TJ Hirst

A scripture I am working on . . .

Trust in the Lord with all thine heart; and lean not unto thine own understanding. In all thy ways acknowledge him, and he shall direct thy paths.

We enjoy the legacy of homemade bread at our house. My mother has baked bread throughout her life. Her fresh-baked honey wheat bread with butter and honey on top was as good a snack as cookies. The smell alone was reason enough to carry forward the tradition and skills she gave me. When I married, my mother-in-law taught me how to make her heritage bread—Finnish pulla. Her mother gave her the recipe and taught her to make it, and some day I hope my girls will carry the tradition of bread making to their homes. Now, I combine both our mothers’ arts to elevate our everyday routines. We enjoy a variety of breads throughout the week, and pulla is reserved for Sunday mornings.

Finnish Pulla Bread

1 very full tablespoon active dry yeast
½ cup warm water
2 cups lukewarm milk (scalded and cooled to lukewarm)
1 cup granulated sugar (up to ½ cup more for sweeter bread)
1 teaspoon salt
1 teaspoon ground cardamom
3 eggs, beaten
½ cup margarine or butter, softened to nearly melted
8-9 cups all purpose flour
1 whole egg, beaten and mixed with a little water
Swedish pearl sugar (available at IKEA, King Arthur Flour)

In a large bread bowl, dissolve yeast in warm water (105 - 115 degrees F). Add milk, sugar, salt, cardamom, and eggs to yeast mixture. Add 2 cups of flour. Beat with a wooden spoon or electric hand mixer until smooth. Add 3 cups more flour, beating until smooth.

Add the softened margarine or butter, and mix in until smooth. Stir in the remaining flour, ½ cup at a time until dough forms. Knead in additional flour on a floured surface until it is firm and not too sticky.

Wash and oil bread bowl. Put dough in the bowl and turn greased side up. Cover with plastic wrap and a towel. Let rise in a warm space for 2 or more hours, or until double in bulk.

Divide dough on lightly floured work surface into four equal sections. Each section will make one loaf.

Take one of these four sections and divide it into three equal sections. Make it into three long strands of dough by rolling it flat against your palms on the work surface.

Lay the strands next to each other and pinch ends together at the top. Tuck pinched end under.

Braid the three strands to the bottom.

Pinch the bottom ends together and tuck neatly underneath.

Place first braided loaf on a large rectangular greased baking sheet. Repeat with three other sections, putting two loaves on each of the two baking sheets.

Cover the four loaves loosely with plastic wrap or a towel for about 30 minutes until puffy. Meanwhile, heat the oven to 375 degrees.

Bake for 20-23 minutes, depending on your oven. Loaves should be darker brown than you expect and sound hollow when tapped. (Note: I have a convection oven and bake the loaves all four at a time. If you do not have a convection oven, bake two loaves at a time.)

While loaves are still on baking sheet, brush with beaten egg, on one part of the loaf at a time. Immediately sprinkle with pearl sugar or granulated sugar and sliced almonds while still wet.

(The hot loaves seem to cook the egg, and I use very little, but if you would rather, you can stick it back in the oven for a minute.)

Transfer loaves carefully to cooling racks. Wrap in aluminum foil. Serve, share or freeze until later use. (Frozen loaves may be defrosted on the counter overnight for breakfast.)

Slice, serve, and enjoy. Butter is not necessary when serving, but day-old pulla—if there ever is any—is nice lightly toasted and spread with butter.

Our family takes a Finnish Sauna every Monday night, boys and girls separate of course. We work in our yard together on Saturday mornings. We eat pulla bread for breakfast every Sunday morning (see recipe here tomorrow). Family prayers always take place on our colorful, round rug from Garnet Hill. We ask and answer The Question at the dinner table. After Sunday dinners, we take a walk together—the same route every time.

Creating ritual in the early years of the United States was as important as creating rules of law:

Ritual—defined as “a public ceremonial affirmation of community”— satisfies a deep collective human need . . . The only ritual built into the American system is the presidential inauguration, as decreed by the Constitution. Through its First Lady (Dolley Madison) the United States took its first tentative steps toward constructing national rituals, and embraced a national identity.

Catherine Allgor
A Perfect Union:
Dolly Madison
and the Creation of the American Nation

I have discovered I am the “First Lady” of my family to set routines, rituals and traditions that create a family identity. I don’t mean the traditions related to holidays (which seem to be initiated more by marketers than mothers). I mean those regular actions we do together in the course of ordinary family life that make us unique and bind us together.

What are your family rituals, routines or traditions? How important are they in creating your family circle?

Normally, I post polls on Fridays, but this “poll” topic is more conducive to comments, so please leave a comment below with your answers to these questions.

The Question: Have I seen the hand of God reaching out to touch us or our family today?

Spring is not only wedding time; it is anniversary time. We celebrate our 17th wedding anniversary next week. Our best anniversary gifts are from celebrating the 40th wedding anniversaries of both sets of parents.

Paul’s parents celebrated their 40th this month. Despite the fact that our immediate family lives 1000 miles away from his parents and siblings, Paul had a business trip at the same time and was able to join the celebration.

While he was gone, I realized that in the past few years his business trips/visits home by himself are a blessing to his relationship with his parents, my relationship to them and our marriage relationship.

I haven’t been an easy daughter-in-law. Meshing two people together is difficult enough. Then, we are supposed to mesh well into already existing families. Time and maturity have helped me.

But even more, his visits by himself help. He can be just their son and not have to be a husband, father and a son all at the same time. I couldn’t have planned for that blessing.

For my parent’s anniversary celebration, we presented them with a surprise copy of their 40-year story together. I interviewed each of them separately. They told stories and expressed feelings about situations that I had only known from a child’s perspective. My siblings and I compiled their story and pictures into a book and published it with Heritage Makers.

The writing process of their marriage story showed me how their marriage grew stronger over time. Ironically, my mom said that the times they drew closest together were the times when they had challenges and would have to work together to deal with those challenges.

Congratulations to our givers of gifts! We love you.

Rabbi Morris Zimbalist is the rabbi of Montebello Jewish Center in Montebello, NY. Bishop Paul Hirst is the bishop of the Brainerd Ward of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints in Brainerd, MN. Rabbi Zimbalist and Bishop Hirst continue their conversation on similarities in their respective congregation. Read previous entries here.

What responsibilities do you have beyond worship services?

Rabbi Zimbalist: I teach in all aspects of synagogue life, from the religious school to the Bar and Bat Mitzvah students to adult education classes. I am also the ma’ara d’atra—final religious authority—in all ritual aspects of congregational life. I lead daily religious services in the morning. Much of my day is spent counseling members of the congregation, visiting the sick, and tending to the needs of the community. I regularly officiate at all life cycle events, including funerals, weddings, circumcisions and baby namings. As the rabbi, I attend most committee meetings and provide counsel and direction to the lay leaders in the community.

Bishop Hirst: I have 6 basic doctrinal responsibilities: First, the bishop is the president of the Aaronic Priesthood. The priesthood is divided in two, Melchizedek priesthood and Aaronic priesthood. The Aaronic Priesthood is the priesthood of temporal needs. I’m responsible for the young men (12-18 years old), and more particularly those 16-18.

Second, I am the presiding high priest in the ward of the Melchizedek priesthood. This priesthood is the priesthood of leadership and holds the keys of spiritual blessings in the Church.

Third, as a common judge, I’m responsible for making sure there is no iniquity in the Church. Some sins require confession to a priesthood leader. Depending on the severity of the transgression, the position and/or maturity of the member, a Church disciplinary council can be conducted to determine the member’s standing in the Church.

Fourth, I’m responsible for the spending of funds to help the poor and needy in the ward. Most of the time, people come to me. However, I’m also responsible to find them, too.

Fifth, I can (and do) delegate the administrative functions of recordkeeping to clerks. I’m responsible, but I have them do most of the work.

Sixth, we are an evangelical church. We want to share the Gospel with others. The members are the best ones to share the joy it brings them with their friends and neighbors. Having said that, we’re also certainly respectful of other peoples beliefs, see our Article of Faith 11. We have full-time missionaries, 19-year-old young men, who serve in our area and teach people who are interested. I also have a member called as the ward mission leader who coordinates and leads these efforts.

How do you manage staffing other responsibilities?

Rabbi Zimbalist: Being at a small synagogue, we have very few paid professionals running the daily and religious activities. In addition to myself, we have a full-time secretary, a part-time principal, a part-time nursery director, and a part-time custodian. We rely heavily on volunteers, and for most of our volunteers, they try to make as much time as possible to tend to synagogue needs, but oftentimes many important projects get left behind, or I end up trying my best to pick up the slack.

We don’t give formal assignments; however I try to find the capable leaders in my community and inspire and impress upon them the need to rise to leadership positions.

Bishop Hirst: The Church functions with a lay-priesthood and unpaid volunteers (including my position). I’m responsible for calling various individuals to the various assignments in the ward organization. I call them just like I’m called. I seek inspiration for the right person for the right call, counsel with my counselors and then we issue the call, asking them to serve in that particular capacity. Most calls do not have time frames or limits, but we try and be aware of individual circumstances that would necessitate a change.

Each member should have a calling or responsibility. It is through serving others that we often grow the most. It is also a way to fellowship, learn and discover new things.

There never seems to be enough people—at least not enough dedicated and committed people. For the most part, people fulfill their callings. But, some of those called struggle to fulfill their responsibility, and others don’t do it at all. We do our best to encourage, train, teach and provide the resources necessary to be successful in their responsibility.

What do you do to inspire volunteers to give, either in time, financially, or otherwise?

Rabbi Zimbalist: I try to impress upon my entire congregation the need to care for community and to take care of each other. Whether it’s from the pulpit, private conversations, or modeling my own behavior, I try to help them see that we’re all part of something much greater than ourselves.

Bishop Hirst: What do we do? Or what do we do effectively to inspire them? If I could answer the latter question, it’d be a different world. The most effective inspiration comes from the Spirit—when the members sense the importance of what they do and that feeling comes from God. My efforts are geared towards helping them feel the Spirit so they’ll want to be motivated from Him, not because of guilt, or other things.

Do you make people mad in the course of trying to accomplish your responsibilities?

Rabbi Zimbalist: I certainly try not to make people mad; however, in the course of accomplishing any goal, there are bound to be people who disagree, be it respectfully or not respectfully. I try hard in everything that I do to be as sensitive to other people’s feelings and emotions and needs as possible, but unfortunately, sometimes people get upset. More often than not, those who are upset either speak directly to me or to others, which allows me the opportunity to reach out to them and try to resolve the situation.

Bishop Hirst: Most of the time, people get mad when I don’t help them financially. We do have occasional other times when individuals feel too much might be expected of them. Most disagreements of this sort are more administrative in nature, but somewhat rooted in doctrinal misunderstandings. I suppose there may also be times when I’ve said something that someone has taken offense to when no offense was intended.

In one particular case, a member called the stake president to complain about things I supposedly said or did. They were looking to have the Church help them in the way they wanted to be helped, rather than accept the conditions upon which they receive help (which is a whole conversation in itself).

What aspect of faith in your members is most inspiring?

Rabbi Zimbalist: Seeing a commitment to something bigger than themselves, their desire to create and foster a sacred relationship with God, and how familial traditions get passed down from generation to generation in accordance with religious tradition and ritual.

Bishop Hirst: The dramatic change that takes place in the lives of people as they live according to the covenants they have personally made with God and seeing people with challenges in their life draw strength from their faith in God and Jesus Christ.

What do you see in members of other faiths that your members could learn from?

Rabbi Zimbalist: I feel strongly that people of all faiths can learn from each other because all share the common sentiments of responsibility for their community, teaching, and love of God.

Bishop Hirst: To be less insular, more outgoing. But mostly, being happy in their faith; it shouldn’t be a drudgery (something I should remember, too). Maybe even being less afraid to be who they are.

This conversation will continue next Wednesday, April 23. Read previous entries or join the conversation by leaving your own comments below.