to us, our way of blessing everyone...

Then while our challah was in the oven we learnt about havdallah.  We lit our special candle, smelled the spices, and then extinguished the flame in the juice.

Before leaving we wished our friends 'shavuah tov'...

Photos :

Our host lighting the candles



And thanks to JD and his talent we enjoyed a delicious goûter...



Challah recipe

Where it may be eaten with meat dishes, milk and butter are ommitted and oil or margarine and water used.


Yeast : fresh yeast bought at your local boulangére or instant yeast bought at local supermarket. 25g fresh = 1 sachet (15ml) instant.  The fresh yeast must be a pale grey colour. If you mix it with a little sugar, it becomes liquid and can then be added to the other ingredients.

1 packet instant yeast or 25g fresh yeast
45ml (3tbs) sugar
5 x 250ml flour
15ml (1 Tbs) salt
3 eggs, lighly beaten
60g (1/4 cup) soft butter, margarine or oil
310ml (1 and a 1/4 cup) warm water or milk (approx)
Sift all dry ingredients together into a mixing bowl. Make a well and Add yeast according to your type. Then add lightly beaten eggs and milk, mix together with wooden spoon. Then add softened butter. Start mixing with fingers.
Turn it out onto a well-floured surface and knead until the dough is smooth and elastic (This takes max. 10 minutes). Do not overwork dough as it may avoid dough rising.

Place the dough in a large bowl (at least 3 times bigger than dough) lightly oil sides of bowl to avoid it sticking, cover with a warm damp cloth or cling wrap and leave in a warm place to rise to double its size.
After the dough has risen, return it to the floured surface; divide into two for loaves. *
Divide each half into 3 and roll each piece into a long sausage.
Plait crossing the braid over and not under. Do not braid too tight.  Always bring the outside braid to the centre.

**Cover and leave to rise till double its size

Brush with yellow of egg and sprinkle poppy or sesame seeds or just plain.

Bake at 180°C for about 25-30 minutes or until golden.

*/**If you intend freezing stop at this step or just after braiding.


Braiding : divide into three long sausages. Pinch the tops together and fold under. Cross the right over the centre and then left over the centre through till end of bread. Pinch bottoms together and fold under. Ensure that the tops and bottoms are well pinched together and folded under to avoid it separating during baking...

A special introduction to hanukah

A Sunday Funday with a difference...

It was a fairly warm but wet Sunday morning, Dec 4th to be exact, when the Sunday Funday group met at 10am in front of the gates of the Musee d'Arts et d'Histoire du Judaism - MAHJ- in the heart of the Marais, Paris, for a special visit to discover the story and symbols of hanukkah.

At first the children were impressed by the room and a bit shy with Katia our guide, but she was warm and welcoming and had surprises and stories for all of us to enjoy.

We started out on the discovery of the temple, the menorah, the oil and finally a hanukiah !

Katia introduced us to her friend the shamash (a finger puppet) his long white body and shiny, sparkly yellow head. Shamash was in fact a candle, a very special candle who showed us around the museum and took us on a journey to Russia.

We looked around the museum to see how many menorahs (a seven branch candelabrum) and how many hanukiot (8 or 9 branch candelabrum) we could find. We even discovered a special room where there were only hanukiot of different sizes, different shapes and with different designs, but nearly all of them had a lion, and they all had 8 branches with a special place where our friend shamash would sit.
Katia had a special box with different objects in them a jar, a cookie shape, a lion and we looked at all the hanukiot in the room and found a hanukiah with a jar as a shamash, a cookie shape and even a lion.
Shamash was eager for Katia to tell us the story of his friend Meir and his magic violin, the journey to Russia was great and we enjoyed the story of Meir and really liked his violin.

When we returned to our room, we all made a special shamash to take home which we will use to light up the candles each night of hannukah.

At the end we packed our shamash in the special envelope, then we got to spin the dreidel (a special top) and even sang and danced to the dreidel song...Nes Gadol Haya Sham - A great miracle happened there !

Chag Sameach !




Above : kids meet Shamash


Below : spinning the dreidel to take a journey with Shamash to Russia