Challah

What it is

Challah is a loaf of Jewish bread, nearly always plaited, that belongs to the table rather than to the kitchen alone. Fine white flour, eggs, water, yeast, sugar, oil and salt go into the usual Ashkenazi dough, and the bread holds neither meat nor dairy, so it can sit beside any dish at a kosher meal. A version without eggs, called water challah, has a chewier crumb and suits vegan diets. Bakers today may use whole wheat, oat or spelt flour, or sweeten the dough with honey or molasses in place of sugar. Loaves and small rolls are both made.

Name and origins

The Hebrew word challah appears in the Bible as a term for a loaf or a cake, and it grows from a root meaning pierced. Ludwig Köhler pictured it as a bread with a hole through the middle, hung over a post. In rabbinic writing the word moved to the lump of dough set aside for the priests, then by extension to the whole loaf. How the plait arrived is not settled. A Benedictine treatise from about 1400, by Jan of Holešov, describes a decorated plaited white loaf, and food writers trace the braid to fifteenth-century Austria, Moravia and southern Germany. A scholar of medieval Sephardic cooking suggests the braid may come from a leavened, braided bread recorded in an Arabic recipe collection from Spain, though that loaf was fried and flavoured with saffron.

Shapes and seasons

Round loaves are the mark of Rosh Hashanah, the Jewish new year, where the circle stands for the turning of the year. Raisins often go into the dough and the crust may be glazed with honey. In Morocco, Tunisia and Algeria many Jewish bakers keep the round turban shape all year, and some households carry the round loaf on through Sukkot. On the Sabbath before Rosh Chodesh Iyar, some Ashkenazi families bake a key challah, pressing a key into the top or baking one inside, as a sign of good livelihood. Local shapes include a hand in Lithuania and a fish or a hand in Tunisia. Very large loaves appear at weddings and circumcision meals, without ritual.

Salt and covenant

Salt belongs to every challah meal. The loaf may be dipped in it, dusted with it, or simply have a dish of it on the table. The Torah asks that offerings in the Temple be made with salt, and after the Temple's destruction the rabbis taught that a table set for a meal stands in for the altar. So a blessing over food is said with salt within reach. Salt keeps and does not rot, and in the Torah it stands for the lasting covenant between God and Israel. To the rabbis a meal without salt was not a meal at all.

Today and change

Jewish communities carry many names for the same loaf. Yiddish speakers have called it khale, berkhes, kitke, koylatch or shtritsl, and kitke is still heard in South Africa. Polish speakers say chałka, Ukrainians kolach, and in Belarus and Russia the word is khala. These Slavic names come from a root meaning circle or wheel, a nod to the round loaf. Similar braided breads are eaten far beyond Jewish kitchens, among them brioche, kalach, kozunak, panettone, pulla, tsoureki and vánočka. In Israel, Shabbat breads follow Persian, Iraqi, Moroccan, Russian, Polish and Yemeni homes, with seeds chosen by local custom.

How Challah is kept

At the evening and daytime meals of Shabbat and the festivals, two whole loaves wait on the table under a cloth cover. Because bread would normally be blessed before wine, the cover lets the blessing over wine come first. Everyone at the table washes their hands, and by custom no one talks until the bread is eaten. The cover is lifted and the two loaves are raised together. The head of the household says the blessing for bread. One loaf or both are cut or torn, dipped or sprinkled with salt, and passed to each person.

When and where

Challah is baked for every Shabbat, from Friday night through Saturday, and for the major festivals apart from Passover and Yom Kippur. Two loaves appear at each Sabbath and holiday meal. Round loaves belong to Rosh Hashanah and may continue through Sukkot, and a key-shaped loaf marks the Sabbath before Rosh Chodesh Iyar.

Challah is kept wherever Jewish communities live. Its braided form took hold among Ashkenazi Jews in central and eastern Europe, and Yiddish names for it travelled with them. In Israel, Shabbat breads follow the many communities settled there. In the Maghreb, round loaves are baked all year. In South Africa the name kitke survives.

What Challah means

Two loaves recall the manna that fed the Israelites in the desert: a double portion fell before the Sabbath, since none came on the holy day itself. Six strands per loaf give twelve in all, a nod to the twelve loaves of showbread in the Temple, and some bakers make a twelve-strand loaf known as the Twelve Tribes challah. A plaited loaf has been read as the hair of the Sabbath bride. The round new-year loaf speaks of a year coming full circle, and honey of a sweet one.

On the table

Flavours: Saffron Sesame

Days Challah is marked

Questions people ask about Challah

See also

SimitA sesame-encrusted ring bread sold by street vendors across Turkey and the former Ottoman lands.BanitsaA layered Bulgarian cheese pastry baked for morning meals and holiday fortunesHanukkahAn eight-day Jewish festival marking the rededication of the Second Temple in Jerusalem and the miracle of a single day'Christmas EveThe evening before Christmas, marked by church services, family meals, and gift preparations across Christian cultures.

Good reading and sources

• Challah on WikipediaEncyclopedia
• More photos on Wikimedia CommonsPhotos and video
• Wikidata recordOpen data

It may contain mistakes. Traditions differ from one family, village and community to the next, and the people who keep them know them best. If something is wrong, tell us. Last refreshed 2026-10-05.