[Avodah] The Origins of the Non-Jewish Custom Of 'Shlissel Challah' (Key Bread)

[Prof. Levine]

See http://www.alfassa.com/bread.html

[Micha Berger]

The Origins of the Non-Jewish Custom Of 'Shlissel Challah' (Key Bread)
by Shelomo Alfassa

His argument is quite weak. He shows how keys were sometimes made
in Xiological shapes -- crosses or in threes. He doesn't prove this
was common, or that doing so with religious intent is. He also shows
that baking bread in the shape of a cross is common, particularly for
Easter. (Which is why my children's childhoods omitted the Mother Goose
rhyme "Hot Cross Buns".) And from there leaps to Jews making challah at
a time close to Easter (the first Shabbos after Pesach) in the shape of
a key. Meanwhile, he also mentions that Jews already had a custom of
ladder-shaped challos, implies it is likely what morphed into this
custom, and yet *that* doesn't even have the two-step connection to
crosses he started out with.

He quotes me about reverse engineering a reason for a minhag, but
I never said that such things were uncommon or wrong for minhagim.
What I said was:

http://www.aishdas.org/avodah/vol25/v25n384.shtml#06

: Does this not all sound very much like reverse engineering or drawing the
: target after having shot the arrow?
Yes it doesa. Taamei hamitzvos are lessons drawn from halakhah -- very
much after the arrow is shot. One doesn't darshen halakhah from the
taam. It might be useful as a factor when choosing between two shitos or
sevaros. But only one formal halachic process actually "shot the arrow"
and the question is still unresolved.

I'm actually LAUDING the search for taamei hamitzvos even though they
are post-facto and didn't necessarily motivate the din. (And therefore
can't be used to modify the din.)

And <http://www.aishdas.org/avodah/vol28/v28n067.shtml#03> (from a

Sourdough is hard to come by this week, as it takes over a week to
ferment. The other source of yeast frequently used before the Fleishmans
figured out how to isolate it is barm, a sideproduct of making bear.
But barm has more yeast and is more reactive than they were used to,
and would make softer more floury bread than sourdough. Most metals kill
yeast, although stainless steel doesn't. So they put a piece of metal
into the challah to kill some of the extra yeast off.
Then, once people did it, they reverse-engineered kavanos for the
practice.

Here he cites a totally different theory about the origin of schlissel
challah, and passes it off as though I agreed with him!

In any case, his real campaign isn't about the title, but about the
spread of hunting for segulos to get what you want out of G-d rather
than ana avda deQBH and bitachon that what we get in response to doing
His Will is what He wants us to get.

And on that I would agree. IMHO, it is all talui on kavanah. Are you
trying to engage in theurgical magick, or is it simanei milsa, like
on RH, for the time between Chag haAsviv and Chag haQatzir, when this
year's crops start coming in and one is thinking about paranasah?

After all, the gemara says (Taanis 2b) that hashgachah WRT parnasah
is described in EY as being the fourth "mafteiach" that HQBH doesn't
share with a shaliach. And R' Yochanan (himself in "Maaravah") subsumed
parnasah under mafteiach shel geshamim. But either way the metaphor is
of a key to Hashem's otzar of parnasah. So, connecting keys to parnasah
isn't newfangled.

Tir'u baTov!
-Micha

[Prof. Levine]

See http://www.alfassa.com/bread.html

[Micha Berger]

The Origins of the Non-Jewish Custom Of 'Shlissel Challah' (Key Bread)
by Shelomo Alfassa

His argument is quite weak. He shows how keys were sometimes made
in Xiological shapes -- crosses or in threes. He doesn't prove this
was common, or that doing so with religious intent is. He also shows
that baking bread in the shape of a cross is common, particularly for
Easter. (Which is why my children's childhoods omitted the Mother Goose
rhyme "Hot Cross Buns".) And from there leaps to Jews making challah at
a time close to Easter (the first Shabbos after Pesach) in the shape of
a key. Meanwhile, he also mentions that Jews already had a custom of
ladder-shaped challos, implies it is likely what morphed into this
custom, and yet *that* doesn't even have the two-step connection to
crosses he started out with.

He quotes me about reverse engineering a reason for a minhag, but
I never said that such things were uncommon or wrong for minhagim.
What I said was:

http://www.aishdas.org/avodah/vol25/v25n384.shtml#06

: Does this not all sound very much like reverse engineering or drawing the
: target after having shot the arrow?
Yes it doesa. Taamei hamitzvos are lessons drawn from halakhah -- very
much after the arrow is shot. One doesn't darshen halakhah from the
taam. It might be useful as a factor when choosing between two shitos or
sevaros. But only one formal halachic process actually "shot the arrow"
and the question is still unresolved.

I'm actually LAUDING the search for taamei hamitzvos even though they
are post-facto and didn't necessarily motivate the din. (And therefore
can't be used to modify the din.)

And <http://www.aishdas.org/avodah/vol28/v28n067.shtml#03> (from a

Sourdough is hard to come by this week, as it takes over a week to
ferment. The other source of yeast frequently used before the Fleishmans
figured out how to isolate it is barm, a sideproduct of making bear.
But barm has more yeast and is more reactive than they were used to,
and would make softer more floury bread than sourdough. Most metals kill
yeast, although stainless steel doesn't. So they put a piece of metal
into the challah to kill some of the extra yeast off.
Then, once people did it, they reverse-engineered kavanos for the
practice.

Here he cites a totally different theory about the origin of schlissel
challah, and passes it off as though I agreed with him!

In any case, his real campaign isn't about the title, but about the
spread of hunting for segulos to get what you want out of G-d rather
than ana avda deQBH and bitachon that what we get in response to doing
His Will is what He wants us to get.

And on that I would agree. IMHO, it is all talui on kavanah. Are you
trying to engage in theurgical magick, or is it simanei milsa, like
on RH, for the time between Chag haAsviv and Chag haQatzir, when this
year's crops start coming in and one is thinking about paranasah?

After all, the gemara says (Taanis 2b) that hashgachah WRT parnasah
is described in EY as being the fourth "mafteiach" that HQBH doesn't
share with a shaliach. And R' Yochanan (himself in "Maaravah") subsumed
parnasah under mafteiach shel geshamim. But either way the metaphor is
of a key to Hashem's otzar of parnasah. So, connecting keys to parnasah
isn't newfangled.

Tir'u baTov!
-Micha