Shlissel Challah | Imamother

Sanguine

Thu, Apr 24 2014, 9:25 am

Now that I've mastered my bread machine and challah baking (about a month before Pesach), I'm ready to make a Shlissel Challah. Someone once told me to just hide a key inside the Challah - Easy but wrong.

Where can I find good/foolproof directions to make a Shlissel Challah (with pictures)

Do I need for at night and lunch too or just at night?

Pineapple

Thu, Apr 24 2014, 9:51 am

Sanguine wrote:

Y wrong?

Sanguine

Thu, Apr 24 2014, 9:55 am

Pineapple wrote:

Y wrong?

It's OK to just put a key inside? I can do that - don't need any directions

Pineapple

Thu, Apr 24 2014, 10:00 am

Sanguine wrote:

It's OK to just put a key inside? I can do that - don't need any directions

I stick it in between the braids on top

Sanguine

Thu, Apr 24 2014, 10:02 am

Pineapple wrote:

I stick it in between the braids on top

so it shows? do you wrap it in foil?

m in Israel

Thu, Apr 24 2014, 10:10 am

I'm not sure how their can be a "wrong" way of doing something that has no real source for it anyway! FWIW, I wrap the key in aluminum foil and stick it inside the bottom of the Challah after I shape it. I was told that it should be the key to your front door, not some random key, but as I said earlier there is obviously no "source" for that either. I also make a small key out of dough that I put on top of the Challah so I can keep track of which Challah it is. And we do it for only the Friday night seudah.

oliveoil

Thu, Apr 24 2014, 10:35 am

Yeah, most ppl I know wrap the key on foil and bake it in a regular shaped challah. We use the keys to home and business.

Sanguine

Thu, Apr 24 2014, 10:37 am

m in Israel wrote:

This is easy - Now what do you do with the key when you find it (assuming no one breaks their teeth biting into it)? Put it back in the hiding place so my kids can get into the house on Friday night?

Pineapple

Thu, Apr 24 2014, 10:37 am

Sanguine wrote:

so it shows? do you wrap it in foil?

The top part shows

Yes I wrap in foil

Sanguine

Thu, Apr 24 2014, 10:48 am

OK - I'm set to go - Thanks

octopus

Thu, Apr 24 2014, 10:50 am

is this your minhag? or is it something you want to do because it is popular? someone once posted an article here from sholom alfasi that was fascinating. It said the origins of schlissel challah may very well have christian origins and may be a minhag shel taus. do your research. this was never my minhag so never did it. I'll do a search and post the link.

etky

Thu, Apr 24 2014, 11:02 am

octopus wrote:

I've read that the key shape resembles the 'hot cross' buns that are traditionally baked for Easter.
It's not my minhag but if it were I'm not sure I would discontinue making it based on speculation since no one really knows the exact origins.

ChossidMom

Thu, Apr 24 2014, 11:23 am

I just read an article that says that shlissel challah has nothing to do with Christian customs.
It's a Chassidish custom, apparently.

http://www.vosizneias.com/1274.....ysis/

New York - The custom of Schlissel Challah has become very widespread, not only in the Chassidish world but in many other communities as well. Two years ago, an article written by Shelomo Alfassa appeared that attempted to connect the custom known as Schlissel Challah to Christian or pagan sources. The Alfassa article, entitled “The Loaf of Idolatry?” stated that fulfilling this custom was, in fact, a Torah violation of following in the ways of the gentiles. In this article, an attempt will be made to trace the origins of the custom and to examine the alleged connection to non-Jewish sources that appeared in the Alfassa article. With due respect to Mr. Alfassa, it is this author’s contention that the allegations are quite spurious, error-filled and misleading, and have no connection whatsoever to this Chassidic custom.

As far as the sources for Schlissel Challah, Alfassa writes as follows:
“While the custom is said to be mentioned in the writings of Avraham Yehoshua Heshel (the “Apter Rav” 1748-1825) and in the Ta’amei ha-Minhagim (1891), there is no one clear source for shlissel challah. And while people will say there is a passuq attributed to it, there is not. And, even if there were, a passuq that can be linked to the practice is not the same as a source… The idea of baking shlissel challah is not from the Torah; it’s not in the Tannaitic, Amoraitic, Savoraitic, Gaonic or Rishonic literature. Rabbi Shlomo Aviner of Israel’s Yeshivat Ateret Yerushalayim said that while baking challah with a key in it is not forbidden, “there is no meaning in doing so.”
While Alfassa is correct in his assertion that the custom is not found in the writings of the Rishonim or earlier, for some reason he fails to point out the Chassidic origin of Schlissel Challah. As a general rule, we do not find Chassidish customs in the Rishonim because the movement itself only began in 1740. We, however, do find mention of the custom to bake Challah in the shape of a key in many, many Chassidish Seforim. These Seforim were written by genuine Torah scholars, and it is difficult to propose that a Christian practice somehow entered into their literary oeuvre. The Klausenberger Rebbe, the Satmar Rebbe, the Belzer Rebbe, Rav Moshe Aryeh Freund, and numerous Chassidishe Rebbes and Poskim all punctiliously observed this custom.
Most of the reasons have to do with the Kabbalistic notion of “Tirayin Petichin” that the gates to Heaven are opened. This concept of opened gates is found throughout the Zohar and is discussed by such authorities as the Shla (whose father was a student of the Remah).
The earliest reference is in the works of Rabbi Pinchas Shapiro of Koritz (born 1726), a descendent of the Megaleh Amukos and a student of the Baal Shem Tov. In his work called Imrei Pinchas (#298) he explains that the reason to bake Schlissel Challah on the Shabbos following Pesach is that during Pesach, the gates to Heaven were opened and remain open until Pesach Sheni. The key alludes to the fact that these gates are now open and that we should focus our prayers ever more on that account.
The Apter Rebbe, author of the Ohaiv Yisroel (Likkutim al HaTorah Pesach), mentions the custom as well but provides a slightly different reason. He writes that the gates to Heaven were opened to our prayers the entire Pesach and we must now re-open them with the Mitzvah of our Shabbos observance. Although Alfassa writes that there is no Pasuk that is referenced for this custom, the verse does indeed exist and is mentioned in the Ohev Yisroel itself. In Shir HaShirim 5:2, which is read on Shabbos Chol HaMoed the verse states, “Open for me, my sister..” Chazal darshen (Yalkut Shimoni Shir HaShirim 988), “You have become My sister with the observance of the two Mitzvos in Egypt the blood of the Korban Pesach and the blood of Bris Milah..Open for Me an opening like the eye of the needle and I (Hashem) shall open for you like the opening of a wide hall.” The Ohev Yisroel mentions two other reasons for the custom, primarily that Hashem should open His “store house of plenty” for us as he did in Iyar after the exodus.
The Belzer Rebbe (Choshvei Machshavos p. 152) provided the explanation that although the Geulaha may not have happened yet as it was scheduled to occur on Nissan, at least the key to Hashem’s storehouse of parnassah and plenty have been opened.
The Taamei HaMinhagim (596 and 597) provides a number of reasons as well.
Alfassa writes that “at least one old Irish source tells how at times when a town was under attack, the men said, “let our women-folk be instructed in the art of baking cakes containing keys.” This is Alfassa’s lead reference, but looking up his reference (O’Brien, Flann. The Best of Myles. Normal, IL; Dalkey Archive Press, 1968. Page 393) reveals that it is not really an old Irish source. Rather it is a quote from the fiction works found a collection of Irish newspaper columns that date back four decades before the publication of the book. In other words, there is no correlation between this 20th century literary statement and a custom that dates back to Eatsern Europe centuries earlier.
Let’s now look at the second reference that Alfassa brings. He writes citing a book written by James George Frazer, entitled The Golden Bough. London: Macmillan and Co., “Another account mentions a key in a loaf: “In other parts of Esthonia [sic], again, the x-mas Boar [cake], as it is called, is baked of the first rye cut at harvest; it has a conical shape and a cross is impressed on it with a pig’s bone or a key, or three dints are made in it with a buckle or a piece of charcoal. It stands with a light beside it on the table all through the festival season.”
The fact is, however, this source does not mention a key in a loaf at all. It mentions a cake with a cross on top of it. How was the shape of the cross made? Either with a bone of a pig or with a cross shaped key. There is no parallel to the Schlissel Challah here whatsoever.
Alfassa further tells us in a footnote, “Small breads with the sign of the cross have been found as far back as 79 CE in the ancient Roman city of Herculaneum (see The New York Times March 31, 1912). This was when Christianity emerged in Roman Judea as a Jewish religious sect which gradually spread out of Jerusalem.
This footnote as well is extremely misleading. The city of Herculaneum located in the shadow of Mount Vesuvius was destroyed on August 4th, in the year 79 CE. At the time it was an entirely pagan city where they worshipped Hercules, and were assuredly not Christian. There was no influence on Judaism here, nor a connection to Christianity as Alfassa implies because the entire city was buried in volcanic ash, and they were not influenced by Christianity. The connection to Schlissel Challah here is completely non-existent. More likely is the fact that the “plus sign” was actually an icon before the identification of the cross with Christianity. Also connecting the shaping of a plus sign with the Schlissel Challah in this instance is quite spurious.
Alfass further attempts to connect the practice with the idea of placing figurines in cupcakes. He writes, “Similar, there are modern non-Jewish customs, such as in Mexico, where a ‘baby Yoshke’ figurine is baked into cupcakes; often, the child who finds it wins a prize. This is also practiced in the U.S. state of Louisiana beginning at Mardi Gras and practiced for 30 days after. There, a ‘baby Yoshke’ toys baked into a whole cake, and whoever finds the baby in their piece has to buy the next day’s cake. In Spain, there is a tradition of placing a small Yoshke doll inside a cake and whoever finds it must take it to the nearest church..”
The connection that the author makes between this and Schlissel Challah is perplexing. There is no geographic connection. There is no timeline connection. The only similarity is the placing of an item in something else. Both the items are different and the product that they are put in are different. At best, one can say that this is scholarship that lacks rigor.
In conclusion, there is no evidence whatsoever that this Chasidic custom was derived from or influenced by Christian practice. The scholarship behind this allegation is faulty and error-filled. This is a custom that has been practiced by the greatest of our Chasidic brethren and it is wrong to cast such aspersions on their practice.
The author can be reached at yairhoffman2@gmail.com

Sanguine

Thu, Apr 24 2014, 11:53 am

Not my minhag. Only heard about it a few years ago. I don't take on extra minhagim that require work (like the Simanim on Rosh HaShana - everyone's doing them now -- a lot of work). Since I'm planning to bake challa tomorrow anyway I can stick in my front door key for a segulla for parnessa.

Ruchel

Thu, Apr 24 2014, 11:56 am

Same sanguine. I don't do the key, or the simanim, even though it's trendy.

etky

Thu, Apr 24 2014, 12:01 pm

Ruchel wrote:

Same sanguine. I don't do the key, or the simanim, even though it's trendy.

Nor do I. One seder a year is enough for me.

Bruria

Thu, Apr 24 2014, 10:52 pm

The article from Shelomo Alfassa : http://www.mesora.org/Shlissel.html

Last edited by Bruria on Fri, Apr 25 2014, 12:15 am; edited 1 time in total

ROFL

Thu, Apr 24 2014, 11:37 pm

Totally not my minhagim, but I started making Shlissel challah a few years ago, my dd loves to make it in the shape of a Skelton key plus we put in our front door key. I told my boss that I am doing my histadlus and now he has to do his to raise my salary.

greenfire

Fri, Apr 25 2014, 7:55 pm

I've always made a skeleton key - one for everyone ... this will be my first year in about 30 that I am not making challah right after pesach ...

oh well - it's never helped me anyways

but it sure would taste yumm

dee's mommy

Sat, Apr 26 2014, 10:46 pm

Not really a minhag for me either, but I do it for fun. (and my daughter really enjoys it too.

Here is a video on some techniques on the shaping which I found really helpful.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LToloFwVmnE