My toddler thinks the process is simple. You choose which items you want on a computer screen, and naturally, two hours later a delivery man shows up with your grocery items. He fails to grasp that there is a whole chain of events that transpires in order for that to happen!

A woman combines ingredients in a bowl, and lovingly kneads perfectly elastic-but-not-too-sticky dough. Before she shapes it into loaves, she removes a piece of the dough, called challah. In the times of the Temple, it was given to a kohen, a priest, and today that piece is put aside and burned.

By removing that piece of dough, a Jewish woman is recognizing and acknowledging that there is a greater force allowing bread to bake, a force beyond “nature.” Beyond the ingredients and temperature that produce the bread, there is the blessing from G‑d that energizes the baking process.

Thoughtstream: Today, I will recognize the Source of all blessing.

(Adapted from El N’shei u’Bnot Yisroel, pg. 257.)