Sunday, February 10, 2019

Resurrecting the Showbread?

VINTAGE BAKING: SHOWING THE WORLD THE SHOWBREAD. Baker Les Saidel was entranced by the Biblical showbread – the 12 loaves of unleavened bread in the Tabernacle and later in the Holy Temple (ALAN ROSENBAUM, Jerusalem Post).
Saidel consulted extensively with Prof. Amar in all of his research and has been offering a “Breads of the Beit Hamikdash” workshop since last summer. The workshop offers participants the opportunity to mix, shape, smell, bake and eat some of the breads used in the Temple service, including the types of breads that were offered as part of the korban todah (thanksgiving offering), the sh’tei halechem (two breads) of the Shavuot offering, and, of course, the lehem hapanim. He reports that thousands of participants – Jewish and non-Jewish – from around the world have attended.

“I’m going to dedicate the rest of my life to researching the lehem hapanim, teaching the people about the service in the Temple and trying to awaken the people into rebuilding the third Temple the right way,” says Saidel. “You have to do it with love and peace – not by provoking and creating strife, but by creating unity and love.”
I doubt that it is possible to reconstruct the recipe for the Showbread with any confidence. But Mr. Saidel seems to be having fun trying.

Past posts on the Showbread (a.k.a. "Shewbread") are here, here, and here.

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