Mtzlal Redie Wossihun still remembers her mother getting ready to bake the misowat (or masawayt), bread of Mitzvot for the Jewish New Year. “She would go to the river to bathe, then she’d put on new clean clothes before starting to bake the bread which she’d later give to the Kessim [Ethiopian Rabbis].” The name of the bread hints at the special importance it played during the holiday season – it comes from the word mitzvah, meaning commandments or good deeds.
Rosh Hashanah, the New Year holiday, is known by Ethiopian Jews as Brenha Serkan, the rising of light. Back in Ethiopia, the Kessim would go around the village to remind the people of the coming holiday. In the morning, the community would gather at the synagogue for a long prayer, accompanied by the beats of drums and cymbals. At the end of the prayer, the Kessim blessed the Misowat and the tella, an Ethiopian grain beer, before handing the bread to the crowd.
Misowat, sometimes called beraka or bracha, as in blessing in Hebrew, is a heavy round bread, made with either a sourdough starter or with yeast. In some regions it is prepared with honey and milk. Wossihun, who moved to Israel in 1980 from Tigray, the northern region of Ethiopia, seasons her misowat with fenugreek. She now runs a gem of a restaurant called Mtzlal in the old city of Be’er Sheva in southern Israel, where she serves traditional food from her homeland.
Another Rosh Hashanah specialty from Tigray is hanza, a round flatbread similar injera that is baked especially for the holiday. It is made from corn flour and then slathered with niter kibe, the Ethiopian spiced clarified butter, layering two together rounds of dough like a sandwich.
Round-shaped breads, whether the Ethipian dabo, Ashkenazi challah, Sephardi bolo or Yemeni sabaya, are served in Jewish homes around the world on Rosh Hashanah. Rabbi Moshe Sofer, A nineteenth century European rabbi and author known as Chatam Sofer, wrote that the round challah, unlike the braided one, has no beginning or end. Just like the blessing we want God to give us on the New Year: a blessing with no end, so does the challah go around, never reaching its end.
Another explanation in Jewish tradition for eating round breads in Rosh Hashanah sees symbolism in its circular shape that reminds us of the cycle of life, as we pray for long life, just before one’s fate is sealed for the new year by Yom Kippur.
Some decorate the round challah with a circle of leaves or with a ring of dough to resemble a crown, reminding Jews on Rosh Hashanah that God is the king. And since the round shape can easily be adapted to fit any symbolic idea, the Reform Movement says that “the round challah reminds us that the opportunity for teshuvah, return, is never-ending.”
Lithuanian hasidic communities decorate their challahs with a hand or two resembling the hands of the Cohanim, the priests, as they pray for the people. Other Ashkenazi hasidic communities keep the tradition of decorating challahs with ladders or birds, as a way of reaching the heavens. The hand, ladder and birds challahs are sometimes baked for Yom Kippur instead of Rosh Hashanah.
The crown shaped challahs became an Instagram-worthy craze by Israeli bloggers in recent years, baking flower shaped bread crowns out of challah dough, sometimes centered around a small ceramic dish of honey.
To make the new year a sweet one, raisins are often mixed into the dough. According to Claudia Roden, German Jews started baking challah-type breads with raisins around 1,400, an idea later adopted by Ashkenazi bakers for Rosh Hashanah and sukkot.
To add even more of a sweet touch, the challah is often dipped in sugar or honey, instead of salt, after Hamotzi, the blessing of the bread.
Rosh Hashanah is especially full of symbolic foods, many of them featured in the Sephardi Rosh Hashanah Seder. One common theme is foods symbolizing bounty, fruitfulness and fertility. That’s why you’ll find challahs sprinkled with sesame seeds or poppy seeds during Shabbat and the High Holidays.
Bolo, or bulu, which comes from the Spanish word for ball, is a Sephardi sweetened bread filled with raisins and anise seed for Rosh Hashanah and the High Holidays. The recipe moved with Sephardi Jews after the expulsion from Spain in 1492 and can now be found in North Africa and in Europe, where Sephardi Jews relocated after the expulsion. in Libya the bolo is prepared with yeast, while in Tunisia it is made with baking powder and with slivered almonds. In Italy it is sometimes baked in a shape of a ring and flavored with raisins and candied citrus peel without the anise seed. These cakes are served during Sukkot as well.
For Yemeni Jews, the traditional Rosh Hashanah challah is known as sabaya. Known among Muslim Yemeni as Bint el Sahn, daughter of the plate, sabaya is made of thinly stretched dough layered with samna, Yemeni clarified butter. “I can still remember the first time a tasted it,” recalled Leah Hadad, an Israeli of Yemeni descent who moved to Washington DC 35 years ago. It was by her aunt who baked it in the tabon (a traditional clay oven.) Hadad, a lawyer and owner of Voilà! Hallah, all natural challah mix company, researched bread making traditions while developing her company. She said that when the sabaya was ready to come out of the tabun, it was drizzled with honey, to add that extra sweetness needed for a sweet new year.
On Rosh Hashanah morning the sabaya was served with coffee, before Jews went to the synagogue for the holiday service.
A new year that starts so sweet, can’t be that bad.