By Challah baking expert Rochie Pinson
Pesach is over, we are firmly back in real time, and the house smells of Challah again.
And this week it’s not just any challah, it’s Shlissel Challah!
Jewish women of yore would bake a key-shaped challah (or a key baked into the challah – take your pick!) on the Shabbos following Pesach.
Every year, as the “challah lady,” I start getting questions about this minhag as soon as Pesach is over! “Is this a real thing?” “Is this ok to do?” “Where did this minhag come from?”
So, I figured I’ll clear up some of the questions by writing this up for you! (PS: all this information and more are also in my book/cookbook “Rising: The Book of Challah.”)
First of all, you may be surprised to hear that indeed this is a very authentic minhag yisrael.
Students of the Maggid already spoke of shlissel challah as an “ancient tradition”, and offered numerous interpretations for this fascinating minhag.
After 40 years in the midbar, the Jewish people continued to eat the “mon” until the first Pesach in Eretz Yisrael. They brought the Omer offering on the second day of pesach and from that day on, they no longer ate Mon, but food that had grown in Eretz Yisrael. Since this time of year is when they began to concern themselves over their sustenance rather than having it fall from the sky each morning, they key on the challah reminds us to still look upward and remember the Source of all sustenance, and daven that the gates of Parnasa should be opened up to us.
The Meiri says that while on Rosh Hashanah it is decided whether one will live or not, live in peace or suffer (ch”v), etc, on Pesach we are judged in regards to the grains.
That means that these are the days in which it is decided how abundant our parnasah (ie; livelihood… dough;) will be this coming year.
There are many traditions that have developed to correspond with this idea.
In Syria and Turkey the women would sprinkle grains around the corners of their home at the closing of Passover, the Jews of Morocco celebrate “Mimouna” on Motzei Pesach, and in Eastern Europe, the women would bake keys into their challah.
Whatever your particular minhag, or however you choose to “key” your challah- there is nothing like challah to reconnect us to the awareness that as hard as we work to bring in the ‘dough’… “lo al halechem l’vado yichyeh ha’adam” “man does not live on bread alone” – Ki al kol Motzei pi Hashem, yichyeh ha’adam.”
The ultimate sustenance is always a blessing from the Eibershter, and we ask Him that the gates of “oitzarcha hatov- Your treasure house of goodness,” should be opened wide to all of us in the most beautiful way possible.
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Although it may have some early sources, however it is clearly stated in many chabad Sefroim that it is NOT the chabad Minhag to make Shlisel Challah.
In what Chabad seforim does it say “don’t bake this challa for this Shabbos”?
This is not a chabad minhag.
This is a minhag of Peylishe Chasidim, not Chabad, not the Rebbe.
If you come from a long line of Chabad chasidim and never had this minhag, be sure lemaan Hashem not to do it. Today, the majority by far of us are 1st or 2nd generation Chabad. We came to Chabad with minhogim. If the Chabad rules say don’t do it, we stopped doing it. As far as I know it doesn’t say anywhere in Chabad sources that we are not supposed to bake this chall. So why should I stop doing it just because your family didn’t do it?
It may not be a Lubavitch minhag but for many years it has been done any way in Chabad by many woman. Woman bring brochos in what they do.
There’s nothing wrong with doing it. To say NOT to do it would not be correct also .
So whoever decides to do it may we see all the brochos with it.
Those who descend from 300 generations of Chabad chasidim talk as if nobody else exists. In fact, MANY (if not most) of us are only 1st or 2nd generation Chabad. We came to Chabad along with minhogim that have been in our families for centuries. We took on Chabad minhogim, but did not abandon the minhogim we came with. Yes, if Chabad sources say DON’T DO THIS, we stopped doing it. Otherwise, we don’t abandon what we saw that our parents did, just because yours didn’t.
Just adding a thought – even if this isn’t our Chabad minhag, that doesn’t mean it’s not a valid minhag.
Different communities have different traditions, and shlissel challah does have meaning connected to emunah and parnassah.
For families that do it, especially with kids, it can be a really nice way to make Yiddishkeit feel real and engaging.
Every custom starts somewhere, and then it becomes an established custom. If so many Chabad make shlisel challah, it has become our minhag. (The Rebbe’s have always had their own minhagim, known as minhag bais haRav, doing or not doing something)
This minhog is a segula for parnossa. My shviger a.h. was very strict about baking this challa. The segula apparently didn’t work, because they were poor all their life. On the other hand, she did get me as an eidem. You can’t buy that for money.
its realy nice!!!