SHEMINI 5783

What’s a Schissel Challah?

In case you haven’t heard, Passover is over, and all the Pesach dishes and pots and pans have been put away. And this Shabbos we get to eat challah. Not just any challah, this Shabbos after Passover there is a custom among many to eat a special challah—a Schissel challah. Now what’s a Schissel challah? Schissel is a Yiddish word that means, “a key.” Some make the challah in the shape of a key, while others actually put a key into the dough and bake it. No, the key is not eaten!

All of this is meant as a segulah. What’s a segulah? A segulah is a remedy of protection—something one does to bring us good things. With the Schlissel challah, the key is meant to open up Gd’s treasury to us—that we should have wealth in our homes.

How many people do this? I have no idea! But I can tell you that it has become very popular in the Orthodox world. I heard that one year in Lakewood, NJ, the great Yeshiva there Beth Medrash Govoha got the key to the city and put it into their challah. Again, you don’t eat the key, but baking it in the challah brings a segulah—a remedy, a protection.

These kinds of remedies and protections are not new to Jews. If you go to Wikipedia, and type the word segulah, you’ll find a whole list of things you might want to do to bring you good luck, to protect you. Here are a few examples:

·       Eating an etrog or etrog jam facilitates an easy childbirth.

·       Wearing a ruby helps prevent miscarriage and eases birth.

·       Wearing a red string on your wrist—that’s a popular one—cut from a longer length that’s been wound around Rachel’s Tomb—is an ancient tradition that protects the wearer from danger.

·       Praying at the Western Wall for 40 consecutive days is a segulah for finding your soulmate.” Sound farfetched? I personally know a young girl who did this and soon got married! So don’t knock it, unless you’ve tried it!

The list goes on and on:

·       One can hang a special knot around the neck of a chicken and use it to identify your thief. Again, don’t laugh, unless you’ve tried it!

·       It is told about the Satmar Rebbe that he saw on a Saturday night after Shabbos, that one of his chasidim was the last one in the Beis Midrash study hall and was slowly folding his talis with great precision. The Rebbe asked him what he was doing. He said that he read in various books that care in folding one’s talis is a segulah for shalom bayis (peace at home). The Rebbe responded: “A better segulah is to go home and help your wife wash the dishes!” 

The truth of the matter is, this particular segulah of a Schlissel challah has no Biblical source. The Apter Rebbe (19^th cent.) explains (Likkutim al HaTorah Pesach) that during Pesach we are so close to Gd that our prayers enter the Shaarei Shamayim (Gates of Heaven). But after Pesach we become more distant, and they begin to close. What is the key to reopening them? He answers that the key is through the merit of Shabbos observance. This, according to the Apter Rav is the reason for Schlissel Challah—to encourage us to take notice and use every Shabbos as our key to draw closer to Hashem like we did on Pesach. Again, it’s a sweet custom, but no Biblical source.

What’s the story with all these different segulot? Do they work? It depends on whom you ask. Take a mezuzah—which certainly has a source as a mitzvah in the Torah—what purpose does it serve? Say the Kabbalists in the Zohar: Now when the forces of evil—demons—come to the door of a person’s house, they raise their eyes and see the Holy Name written outside the mezuzah which has the power over all of them; they flee in fear and it does not come near the door. The mezuzah chases away demons, according to the mystics!

In my book, Dancing With Gd, (p. 67-70), I point out that the Talmud, Rabbinic, Chassidic and Kabbalistic literature are filled with stories of the protective power of the mezuzah. The most famous comes from the Jerusalem Talmud (Peyah 1:1, 15d): The Parthian King Ardavan (2^nd century) sent Rabbi Yehuda Hanasi—the leader of the Jewish people and author of the Mishnah—a priceless gem, with the request, “Let me have in return an article as valuable as this.” So he sent the king a mezuzah.

The king became very upset upon receiving the mezuzah and sent back word, “I gave you a priceless object, and you return to me a piece of parchment?”

Rabbi Yehuda replied, “You sent me something which I must guard, while I sent you something which guards you while you sleep.” The Talmud then tells us that the king personally experienced its power when his daughter became very ill. The mezuzuah was affixed to the doorpost of her room and she soon was healed.

I also shared 3 stories of a young boy who suffered with severe headaches, a toddler who didn’t talk, and a man who had 2 heart attacks. Each family asked their rabbi to pray for them. Their rabbis recommended they have their mezuzahs checked. The one with the headaches was found to have a mezzuzah error in the word for “your eyes”; The toddler who didn’t talk had an error in the word for “and you will speak”; and the one with heart trouble had an error in the word for, “in your heart.” They replaced the mezuzahs and they all got better!   

If you’re mystical, who knows what works. If you’re a rationalist, don’t count on any red strings or keys or anything else from keeping demons away. Don’t waste your time carefully folding your tallis. Go home and help your wife!

There was a recent survey by the Nishma organization of Orthodox Jews. They divided Orthodox Jews into several categories: Yeshivish, Chassidish, and Modern Orthodox. Chassidish has many forms: Chabad, Satmar, Ger, etc. And then they divided up Orthodox into right-leaning, stringent Orthodox, Centrist Orthodox and Liberal Modern Orthodox.

As I mentioned on Pesach, it’s wonderful, colorful and rich that there are so many ways to celebrate Judaism—all moving in the same direction to Gd and His Torah? It’s a message of inclusion, tolerance and acceptance. Just because another Jewish community eats rice on Pesach (Sephardim) and you don’t … or some like the Yeshivish communities don’t eat gebrochts (recooked matzah such as used in matzah balls) on Pesach and others do … or why some eat kitniyot (legumes) on Passover like Sephardim and Ashkenazim don’t … it doesn’t make them less dedicated to Torah.

My friends, did you have a Schissel challah this Shabbos? It’s a sweet custom, but not my custom or Cheryl’s custom, so we didn’t have one in our home. In America, there’s such a diversity of observant Jewish communities with so many different customs. Is this a good thing? You bet! In fact, I would advise you to create or adapt new customs for yourselves and your families. Different strokes for different folks. Who knows, next year if Cheryl agrees, we might even have a Schlissel challah. Amen!