Ziv Hatorah’s First Annual Challah Bake
On November 5, 2025, Ziv Hatorah hosted its First Annual Challah Bake, welcoming one hundred twenty women from across the community, each bringing her own story, tradition, and brachot (blessings) to knead, braid, and bless dough for Shabbat.
The evening opened with inspirational words from the Menahel of Ziv Hatorah, Rabbi Yaakov Dwek. He shared the “secret” to making the best challah in the world. The secret lies in your mindset and how well prepared you are. By carefully blending the ingredients with the right kavanah (spiritual intention), it infuses the dough with hope for one’s family and creates space for personal tefillot (prayers) during each step. The ladies in attendance leaned in to catch every tip on how to anchor every motion in baking the challah to a personal and deeper meaning.
There was also a hands-on, inspiring highlight from Jackie Bitton on Dibbur (the sacred power of speech). Our words, she taught, shape reality. Just as dough rises with what we feed it, our lives and homes grow with the words we choose. When we speak with care and kavod (honor), we nourish the people around us. When we fill our challah with tefillah (prayer) and gratitude, we elevate a simple recipe into a vessel for blessing.
Midway through the program, Ziv Hatorah introduced its Chai for Life initiative, an invitation to become part of the school’s steady backbone with a monthly gift of eighteen dollars. The Chai for Life campaign is simple and powerful, small and consistent donations that truly make a difference for a small school doing big work. Each commitment helps ensure that students, especially those who need a more supportive setting, receive the individualized attention, warmth, and encouragement that turn potential into progress.
By evening’s end, the tables were lined with bowls filled with dough, each marked by a personal tefillah (prayer) and a shared intention to bring more light to the home and more strength to the school. The ladies left with dough to bake, tips to perfect their next batch, and a renewed sense of togetherness. Proof that when a community gathers around mitzvoth, everyone rises. With deep gratitude, we thank Margo Chalouh for setting up the Challah Bake and Rabbi Kishik for securing our donors. We are especially grateful to our Event Sponsor, FC Advance, dedicated Leilui Nishmat (for the elevation of the soul of) Yitzchak ben Loris, and for the refuah shelema (complete healing) of Lulu bat Miriam, and Habib ben Loris, to our Hafrashat Challah (the mitzvah of separating challah) sponsor, RHY, and to RCN for sponsoring the refreshments in honor of Rabbi Kishik.
