The Information Channel Felist.Com -*-------------------------------------------------------------------------- Do not Reply this message! Please send messages to kehilasmy@yahoo.com More on key baked into a challah and Shabbos Shlissulach -------------------------------------------------------- Rabbi Mark Schaffel @ [http://www.jewish.com/askarabbi] [http:// www.jewish.com/askarabbi] jewish.com Qestion: What is 'shlissel challah'? Why is it done the week AFTER pesach? Answer: I should really let my wife answer this because I didn't know about it until I got married but her family has been doing it for generations. It's a key baked into a challa the Shabbos after Pesach as a segula - omen - for parnosa - for a generous livelihood. -------------------------------------------------------- Selected Halachos Relating to Parshas Shmini By Rabbi Doniel Neustadt @ [http://www.torah.org] [http://www.torah.org] torah.org Although Shulchan Aruch cites challah-baking as a worthy custom "that should not be abandoned", many women find it difficult to bake Shabbos challos on a steady basis. But even some women who do not adhere to the custom regularly make a point of baking challah for the Shabbos after Pesach, for it is a tradition that baking challos immediately after Pesach is a segulah for parnasah. Many follow the additional custom of baking challah in the form of a key or pressing a key into the dough (schlisel challah) to symbolize "the key of parnasah"(4). Let us, therefore, review some of the halachos pertaining to separating challah. -------------------------------------------------------- Jeffrey Saks @ [http://www.atid.org] [http://www.atid.org] atid.org Shliss Challah The minhag of women (or men) baking the house key into the challah on the Shabbat following Pesach (also known as a shliss [=key] challah) is explained with the following reasons: 1. Based on "Pitchi Li Achoti, Ra'ayati..." ("Open up, my darling..."--Shir HaShirim 5:2), on which the Medrash states "Pitchu li petach ke-chudo shel machat...," (cf. Shi HaShirim Rabbah 5, s.v. "Kol Dodi Dofek") = something like "Open your hearts (in teshuvah) like the eye of the needle, and I (God) will open the rest like [a very large opening]. 2. According to Kabbalah on Pesach the gates to heaven were open, and following Pesach the lower gates are shut, and it's up to us to open them again, therefor on the 1st Shabbat we put the key on the challah to show that through the mitzvah of Shabbat we are opening the locks [original source?]. 3. In the desert the Jewish people ate from the manna until after Pesach upon entering the land (with the bringing of the Omer, see: Josh. 5:11) at which point the ate from the produce of the land, and became dependant on their livelihood for the first time (now they had no manna). The key in the challah after Pesach is a request the God should open the Sha'arei Parnasah (gates of livelihood). Alternatively, the manna began to fall in the month of Iyyar, and this Shabbat is always Shabbat Mevarchim Iyyar. See: Sefer Ta'amei HaMinhagim, pp. 249-50. See: Encyclopedia Judaica, vol. 6, pp. 1419-20 for a photo of a shluss challah (and other "special" challot). It seems (from both of the above sources) that the minhag was to bake the key on top of the challah not inside (a la the old jail break trick). ----------------------------------------------------------------------- Please visit our web page http://www.kehilasmy.org ----------------------------------------------------------------------- Buy books with 10% off from Artscroll and Artscroll will donate us 5% of your purchase: http://artscroll.com/linker/kehilasmy/home -*-------------------------------------------------------------------------- Unsubscribe: http://felist.com/member/unsub?grp=lit.kehilasmy&email= http://felist.com/ mailto:ask@felist.com