Luke Palmisano/THE POST OU senior Jodi Jacobson, left, and freshman Lee Shai braid Challah dough that will be used in Jewish services on Friday nights. Members of Hillel get together once or twice a quarter to make the Challah.

Spoons clanked against metal bowls as laughter and chatter chimed from inside the kitchen of Hillel. Six women huddled around a countertop to share their heritage in the fellowship of mixing, kneading and baking 10 loaves of Challah.

A braided honey egg bread, Challah easily can be created in a variety of forms.

"Challah is a bread with a personality," said Jodi Jacobson, senior dietetics major, who led the Challah Brigade.

It is a very dense, cakey bread that can be baked with raisins or chocolate chips inside and is traditionally topped with sesame seeds or poppy seeds. It is covered with an egg wash that turns it a deep golden brown, Jacobson said.

Hillel bakes 10 loaves of Challah twice a quarter for their Sabbath services. The Sabbath is the holy time starting from sundown on Friday to sundown on Saturday. Two loaves of Challah are traditionally baked to eat during this time, Rabbi Elena Stein said.

Participants of Friday night services at Hillel also take part in the celebration. At the end of services, the participants gather in a circle around a loaf of Challah in prayer. They all put their hands on the Challah and at the end of the prayer they all tear off a piece, Jacobson said.

"The Sabbath is supposed to be a time of peace; having a knife on the table is a symbol of violence," Stein said. "That is the reason Challah is torn instead of cut."

There are other traditions that accompany the bread.

"The way I grew up, we would have Sabbath dinner where we would either make or buy Challah," Jacobson said. "During the Sabbath dinner (we said) a prayer over it, cut it and put salt on it."

It is ceremonial to put salt on the Challah because when God made the Earth, the sea felt left out . To rectify this, God said he would honor the waters he created for people by pouring salt on the Challah in appreciation, Jacobson said.

Another tradition comes with the actual baking of the Challah. When it is in the oven in dough form, the woman of the house tears off a piece and burns it in the oven as a sacrifice, Stein said.

For many of the students, the Challah Brigade offered them their first experience in baking this bread.

"When you come to school it's up to you to carry Judaism on," said Lei Shai, a freshman early education major. "You kind of lose being Jewish if you don't tie it to something. I come because it's nice to meet Jewish people."

Besides baking for a social activity, Jacobson participates in the brigade to carry on tradition.

"It makes me feel good that my great-grandma baked Challah and I do too. It's a historical thing we're doing in the present that is part of our culture," Jacobson said.