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The Rabbi Aryeh Wolbe Podcast Collection is the one-stop shop for the Torah inspiration shared by Rabbi Aryeh Wolbe in one simple feed. The Jewish Inspiration Podcast, Parsha Review Podcast, Thinking Talmudist Podcast, Living Jewishly Podcast and Unboxing Judaism Podcast all in one convenient place. Enjoy!
00:03 - Intro (Announcement)
You're listening to Rabbi Aryeh Wolbe of Torch in Houston, Texas. This is the Everyday Judaism Podcast.
00:12 - Rabbi Aryeh Wolbe (Host)
All right, welcome back everybody. Beautiful Sunday morning. It's so wonderful to be here Today. We're going to do another episode in our Everyday Judaism podcast. We are up to Simeon 35. Simeon Lamed. Hey, very interesting that we congratulations to everyone.
00:29
We just finished the first book of the Art Scroll five-part series of the Kitzesh Chonarach of the Code of Jewish Law, the abridged Code of Jewish Law. Now we're starting the second book. Chapter 35 is talking about the laws of Jewish law. Now we're starting the second book. Chapter 35 is talking about the laws of challah. So before we talk about the laws of challah, it's important for us to look in the Torah to see the actual verse that commands us to the mitzvah of challah.
00:57
Now, what is challah? Challah means the separation of dough that is required when you make a loaf of bread. You have to separate away part of the dough to give it. Excuse me. Back to Hashem. Okay, now we see here in verse number 17,. V'idaber Hashem, al-moshe al-imor Hashem said to Moshe saying Daber el bnei Yisroel v'amart alehem, speak to the Jewish people and say to them Bevoachem el o to them, when you come to the land that I will bring you there, it shall be that when you eat from the bread of the land. You shall set apart a portion for Hashem, verse number 20. As the first of your needing batch of loaf, a batch, a loaf, you shall set aside as a portion, like the portion of the threshing floor. So shall you set aside it. Meirei shesariso seichem titnu la'ashem to rumaludor oseichem, from the first of your kneading batch, shall you give to Hashem a portion throughout your generations. So we see, here there's a mitzvah, that when you have a batch of bread that you're about to bake, you have to separate a piece. That piece is called challah and that piece is very, very, very important.
02:34
Actually, I want to share with you, before we even begin, the laws of challah. I want to share with you a very interesting question I got last week. Maybe we'll mention it again in our Ask Away segment which follows this segment. A friend of mine called me this week and he said to me why do we dip the apple in the honey on Rosh Hashanah? Wasn't the apple the reason for all of the problems we have in our world? For all of the problems we have in our world, wasn't the apple from Adam and Eve? What's going on here? So I said to him it's a great question, but incorrect.
03:16
What was eaten in the Garden of Eden, according to our sages, was not an apple tree. I don't know why they say it was an apple tree. Maybe they get it confused with George Washington's apple tree. I don't know why they say it was an apple tree. Maybe they get it confused with George Washington's apple tree. Okay, it was not an apple tree. A cherry tree, whatever tree, it wasn't one of the fruits. What was it? Our sages tell us that it was a bread tree. It was a bread tree. You would just imagine, instead of having to go to the supermarket to buy challah, you would just take it off the tree. You would just imagine, instead of having to go to the supermarket to buy challah, you would just take it off the tree. You'd have ready-made bread, and that was what they ate from.
03:52
Hashem says what was the punishment? It makes a lot of sense. Now, what's the punishment? By the sweat of your brow, you will make bread Meaning. Now, you're not going to have ready-made bread. You're going to have to have the 11-step process of making bread, the entire process, which, by the way, if you remember when we spoke about the 11 different ingredients that were in the ketoret in the incense.
04:19
The 11, 11 is the number of evil. The 11 is the number of evil, meaning the 11-step process of the 11 is the number of evil. The 11 is the number of evil, meaning the 11-step process of the bread is the punishment, is the punishment for eating from the tree of knowledge. By the way, bread gives wisdom, gives knowledge A baby. It says that, being near a baby that has a dirty diaper, you can't recite a blessing After the baby starts eating bread. Before then it's not considered to be dirty, so to speak. It's not considered to be unclean. After the baby eats bread for the first time, it's already considered why Bread is wisdom. Bread is wisdom. Bread is wisdom. Halacha says this Bread infuses us with wisdom.
05:12
Okay, we can get into the whole Kabbalistic reasoning for it another time, but when we have, when we have the apple, dipping the apple in the honey, it's not referring to the tree of knowledge. It's not referring to any of that when we have challah challah being taken, why is it? And, by the way, why is it specifically a mitzvah that most women take upon themselves? It's a very special mitzvah for women. Now it's a mitzvah for men as well, but it's a special mitzvah for women, because who fed Adam from the tree of knowledge? His wife. This is a tikkun. This is a repair. When a woman prepares the bread and feeds that to her husband, it's a repair for the sin that Eve brought about onto Adam. So, my dear friends, now we have a little bit of an insight of the mitzvah of challah. Let's begin seeing what the Kitzah Shochon Aruch teaches us here about the laws of challah.
06:10
The Torah commands that when kneading dough, one must set aside a portion of the dough to be given to the Kohen. This portion is called challah. By the way, the bread, the loaf of bread, is not called challah. We call it challah bread or challah. And it's not true. The part you take is called challah, but because it's a great mitzvah, we call the whole bread a challah because of the mitzvah that we do with it. We take away part of the dough, we give it back to Hashem and that's what we call the challah. We call the bread on what we took away, showing that we have full devotion, full commitment to Hashem and His commandments. In order for the challah to be eaten by the Kohen, the challah, as well as the Kohen, must be in a state of ritual purity, challah that became tameh, ritually impure, may not be eaten and must be burned. Since nowadays we are unable to maintain the required level of purity, the challah must be burned after it is set aside from the dough. Biblically, the mitzvah of challah applies only in the land of Israel and only when all the Jewish people reside there. Nevertheless, the sages extended this requirement to separate challah to apply in all places and at all times.
07:27
Halacha number one, isa mi-chameshes, min-edagan, a dough that has been kneaded from all the five different types of grains, which are wheat, barley, oat, spelt and rye. Any of those five types of grain, chayev es pechala, is subject to the obligation of setting aside chala. Prior to the separation of chala, one recites a blessing Blessed are you, you Hashem, our God, king of the universe, who has sanctified us with his commandments and has commanded us to separate Challah from the dough. V'notlin kezias b'nei, you take a. You take a piece of the dough, a kezias size of the dough. What the exact measurement is about? 1.16, 1.16, sorry, 0.6 to 1.1 fluid ounces of the dough is separated. V'sorfa nosa ba'eshen. You burn it in a fire. V'minuk l'sorfa batanu she'ofu sham esalechem, and it is proper custom to burn it in the same oven that you're going to bake your challah in. Kamah shir ha'iso.
08:51
What is the amount of dough that is subject to the obligation of setting aside challah? So it's not just if you do a little bit of flour, you make a little roll. That's not enough, it has to be a measurement. Today, just to give you the real number, is five pounds of challah. If you take five pounds of flour and you make it into multiple, it's enough to make about six or seven, eight challahs. So of that measurement you're obligated to. She says any dough that has been made from five rivayim of flour. This is equivalent to the volume of 43 and one-fifth eggs. Okay, if you want to know the exact measurement. Halacha. Number three If two doughs were knead needed separately, each one containing less than the minimum amounts, each one is two and a half pounds, so that each one are less than the required amount and were subsequently joined together, they are subject to the challah requirement. This if the following if number three introduces the ramifications of the law pertaining to the bread that was already baked HaMatzos, she'ofan, l'pesach, matzah that was taken that was baked for Pesach is also subject to the challah obligation.
10:01
So I was baking matzah with my rabbi in Jerusalem many years ago and they called me over. I was in the back with him. You know, when they pull him out of the oven and we have to separate the challah for the entire batch, because they're making hundreds and hundreds and hundreds of pounds of matzah, so each batch needs its own separation of challah. You can't say, well, I took challah this morning, so it's good for the whole day. No, each batch that's made needs to have its own challah separated. That's made needs to have its own challah separated.
10:36
Even though the size of each dough needed for matzah on its own contains less than the minimum amount that subjects it to the challah obligation. Nevertheless, since after baking the matzahs they are placed into one vessel, the vessel combines them into one unit and thus they all become subject to the challah obligation. So now it becomes one batch together, even though separately they're each their own little piece of dough, but collectively they're one big batch. Kir must be taken to ensure that all of the matzahs are placed within the vessel, even if part of the matzah is in the vessel and part protrudes outside of. The matzahs are placed within the vessel even if part of the matzah is in the vessel and part protrudes outside of the vessel, meaning above the walls of the vessel, they also combine together. So the way it's done in Israel is, as soon as the matzahs are taken out of the oven, they're placed onto a drying, a cooling area and then they're placed into this big metal container that has, like, all these slots. They all go in there and that's how they cool off after they go in their initial place and then from there they're boxed, they're put into separate boxes and that's the matzahs that we buy, ready-made in those boxes, wrapped up and sealed.
11:55
Each batch, each one of those batches, needs to have its own separation of challah, and the challah is taken after the matzah is baked. Okay, so you take a piece of the matzah, you take one or two matzahs, however the size, and they put it away after they're ready out of the oven, because you don't take the dough from the beginning, because each one is too small on its own. Now, as a collective unit, you can separate and take that portion away. Care must be taken to ensure that all of the matzahzos are placed within the vessel. Again, we said, even if part of it is protruding outside of the vessels, they may combine together. However, if there are entire matzos situated only above but not within the vessel, they do not combine with the others for the minimum amount required to set aside challah. Even if he covered them with a cloth, it is not effective to combine them. Nevertheless, if he places all of the matzahs on a sheet in a sheet and also covers them with a sheet by folding the sheets over the matzahs so now they're like wrapped into one encasing, then the sheet has the effect of a vessel and combines them, even if they are uncovered somewhat on top, in the center, where the ends of the sheet do not reach. But he should be careful that an entire matzah not protrude from the covering. So if it's a little bit of the matzah protruding it's fine, but if it's a whole matzah outside of the batch, that would not be included in that taking of the challah.
13:43
In the Kitzer's time, when Rabbi Gansfried, who wrote the Kitzer Shulchan Aruch, the author of this book, when he in his times bakers, would leave a portion of dough unbaked, whereupon it would become very sour, fermented. This dough, which is known as sour dough or starter dough, would be used as a leavening agent for subsequent batches of dough. This if addresses the proper manner to comply with challah obligations with regard to this dough. He says sour dough that is taken from the dough so as to be used for another dough leaven so it's now going to be serving for other loaves that will be baked later must be taken before the challah of the dough it is taken from is set aside. However, sourdough that is being taken to be used to ferment the beverage called borscht must be removed from the dough only after they have been set aside for challah.
14:52
On Pesach, the Torah prohibits owning all chametz leavened grain products, including sourdough. Therefore, in order to bake bread after Pesach, the baker must acquire sourdough from a non-Jewish source. This affects the procedure for separating Challah, as will be explained in this se'if, separating challah, as will be explained in the Seif After Passover. When we purchase sourdough from an idolater to use for leavening the dough, we have to be careful to set aside as challah a portion of dough larger than the size of the sourdough. Halacha number six one who makes dough for the purpose of cooking it or frying it separates challah from it without reciting the blessing If one makes the dough intending to bake a portion of it, even if he intends to bake only a small portion, he must set aside challah from this dough with the blessing Halacha number seven.
16:00
If the dough is kneaded with eggs or with fruit juices, which many times happens, like you can buy, people wonder how you can make challah or bread. That is not hamotzi. Hamotzi is the proper blessing for bread. But some breads, because they're not made with water, they're made with fruit juice, like apple juice, you recite a mizonos on them, right, it's like it becomes. So, for example, if you buy some of those pizzas that they have frozen kosher pizzas, some of them. You look at the blessing that says on the wrapper it'll say recite a mizonos blessing on this. Isn't it bread? No, it's not bread. It was made with fruit juice. So therefore, no, it's not bread. It was made with fruit juice. So therefore the blessing will be different. So he says there are a number of uncertainties regarding the challah obligation. Therefore, one must mix into the dough, at the time that it is being kneaded, a bit of water, milk, beeswax, wine or olive oil, for then, if one of these liquids is an ingredient in the dough, one must certainly set aside challah from the dough and do so with the correct blessing, the aforementioned blessing.
17:13
Halacha number eight. We have only two more. Although the mitzvah of challah is incumbent upon the owner of the dough, he may appoint another adult Jew to perform the mitzvah on his behalf. One may not, however, perform the mitzvah on his behalf. One may not, however, perform the mitzvah on behalf of the owner without being specifically appointed, meaning if the owner didn't ask you to do it, you can't do it for him. It's his obligation In this. If we will see an exception to this rule, mitzvah hafresh haschalah shayacha leho isha ba'alas habayis. The mitzvah of setting aside challah belongs to the woman, who is the lady of the house. However, if the woman is not home and there is a reason for concern that by the time she comes home the dough will spoil, then the Jewish maidservant or another person may set aside the challah for her. And finally, halacha number nine.
18:09
If one forgot to set aside challah on Erev Shabbos on Friday, b'chutz l'aretz, then if the dough was needed, outside of Israel one may eat. So here someone is Friday night, they're having their meal and they realize uh-oh, I forgot to set aside the challah, I forgot to set it aside, I forgot to burn part of the dough Right, and now we're sitting at the Shabbos table. What are we going to do? So he says one may eat from it on Shabbos, even before challah is set aside. However, one must leave over one piece and separate challah from it after Shabbos has ended. After Shabbos has ended, the piece left over must be large enough so that one can set aside challah from it and some will still remain. That is for non-sacred use. That is for non-sacred use, for we require that the portion that remains after challah has been set aside be identifiable. So it has to be enough of a size of a challah that is identifiable.
19:19
Shechal yos b'shabas. If Shabbos was Erev, pesach was right before Pesach, where you can't save a piece of the bread for after Shabbos to burn it because it's going to be Pesach. So what are you going to do then? Yesh bezeh mevuch agdolah. There's a big dilemma regarding how to resolve this issue. Alkein tzorch kol ish liyizor be. Therefore, each person must take special caution on Erev Shabbos, before Shabbos, to remind his household about the requirement of setting aside the challah.
19:54
And now we can understand something very, very important the Mishnah that is recited right at the entrance of Shabbos. We recite a special chapter from Tractate Shabbat, and what does it say over there? It's very interesting. At the end of everything that is recited, it says Shlosh Advarim Tzorach Odom Lomar B'Soch Beisoh Erev, shabbos, imchash Eichah. A person must say three things in his home on the eve of Shabbos, just before dark Yisartem I dark Isartem, iravtem hadlikos aner. Have you tithed? What is that referring to? It's referring to taking the challah right. Iravtem, did you create an Erev, did you prepare the Erev and did you kindle the lights for Shabbos? Now we understand why it says that you have to make sure, remember that you give away the challah, that you do this special mitzvah right before Shabbos. Okay, my dear friends, this concludes this segment of the Everyday Judaism podcast, and now we will open up the floors to your beautiful questions. My dear friends, let's ask away.
20:58 - Intro (Announcement)
You've been listening to Rabbi Aryeh Wolbe on a podcast produced by TORCH, the Torah Outreach Resource Center of Houston. Please help sponsor an episode so we can continue to produce more quality Jewish content for our listeners around the globe. Please visit torchweb.org to donate and partner with us on this incredible endeavor.