bs"d Newsletter vol.2 issue 12
Queen in the Kitchen
~The Secret Key~
Foil is off the counters and the Pesach dishes are mostly packed away. But I’m still trying to sort out the drawers and cabinets, looking for my cake plate hidden away somewhere, and wondering where I put those meaty Tupperware tops. It’ll get sorted out soon enough, and at least I’m not searching for my keys. Judaism is full of paradoxes. Just over a week ago I was covering every chometz-dik surface of my kitchen in shiny aluminum. And now, I’m wrapping keys in foil and stuffing them in dough bubbling with yeast. A Bissel Shlissel Challah There is a custom called in Yiddish, “Shlissel (key) Challah.” We insert a key, or shape our challos like a key, to signify that we understand our basic necessities in life as well as our creature comforts are stored for us in shamayim behind locked gates. All we have to do is ask Hashem, the Heavenly Gatekeeper, to unlock the gates and fill our homes with blessing. Why especially on the first Shabbos after Pesach do we make a Shlissel Challah? I mean, for most of us, we need an "easy" Shabbos, not one up to our elbows working in dough and waiting hours for it to rise. But it is exactly now that challah should on our mind. It was in the spring, soon after Pesach, we finally entered the Land of Israel. It was a time of transition in the seasons as well as in the way we received our "daily manna." We had been eating the gift of mann from Heaven and now had to begin
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eating the fruit of the Land, food that seemed to come to us as a direct result of our own effort. By placing a key in (or on) our challah at the same time of year as we change from receiving mann to working the Land for food, we are saying that the key to both belongs to Hashem. And just as He unlocked the gates of sustenance to provide for us in those days in Eretz Yisrael, may He provide us with our needs now, wherever we may be. Eye of the Needle Another beautiful insight into the custom is from Shir Hashirim, which we just read on Shabbos of Pesach. Sages say the verse: Open for Me, My sister, My beloved means that when we give Hashem a small opening, like the eye of a needle, He will open up a huge opening through which to pour His blessing. During Pesach all the upper gates are open and after Pesach they close. So, we put a key in the challah now as the “small opening” in preparing for Shabbos; a hint to Hashem that, in this merit, may He open and bless us with good from His storehouses and the heavens.
See how to make a key shaped challah here & thanks for reading~ thekosherchannel.com ! May your every effort, a mitzvah b’simcha, or custom of your forefathers create a great opening through which blessing pours into your home.
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