ב"ה
Wednesday, 26 Adar I, 5784
  |  March 6, 2024

Is it Against Lubavitch Custom to Bake Shlissel Challah

Watch: Rabbi Kalman Weinfeld answers the much-debated question: Is it against the Lubavitch custom to bake Shlissel - key shaped Challah for the Shabbos after Pesach? Video

Photo: Shlissel Challah by Rochie Pinson

Weekly Moment With the Rebbe

Next Story »

Rabbi Yitzi Hurwitz to Keynote 28 Nissan Virtual Event

Subscribe
Notify of
33 Comments
oldest
newest most voted
Inline Feedbacks
View all comments
yes and no
April 29, 2022 9:34 am

its a chabad custom to bake a challah With a key

Not to bake challah shaped of a key

Yes!!
Reply to  yes and no
April 29, 2022 9:56 am

There is no such Custom as baking in baking in the shape of a key!!’

Yes and No
Reply to  yes and no
April 29, 2022 10:30 am

I don’t think you will be able to provide a source for that distinction…

Mendel
Reply to  yes and no
April 29, 2022 10:32 am

Please bring a source to you nonsense or stop spewing it. Everyone can do whatever their mother/grandmother does. Don’t make up that something is or isn’t minhag chabad based on your nonsense.
And thank you to rabbi weinfeld for answering so nice and clear!

From russia
Reply to  yes and no
April 29, 2022 11:32 am

It’s not a chabad custom. I never heard about it in my parents home coming straight from ussr however the key inside the challA I imagine can bring to borer so better the shape…

Both customs are the same
Reply to  yes and no
April 29, 2022 11:50 am

And while they Are accepted in jewish communities, there is no chabad source for this practice

Oh yeah
Reply to  yes and no
April 29, 2022 1:37 pm

Yep, and it’s a chabad minhag to do mimuna on moitzoei Pessach, they were makpid in it in Lubavitch…

a one
April 29, 2022 9:45 am

GUT GEZAGT

nisht gut gezagt
April 29, 2022 10:00 am

Maybe the fact that the rebbe never spoke about it as a minug even to negate it, by saying its not our minhug. is because its origins are very Questionable and its not even in a category of not are minhug,

rabbi Weinfeld please do proper research on a topic before making a statement.

thank you

Thank you
April 29, 2022 10:02 am

Great point and thanks for clarifying. I always wondered if it is minhag chabad and if it’s a problem to do it if it’s not minhag chabad.
Always refreshing to hear someone who has wisdom and has his priorities straight.

Berel
April 29, 2022 10:02 am

Well said, respect, I’ll listen to his videos going forward.

shalom bayis
April 29, 2022 10:33 am

shalom bayis is very important, if the wife brings minhagim to her home from her upbringing background, the husband should respect those minhagim and accept those as his own.

I guess the question is
April 29, 2022 10:42 am

Is it our way to go around picking up new minhagim from all over that we never did before. So we’ll get to have the mimouna and the schlissel challa

Chabad custom?
April 29, 2022 10:44 am

The Chabad custom is to discuss every year whether this is a Chabad custom or not.

My thoughts too
Reply to  Chabad custom?
April 29, 2022 2:43 pm

Best comment haha

My Shviger
April 29, 2022 11:24 am

My shviger a”h was very careful with this minhag. She said it is a segula for parnosa. I have to say that the segula didn’t work – she was poor all her life. But on the other hand, she got me for an eidem – and that is something you can’t buy for money!

Stop beating around the bush, this sums it up well
April 29, 2022 12:42 pm

As someone said so well on this site in a previous post on the subject a few years ago, Why do we still go through this every year?  April 13, 2018 12:22 pm Everyone knows that: A. Shlissel Challah isn’t a Chabad Minhag B. We only do the Minhagim of Chabad C. If you are looking for Segolos the Rebbe always says that Chitas and Tzedokah etc will do and why do you run for shlissel Challah? When was the last time you said Chitas – כרמי שלי לא נטרתי why are we looking in כרמי אחרים D. The Rebbe’s… Read more »

It's about time Chabad joined Peylishe Chasidim
April 29, 2022 1:12 pm

Why be different? There are more Peylish Chasidim than Chabad. Why not assimilate with them, adopt their minhogim, and maybe they will throw in a Peylishe Rebbe free of charge too.

Agree with #1
April 29, 2022 3:59 pm

Just because many people didn’t hear from it does not mean it was not done by the rebbe. The rebbe didn’t publicize everything he did. But the rebbe was for having a challah with a key!
Not a challah shaped as a key!
This is knows for many years before it came a thing and can be looked up in taamei haminhagim
It’s a modern thing to make a challah shaped as a key but those in the in of Lubavitch have been doing a challah with a actual key for years and years

Excuse me, get your facts straight
Reply to  Agree with #1
April 29, 2022 6:49 pm

Taamei Haminhagim is a book of minhogim of Peylishe Chasidim. It is not a work of minhogim of Chabad.

Although the sefer taamei haminhagim
Reply to  Excuse me, get your facts straight
May 1, 2022 1:46 am

was published in Israel by Eshkol publishing house which is owned by Chabadnikim, but thats neither here nor there….

Not Gedja
April 29, 2022 4:15 pm

This news may come as a shock to all you pure-bred Gedja chasidim, but you are a minority in Chabad. Most of us came to Chabad from other communities, with frum, chasidic customs of our own. We were not, as you think, born exclusively with Chabad minhogim and now are looking to “peylishe” for additional minhogim. We took on Chabad minhogim, and still keep the non-Chabad minhogim we were born with, so long as it is not written anywhere, “Don’t do this.”

אפשר עבודה זרה
May 1, 2022 1:11 am

No I am not Chabad, in fact I’m not Chassidush at all. I am as Litvishe as they come but I respect all Frum hidden and as someone who travels much for business I especially have an immense appreciation for Chabad. That being said this minhag does not go back hundreds of years, at least not for Jews. Do some research and you will find out this exact minhag of putting a key into bread was an Easter Christian minhag and according to many historians it started even earlier with the pagans. This minhag has penetrated into our Jewish homes… Read more »

דע מה תשיב לאפיקורס
Reply to  אפשר עבודה זרה
May 1, 2022 8:54 pm

I will quote directly from this link https://shulchanaruchharav.com/halacha/shlissel-challah-key-in-challah-shabbos-after-pesach/#_ftn3 Is the key Challah sourced in Christian doctrine and thereby its custom should be abolished? Although some self-acclaimed historians argue that the custom of making key shaped, or key filled, Challah’s is also sourced in Christian or even pagan culture, and should hence be banished from amongst Jewish tradition, practically, the above custom is an authentic Jewish custom that may and should be honored by those who traditionally abide by it. The Halachic criteria of banning an activity due to idolatry or Darkei Emori is not satisfied by simply drawing historical sketches… Read more »

Tiger
May 1, 2022 4:12 am

If one’s Parnossoh is decided on Rosh HaShannah, sealed on Yom Kippur. And a Final seal so to say on Hoshana Rabboh.
Then what does placing a key in challah do for one’s Parnossoh?
And we daven for Parnossoh 3 times a day in the weekday shmoneh esray.
So what’s with Rosh HaShannah if we still do all this other davening/segulos/minhagim? Anyone want to explain?

שאל... זק'נך ויאמרו לך
May 1, 2022 5:31 pm

I asked elder chassidim whose families went back many generations and they testified that in Russia the shlissel challah WAS made, HOWEVER, often there was poverty under Communism and then it was difficult to have a loaf of bread, much less a challah. But when times were better, definitely Lubavitcher chassidim made shlissel challah like many Yidden did. This testimony was given to me from ziknei Anash. I was also told eidus that Lubavitcher chassidim saved a piece of the afikomon and it was used as a shmirah. Once a group of chassidim with their wives and children needed to… Read more »

דע מה תשיב
Reply to  שאל... זק'נך ויאמרו לך
May 1, 2022 9:00 pm

Thank you to שאל… זק’נך ויאמרו לך

I am aware that in Otzer Minhagei Chabad p. 243 it states that the above custom is not followed by Chabad Chassidim, but for those that are familiar with this sefer know that the author often writes contradictory customs that he collected and also at times, like here, writes things without accurate sources, simply based on what the author heard.

Claim doesn't pass the smell test
Reply to  שאל... זק'נך ויאמרו לך
May 2, 2022 2:45 pm

Yeah, sure, funny that others didn’t know about such a thing, and that it is not mentioned in ספרי חב”ד.

If it was minhag Chabad, why didn’t the Rebbe talk about it?

Letz
Reply to  Claim doesn't pass the smell test
May 3, 2022 9:04 am

Do you think the Rebbe needs to talk about every single Yiddishe minhag in order to validate it??? Does he need to talk about kreplech? Cheese cake on shavuos? Dreidel on chanukah? Because if he didn’t talk about it – it automatically becomes not our minhag.

Letz
Reply to  Letz
May 3, 2022 11:41 am

The Rebbe never spoke about the minhag relating to the black stripes on our Chabad talis, or that our talis does not have an atara. He also never spoke about the way we do hagbah of the Torah. Does that mean that it’s not our minhag???!!! Besides, an accepted yiddishe minhag followed by all or most of klaal yisroel is presumed to also be our minhag (since we are part of klal yisroel) UNLESS there is a specific directive that we do not follow such a custom. Since there is no directive that we don’t do the shlissel challeh, we… Read more »

New source for minhag
May 2, 2022 5:41 pm

When selling their chometz before pessach, many yidden gave the key to the location of chometz to the rov to pass on to the goy. (Since the goy buys the chometz, he must be able to access it – so the key is provided).

After pessach, the chometz is bought back and the key is returned to the yid.

This “chometz key” which was used for a mitzva is now baked in the chometz challah, as a transfer of ownership and using the key for further mitzvos.

As such, it isn’t just a mere segulah.

To: New source for minhag
Reply to  New source for minhag
May 2, 2022 9:51 pm

That is a chidush which no one mentions! Is it from any source?

Misunderstood
May 3, 2022 11:18 pm

Someone poilish said in polish Yiddish “nem di kee (take the cow) far a tog (for a day)”, which sounds like “take the key for the dough”. That started people putting keys in dough.

X