For the first time in more than a year, the Den Collective was able to hold its “Knead 2 Know: Challah Bake + Learn” baking and Torah study in person.
“It was so exciting to come together,” said Rabbi Aderet Drucker, who leads the organization that provides opportunities for people who are not finding their way into existing Jewish institutions.
Drucker began the monthly “Knead 2 Know” event in 2018 as a way for people to get together, study Torah and learn to bake challah.
Last summer, due to the pandemic, 40 people in the Washington area received prepared dough and joined Drucker via Zoom to braid and bake.
But on Aug. 26, 25 people were able to meet together outdoors at Congregation Beth El of Montgomery County, in Bethesda, to braid round challot.
“While the challot were baking, I passed out source sheets and we studied a section from the Rosh Hashanah liturgy — Malkhuyot — poring over texts and unpacking the liturgy’s approach to God as sovereign, and how we can draw out additional concepts of agency, autonomy and our collective oneness as we move through this pandemic and enter a new year together,” Drucker said.
