HALACHA OF THE WEEK:Hafrashat Challah In honor of this week’s Shabbos Project, here is a brief review of the laws of separating challah.
Of the many agricultural mitzvot in the Torah, only one that is definitively required the Diaspora – the mitzvah of separating challah. This mitzvah applies when one bakes bread, cake, crackers, or cookies with at least 2-2/3 pounds of flour from the five grains - wheat, barley, oats, spelt, and rye. However, in order to recite a bracha five pounds of flour must be used.
When baking bread or a cake with a thick dough, one should separate challah after kneading but before the bread is baked. While when baking a cake with a batter that can be poured, the challah is separated after the cake is baked.
Procedurally, one breaks off a small piece of dough and says the bracha אשר קדשנו במצוותיו וציונו להפריש חלה or להפריש תרומה, then adds declares “harei zu trumah” or “harei zu challah.”
If separating challah for several batches of dough all at one time (when each one contains the shiur challah), all of the dough should be in close proximity to each other at the time of the declaration (and if the batches of dough are in bowls or containers, ideally the bowls should be open and touching.) However, if the containers do not contain the minimum amount required for challah, one should place all of the dough into one large container and then separate challah.
Once the challah has been separated, the Torah [Bamidbar 15:21] commands that the challah is given to a kohen to eat. Nowadays, the halacha is that the challah must be burnt. One way to do this is to place the small piece of dough in the middle of a burner on a gas stove top for a few minutes until it is burnt to a crisp – or put the piece of dough into the oven until it is completely burnt. (If the challah is completely wrapped up, one may bake other items in the oven while the challah is burning. However, if the challah is uncovered, it is best to avoid baking anything else in the oven while the challah is burning.)
DVAR TORAH Rabbi Jonathan Sacks, z”l, whose first yahrzeit is this coming Monday night, noted that the stories of this week’s parsha are among the most complex episodes in the Torah. Not because they are difficult to understand, but because they are difficult to accept.
In Chapter 21, G-d commanded Avraham to listen to his wife and send away his first-born son, Yishmael – an act which “distressed Avraham greatly.” And then, in Chapter 22, Avraham is commanded to take his “beloved son” Yitzchak and bind him to an altar in the place that G-d will reveal to him.
Why would G-d command Avraham to do these two challenging things? Why would He ask a father to tear apart his own family?
According to Rabbi Sacks, these two events are the continuation of the initial call to Avraham by G-d in last week’s parsha, where Avraham was commanded to leave his birthplace and his own father’s home. Or, as Rabbi Sacks explained, “what we are seeing in these events is the birth of the individual… No longer were they [parents and children] fused into a single unit, with a single controlling will. They were each to become persons in their own right, with their own identity and integrity… These painful episodes represent the agonizing birth-pangs of a new way of thinking about humanity.”
Because the Torah recognized the power of the individual, the serve G-d, to impact the world and, when necessary, separate from the past and create the space to reimagine the way things should be.
“It is this drama of separation that Abraham symbolically enacts in his relationship both to his father and to his two sons. In this world-transforming moment of the birth of the individual, G-d is teaching him the delicate art of making space, without which no true individuality can grow.”
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MAZAL TOV * to Naomi and Lawrence Yablong on the birth of a grandson. The proud parents are Michal and Chuck Boyers. * to Rabbi Ari and Esther Maryles on the Bar Mitzvah of their son, Elimelech. Mazal tov to grandparents Marshall Maeur, Feigi Maeur and Jack Maryles. * to Sharon and Larry Chambers on the marriage of their grandson, Avrohom Pickholtz, to Dina Wolman, of Monsey, NY
REFUAH SHLAIMA * to Etai Rimel – Etai Yaakov ben Tzipporah, who is recovering in rehab. * to Judah Cohen – Yehuda Adin ben Malka, who is recovering from surgery.
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DAILY & WEEKLY SHIURIM Please note: Rabbi Myers' Parsha Class will not meet Shabbat morning 10/23
BIRTHDAYS Rabbi Sam Seleski (10/23) Naftali Amster (10/24) Dovi Dress (10/24) Mr. Seth Appel (10/25) Tzachi Bresler (10/25) Libby Stein (10/25) Ahron Arnet (10/26) Shalva Miretzky (10/26) Mr. Sheldon Galowich (10/27) Mr. Michael Kirshner (10/27) Dr. Jordan Pollack (10/27) Ahron Shapiro (10/27) Chana Engelson (10/28)
BIRTHDAYS (cont'd) Agam Gottesman (10/28) Mrs. Esther Meyers (10/28) Elchanan Campbell (10/29) Mr. Marc Halpert (10/29) Hadassah Karp (10/29) Adam Katz (10/29) Mrs. Yaffi Loterstein (10/29)
ANNIVERSARIES Dr. Dov & Sharon Shapiro (10/24) Lawrence & Naomi Yablong (10/25)
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