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Sharing your schar with the KitchenAid
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chaylizi




 
 
    
 

Post Thu, May 15 2008, 2:32 pm
I have a muscle weakness in my hands. I make the dough by hand & divide it in half for my kitchen aid to help me a little. I do as much as I can myself, but the alternative would be not making challah. so I don't think I'm sharing schar with anything.
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louche




 
 
    
 

Post Thu, May 15 2008, 2:57 pm
I didn't read the whole thread but I find the basic premise nonsensical. Unless I've been misled all my life, the mitzvah is taking challah, not baking challah. If we had a Beit Hamikdash we'd be taking loaves and bringing them to our LOC (local orthodox cohen) the same way we'd be bringing trumah and maaser. The mitzvah of trumah and maaser isn't to grow the produce but to give the portions to the designated recipients. The mitzvah of challah isn't to bake the challah but to give the portion to the designated recipient. since we no longer give trumah and maaser to the cohen. we burn the challah only because we can't give it to a cohen to eat. and if we acquired bread from which challah hadn't been taken, we'd have to do it ourselves despite the fact that we didn't bake the bread.

even if the mitzvah were to bake challah, which it isn't, the mixer is just a tool. If you had a child via IVF, do the petri dish and incubator get credited with pru urevu? Please.

Of course we don't know how Hashem calculates our reward. It's not unreasonable to imagine that a person who has to work harder to fulfill a mitzvah--emphasis on the has to--may get a greater reward than a person for whom the mitzvah is easier. But I'm not at all sure that the same is true if the person chooses to make the mitzvah unnecessarily harder on himself. Making things harder than necessary is not a tenet of the Jewish religion AFAIK. Or to paraphrase Einstein, Make things as hard as necessary, but no harder.
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chocolate moose




 
 
    
 

Post Thu, May 15 2008, 3:01 pm
I'm really happy to have help. I'm bck to making challah, and it makes it soooo much easier. if I didn't share th zchar with a machine, I'd be sharing it with the store !
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ChossidMom




 
 
    
 

Post Thu, May 15 2008, 4:22 pm
When I make challah I do it completely by hand. I tried years ago to use my Kitchen Aid and I found that the dough "climbed up" on the hook.

I also feel that making challah is a bit different than washing dishes or cleaning the floor. Because it's considered to be a special mitzva for women. Washing the floor can be done by anyone but making challahs is meant to be done by women davka. I don't find it relaxing or fun but I do find it very spiritual to have my hands covered in flour and dough as I knead. With every push I daven for my children, for the 5 minutes until I finish preparing the dough. It has become a very spiritual experience for me. I really could not imagine doing it in a machine now even if the dough didn't climb up the hook! I don't look at it in terms of schar. I could care less. This is about how the challah making builds ME.

By the way, sometimes it's hard for me to do the mixing of the dough and liquids. I taught my 10 year old to do it and she absolutely loves it. Not a bad chinuch thing either for a Jewish girl....
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spinkles




 
 
    
 

Post Thu, May 15 2008, 4:46 pm
I had the same problem with the dough, ChossidMom. During shana rishona I tried and tried to use my KitchenAid, but in the end it was too much of a hassle. Now I just do it by hand and have for years.

But I don't think there's a difference in schar. Everyone should just do what's easiest for them. It's not a mitzvah to make things more difficult for yourself. We're supposed to have tremendous simcha making challah.
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Motek




 
 
    
 

Post Thu, May 15 2008, 5:49 pm
chana_f wrote:
Everyone should just do what's easiest for them. It's not a mitzvah to make things more difficult for yourself. We're supposed to have tremendous simcha making challah.


Did you see the thread about hotels and going there for Pesach? There were posters who think you shouldn't look for the easiest way.
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chaylizi




 
 
    
 

Post Thu, May 15 2008, 6:01 pm
ChossidMom wrote:
I taught my 10 year old to do it and she absolutely loves it. Not a bad chinuch thing either for a Jewish girl....

not all of us have daughters who are old enough to help.
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YALT




 
 
    
 

Post Thu, May 15 2008, 6:19 pm
Sorry, I can't read all the posts. But I think I'm safe enough to write what I want to in this case, after reading the first few.

Look at it this way - like a Yissaschar/Zevulun relationship.
I paid for the machine, and I put everything inside, and the machine does the hard part for me.
I think it's fair....
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chocolate moose




 
 
    
 

Post Thu, May 15 2008, 6:44 pm
I read something funny today, about how the dishwasher is ruining American society, because when the woman would wash and the man would dry, then could engage in comfortable chatter.

What do you think of that .....
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chaylizi




 
 
    
 

Post Thu, May 15 2008, 6:51 pm
I think that it may be ruining society as a whole, but if I didn't own a dishwasher I would be ruining my marriage & my self esteem. which do you think I should be more worried about?
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happyone




 
 
    
 

Post Thu, May 15 2008, 6:59 pm
And here I'm sharing my schar with a German made Basch shock
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louche




 
 
    
 

Post Thu, May 15 2008, 7:02 pm
chocolate moose wrote:
I read something funny today, about how the dishwasher is ruining American society, because when the woman would wash and the man would dry, then could engage in comfortable chatter.

What do you think of that .....


Absurd. They can always fold laundry together.
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chaylizi




 
 
    
 

Post Thu, May 15 2008, 7:03 pm
happyone wrote:
And here I'm sharing my schar with a German made Basch shock


you're sharing your schar with a GERMAN??? chalila v'chas!!!!
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spinkles




 
 
    
 

Post Thu, May 15 2008, 7:27 pm
Quote:
Everyone should just do what's easiest for them. It's not a mitzvah to make things more difficult for yourself. We're supposed to have tremendous simcha making challah.


Did you see the thread about hotels and going there for Pesach? There were posters who think you shouldn't look for the easiest way.

I didn't read that thread, but I agree--you shouldn't look for the easiest way to do a mitzvah. What I said was, everyone should do what will allow them to be b'simcha while doing the mitzvah. That's not taking the easy way out. It's about realizing that you get oodles more schar when you do a mitzvah happily than when you're kvetching about it. Although of course you get oodles of schar when a mitzvah's hard but you do it anyway. So who knows? What
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ora_43




 
 
    
 

Post Fri, May 16 2008, 10:33 am
louche wrote:
It's not unreasonable to imagine that a person who has to work harder to fulfill a mitzvah--emphasis on the has to--may get a greater reward than a person for whom the mitzvah is easier. But I'm not at all sure that the same is true if the person chooses to make the mitzvah unnecessarily harder on himself.

That was my thought as well.

As an example, if I gave a friend 100 shekels to buy chips, cookies, and drinks for a party I wouldn't be too happy if she came back with two bags of really really expensive imported cookies and nothing else. Obviously it's better to use the money to get everything that's needed, and only if there's extra to get the expensive stuff.

Same here, I only have a certain amount of time and energy, and IMO it would just be silly to spend a large percent of it on one task if there might not be enough for everything that way. I'm happy to take full advantage of laundry machines, microwaves, stores that sell challah, etc. If I have "extra" time and energy to make challah without making it impossible to finish the Shabbos cooking/ pay proper attention to the baby/ etc, then I will.

That said I do understand that challah is special, and I try to make it myself when possible.
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