Double your Mitzvot, Double your fun by learning the art of baking challah and constructing a torah at Bethlehem Hebrew Congregation on Friday afternoon, July 19th in the BHC Community room at 39 Strawberry Hill Street in Bethlehem New Hampshire!

BHC welcomes back Rabbis Linda Motzkin and Jonathan Rubenstein founders of the “Bread and Torah Project”, who offer interactive educational programs based on their scribal arts and bakery activities.

Rabbi Motzkin is trained as a soferet—a scribe.. She is currently writing a Torah scroll and leading the Community Torah Project, a long-term undertaking designed to involve a wide range of participants in various steps in the hands-on process of making a Torah scroll, from the processing of deerskins into parchment panels to the proofreading of the completed text.

Since 2004 Rabbi Rubenstein has been teaching bread making and operating a non-profit, charitable bakery, Slice of Heaven Breads, out of the Temple Sinai kitchen. A volunteer program, Slice of Heaven Breads produced and sold a variety of breads and baked goods, with proceeds supporting hunger relief programs and other charitable causes. The bakery offered ongoing bread baking lessons, provided training and employment to individuals with disabilities, and donated and distributed challah weekly to nursing home residents, hospital patients, and the needy.

This is a “hands-on” activity. All participants will be able to prepare the challah dough with Rabbi Rubenstein. While the dough is set aside to rise, Rabbi Motzkin will demonstrate sewing together the parchments of the torah which she is building with everyone’s help!

Make a weekend of it! Drive up through the beautiful White Mountains to Bethlehem, participate in making your own Challah, help to sew together a torah and then stay for an evening Kabbalat shabbat led by our Bread & Torah Rabbis! Enjoy a kiddush with your freshly baked challah and social hour with fellow congregants and friends at BHC. On a clear evening the sunset over the Presidential Range can be seen in all of its grandeur from the corner of Strawberry Hill and Main Street. This program is fully supported by BHC and JFNH and is free for all members and friends. For more information check our website at www.bethlehemsynagogue.org.