Aaron`s Blossoming Staff Challah!

And behold, Aaron`s staff, from the house of Levi, had sprouted, blossomed, and produced almonds.

---Numbers 17:8

Aaron.

This week`s Parsha, Parsha Korach, in the book of Numbers, has me thinking about Aaron.
And his staff that flowers with almond blossoms!

As some of you who have been reading my blog know, sometimes I make a challah that expresses something from the weekly Torah Reading.  (the link to the weekly readings is on the sidebar, or you can find it HERE!)  For this week`s Shabbat I wanted to express something about Aaron and his flowering rod.

I started with some fresh almonds, and let what was to happen blossom from there...

Next, to roll a long staff, divided into three strands...

Because the rod of Aaron sprouted Almond Blossoms, it is said that it may have been made from the wood from an Almond tree.  So I wanted there to be almonds inside the `staff`.   Homemade almond paste rolled inside the strands was just the thing!

Once the strands were rolled, the flowers had to `sprout` from the staff, so you see what happens here, is that the flowers come from the `rolled` ends of the staff...

Now for the braid...

 here you can see the the strands have `expanded` ! as  the almond paste filling is rolled into the strands

 BUT look what happened, it got so long that it would be too long for the baking sheet.
So another sweet almond flower bloomed from the end!

 Now there were three flowers!

 And flowers made of almond slivers to decorate the challah!

On the Shabbat table, it truly Blossomed!!

 

Shabbat Shalom!