I love to bake! So, this week’s Torah reading immediately interests me. Bread baking is front and center. We have the Mitzvah of SHTEI HALECHEM on Shavuot (Vayikra 23:18, and the only communal offering which was CHAMETZ). Then we have, one chapter later, the Mitzvah of LECHEM HAPANIM. These were 12 loaves of bread, which were Kasher L’Pesach, and were placed every week on the 12 shelved table in the outer room of the Mishkan, and were eaten by the Cohanim every Shabbat.

My favorite baking is CHALOT for Shabbat. It really adds to my ONEG SHABBAT (enjoyment) to consume my own CHALOT at our Shabbat meals. Generally, I have two CHALOT, which is pretty normal. This custom is based on the double portion of MAN which fell every Friday during the 40 year trek through the desert. But once in a while I’m baking for a large crowd, and I make a pull apart Challah (also called ‘tear and share’), which will always have 12 sections to it. Why 12?

There is a mystical custom in the writings of the ARI HaKodesh which demands that Jews have 12 Chalot at Shabbat meals, because we should recreate the 12 loaves of the Lechem HaPanim from the Beit HaMikdash. I’ve only been at a couple of Shabbat meals where this custom was observed, but I incorporate it into my pull apart Challah, and it’s from this week’s Parsha.

Many commentaries are curious about why the........

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