Though nobody knows for certain whether Mother Sarah braided six strand challot in her tent, these lovely edible macrames have been featured on Ashkenazi Shabbos tables for centuries, maybe even longer.

The number six is no accident. On the Shabbos table there are two loaves. That means if each one is fashioned from six strands you’ve got a total of 12 strands under your challah cover .Of course 12 is a mega number in Jewish mysticism.The Jewish people are 12. We descend from the 12 tribes who descend from Jacobs’s 12 sons .

The golden table in the Holy Temple held 12 loaves of Show Bread for the Priests which says Rabeinu Bachya correspond to the twelve angels that surround the Heavenly Throne.

That is pretty lofty stuff . When my mother told me that her own mother was a six strand braider I felt determined to try. Sadly, my grandmother wasn’t available to teach me how. She died in the holocaust so I turned to a neighbor whose own Shabbos table regularly held her beautiful six strand loaves.

“I can’t explain” she said.

Please, I begged. She relented but the instructions she gave me were so jumbled that I was more confused than I had been before I turned to her. Oy vey. For a while I braided free style, looping the strands together into unusual challah knots. My family didn’t mind but I was almost return to three strand braids. Then I found “The Secret of Challah” by Shira Wiener and Ayelet Yifrach in my local library (thanks Jennifer). The simple step by step instructions in that book unlocked the secret for me and they can for you too!. Go for it!

Six Strand Braiding for Dummies adapted from “The Secret of Challah,” Wiener and Yifrach

1. Flour your work surface and your hands.

Using a sharp knife cut the dough into six equal parts. Knead each piece into a smooth ball and then roll each ball into a long (10 inches or 25 cm) rope. (the ropes don’t have to look perfect)

Lay the strands side by side in two groups of three and pinch the ends together at the top.

2. Take the left most strand in you left hand and the right most strand in your right hand. Weave the left strand under the right strand and place if at the upper right corner. Weave the right strand over the left strand toward the center so that there are two strands on either side of it.

3. Take the right most strand (the one that was moved to the right in step 2) in your right hand and the one to it’s immediate left in your left hand.

Moving both hands simultaneously to the left, place the strand in your left hand at the upper left corner and place the strand in your right hand in the center.

4.Take the left most strand (the one that was moved to the left in step 3) in your left hand and the one on its immediate right in your right hand.

Moving both hands simultaneously to the right, place the strand in your right hand at the upper right corner and place the strand in your left hand at the center

5. Alternatively repeat steps 3 and 4

6 When done braiding pinch the ends of the strands together

Voila-six strand challah.