RABBI ARTHUR SEGAL:RASHA:RABEINU TAM:CHALLAH MAKES A person reborn, free of sin

 

RABBI ARTHUR SEGAL:RASHA:RABEINU TAM:CHALLAH MAKES A person reborn, free of sin

 

 The Mitzvoth and Spiritual Ramifications of Challah: A Talmudic Discourse:

Dedicated to the Best Baker of Challah on Hilton Head Island, SC,

 and my friend, Jeni Naomi Bilek

 

 

Shalom Rabbanim v Chaverim: 

 

Shavuah tov. We hope everyone had an easy fast on Tisha B'Av and prayed for all of Israel, if not the whole of humanity, to remove the sinat chinam, the baseless senseless hatred, that exists in Jew versus Jew, sects of Jews versus sects of Jews, and even with rabbis, still not learning the lessons of Lag B' Omer, denying each other's rabbinic semikah, based on which school one went to or didn't go to, or which way they learned.

 

We also wish everyone a joyous Tu B'av, this Wednesday,  August 5th, which is according to the Talmud, the happiest day on our Jewish Calendar. There is  a great article on it here : http://www.shalomctr.org/node/1526. and

Rabbi Arthur Segal: RABBI ARTHUR SEGAL:JEWISH SPIRITUAL RENEWAL:TU B'AV:ZOHAR:MARK TIME WITH MOON

 

In Talmud Yerushalmi Tractate Challah  2:3,  ''Said R. Yehudah: Why must a home baker separate 1/24 of his dough as challah offering?  Because he is generous with his dough. And why must a professional baker separate 1/48 of his dough?  Because he is stingy with his dough. The home baker's amount of dough is small in volume and would not contain an adequate gift to the priest if it were only 1/48 of the total. But the baker's dough is large in volume and contains an adequate gift for the priest even if only 1/48  is separated.

 

What exactly is being discussed?

 

Well, we need to take a trip eastward to Babylon to Talmud Bavli Pesachim 6a.

 

 Chayevet b'Challah:  With regard to the Mitzvah of Challah, the verses in the Chumash states, "...b'Vo'achem El ha'Aretz...Reishis Arisoseichem Challah Tarimu Serumah..." - "Speak to the people of Yisrael, and say to them, 'When you come into the land where I shall bring you, when you eat of the bread of the land, you shall separate a Terumah (offering) to Ha Shem. You shall separate the first of your dough for a  Terumah; as you do with the Terumah separated from the grain of the threshing floor, so, too, shall you present this to the Kohanim." (Bamidbar [Numbers]:15:18-20).

So the sages teach that when a person makes dough from one of the five species of grain (wheat, barley, oats, rye or spelt), he must separate a small portion which must be given to the Kohen before he may eat from the dough. This portion is called Challah.

 

(Note: When we call our two loaves of braided Shabbat bread Challah, we are not only remembering the two portions of Manna given to us on Fridays, so that we did not have to work on Shabbat gathering it, but are also remembering the offerings we made to the Priests. The Talmud teaches us that our table has replace the altar in the Temple, our food has replaced the grain and animals brought to the priests for offerings, and since we are called, a nation of 'priests', we have become ritually impure since our last meal (scratching our heads, for example) and must ritually wash our hands, which harkens to a full body immersion in the mikvah.)

 

The requirement to separate Challah with  Beracoth applies to a volume of dough made with at least 43.2 Beitzim [size of an egg] of flour [about 10 1/2 cups or 2.48 liters]. One who makes a dough that is approximately half of that size must separate Challah without a Berachah. So if we are making a small or big loaf of bread, we still owe a portion for terumah, but a small size, we don't need to say the beracoth thanking God for the mitzvah of separating Challah, but for a large loaf we do need to say it.

 

May it be Your will, our G!d, the G!d of our Fathers, that You bless our dough, as You blessed the dough of our Mothers, Sarah, Rivkah, Rachel and Leah. And may we be blessed as in the verse: "You shall give the first yield of your dough to the kohen to make a blessing rest upon your home." (Ezekiel 44:30)

Some have the custom to recite the following verse twice before reciting the blessing for separating challah (Sefer Chukei HaNashim):

 

May the pleasantness of the Lord our G!d be upon us; establish for us the work of our hands; establish the work of our hands (Psalm 90:17).

 

May it be Your will, our G!d, the G!d of our Fathers, that the mitzvah of separating challah be considered as if I observed every one of its details. May my raising of the challah be considered as the sacrifice that was offered on the altar, which was willingly accepted. Just as giving the challah to the kohen in the past served to atone for sins, so may it atone for my sins and I shall be like a person reborn, free of sin and transgression. May I be able to observe the holy Shabbat and Festivals with my husband (and our children), and be nourished from the holiness of these days. May the influence of the mitzvah of challah enable our children to be always nourished by the hands of the Holy One blessed be He, with His abundant mercy, loving-kindness, and great love; and the mitzvah of challah be accepted as though I have given a tithe. And now, as I am fulfilling the mitzvah of challah with all my heart, so may the compassion of the Holy One Blessed be He be aroused to keep me from sorrow and pain always, Amen.

 

 

A professional baker must separate 1/48 of his dough as Challah, while one baking bread for his or her own household must separate 1/24. If one did not separate Challah from his dough before it was baked, it must be separated after it is baked before the bread may be consumed. Before Challah is separated, the dough is called "Tavul l'Challah," and anyone who eats it b'Mezid (intentionally) is liable to receive the punishments of Malkut (the wrath of the Kingdom of God) and Misah b'Yedei Shamayim (death at the hand of heaven). (Talmud Bavli Tractate Makot 13a). Makot are lashes,  and if you haven't studied the whole of Talmud, Makot is a fascinating Tractate.

 

 

Challah, that has been separated  has the same status of Terumah.  It may be eaten by Kohanim and their families, while they are Tehorim. A non-Kohen who eats Chalah b'Mezid is liable to receive Malkut and Misah b'Yedei Shamayim (Rambam Hilchos Bikurim 5:14 and Hilchos Terumah 6:6).

 If a Nochri (foreigner, Non-Jew), owns any part of the dough, no Challah need be taken, as the verse states, "Arisoseichem" -- "*your* dough". As the verses in the Chumash indicate, the Mitzvah of Challah applies only in Eretz Yisrael. There is a Mitzvah mid'Rabanan,[by rabbinic Talmudic decree]  however, to separate Challah in Chutz  la'Aretz [lands that Jews live in that are outside of Israel ] as well. (Talmud Bavli Tractate Beitzah 9a).

 

Hence since many corporate bakeries owned by Jews, may have non-Jewish stock holders, partners, or even gentile banks holding their mortgage , (being the true owners), they are exempt from the mitzvah of challah.

 

Now Talmud Bavli Tractate Pesachim 6a goes into a fine point of marit eyin, what looks good to the eye, i.e. making sure we do what is right, but also making sure we never give the appearance that we are doing something wrong, even if we did not do anything wrong. ''Isah leis lei Kala  ...   dough has no voice''.  People are not aware that this dough is or is not intended for the payment of the offering, and therefore one who sees the owner of the dough eating from it without first seeing him separating Challah will suspect him of eating from Tavul l'Challah. (Even then Jews could tend to think the worst of their neighbors, even though we are taught to judge everyone favorably). Hence, when baking, (and folks used to use a communal oven to bake in a courtyard -chatzer), we have to be careful to publicly show we are separating Challah, and make our beracoth loudly and when bringing bread to our friend's home, say before they ask or think, that we have separated Challah.

 

Now, as we see, the proportions of  a Jewish commercial baker and a Jewish home maker seem to be set. A home maker gives more proportionately, while a commercial baker gives less proportionately. But, the baker actually is giving more dough. Now its not by accident that slang words for money, especially in Hollywood when we are looking for backers for our projects, talk in terms of cake, dough, pie, and even petty cash, which can be in the amount of $ 100,000, as crumbs.

 

But were these proportions set in stone and in agreement?

 

Again, let us look at the Talmud Bavli Tractate Shabbat 15a for some interesting insight.

 

The Gemara quotes Rav Huna who says that there were three occasions on which Rabbis Shammai  and Hillel argued. The first involved the minimum amount of dough required for Challah  to be separated from the dough. Shammai  required that there be at least one Kav of dough in order for one to be obligated to separate Challah  from it. Hillel required two Kavim. The Chachamim (Sages) argued with both Shammai  and Hillel and said that there must be at least one and a half Kavim of dough.

So what is a Kav, and why are the Sages splitting the difference with Rabbis Shammai and Hillel. Snd note, this is circa 100 BCE. What were Hebrew giving when Solomon's Temple was in existence, circa 950 BCE to 586 BCE? What were Jews separating in Babylon from 586 BCE to circa 100 BCE? And what were Hebrews doing 'presently' at "Ezra's'' Temple in Jerusalem?

The Chachamim's opinion is simple to understand. One and a half Kavim is equivalent to the quantity of Manna that fell for each person every day when the Hebrews traveled through the wilderness. (There are 432 eggs in one Eifah. Hence, 1/10 of an Eifah equals 43.2 eggs, which equals 1.8 Kavim in Midbariyot (wilderness) units (24 eggs = 1 Kav), which is 1.5 Kavim in Yerushalmiyot units.) The Chachamim derive from a verse that the requirement of Challah is equivalent to the amount of Manna that fell for each person. What, though, is the reasoning of Shammai and Hillel?

For our answers we head east back to the Talmud Yerushalmi, where we started. The medieval rabbinic commentators that we call Tosfos in their ''Shammai Omer''  cites the Talmud Yerushalmi that explains that Shammai and Hillel also derived their amounts from the Manna, but they measured the Manna differently from the way the Chachamim measured it. Even though the Manna that fell each day was 1/10 of an Eifah, they both understood that the tenth was a tenth "from the outside" (that is, if it is added with another nine parts, it equals ten parts), or, in our terms, 1/9 of an Eifah. (The Manna, therefore, measured 48 eggs (1/9 of 432), which equals 2 Kavim.)

Hillel maintained that Challah must be separated from dough of that quantity, and thus he required at least 2 Kavim. Shammai said that Challah needs to be taken from ''one meal's worth'' of the quantity of Manna that fell. Since the Manna fell in quantities of two meals' worth, and the total amount of Manna was 2 Kavim, Shammai required that Challah be separated from 1 Kav of dough. (Accordingly, Hillel and Shammai are not discussing the same type of Kavim that the Chachamim are discussing. They are discussing Kavim of Midbariyot (wilderness) units, and the Chachamim are discussing Kavim of Yerushalmiyot units.)

Now while it seems like we have two famous rabbis and their contemporary sages arguing over crumbs of bread, the concept to them is critical. Their mission as rabbis is not running shuls, leading services, fund raising, of asking congregants what the congregants want. They aren't out look for jobs as rabbis. In fact, the do not use the Torah for a spade. They have other jobs to earn a living. There job is to make a fence around Torah to keep  us Jews from sinning. So when the Torah tells us, (above) ''You shall separate the first of your dough for a  Terumah,'' they must decide what is the amount, because giving less. puts us in mortal dangers, and giving more, puts us in fiscal danger, which in turn, puts us into mortal danger.

The Rashba (Rabbi Shlomo ben Aderet ,born 1235 in Barcelona, died 1310) , cites Rabeinu Tam   (Rabbi Jacob ben Meir,,France, 1100-1171, the son-in-law of Rashi), who explains the respective reasons of Hillel and Shammai. Hillel and Shammai agree that the amount of Challah that the Torah requires us to separate is a significant amount, which means a measure of at least one egg. The Torah, therefore, requires us to separate Challah only when there is enough dough from which to separate one whole egg unit of dough as Challah.

The Mishnah (in Tractate Challah) teaches that a Ba'al ha'Bayit (one baking bread for his own personal use) separates 1/24 of his dough for Challah, and a professional baker (who uses large amounts of dough) separates only 1/48 for Challah. This fair percentage must have been the practice before the Rabbanim officially instituted it as law. So here we get the answer posed above.

 Hillel maintained that one Kav of dough is the minimum amount that can be obligated in Challah, because when the Ba'al ha'Bayit separates 1/24, he has one egg's worth (because 1 Kav = 24 eggs). Shammai maintained that the Torah's directive to separate Challah also refers to a professional baker, and thus the minimum amount of dough that is obligated is 2 Kavim (such that when one separates 1/48 of it, he separates one egg's worth).

Remember today of course as  ethical and spiritual Jews, not to get hung up on minutia, but as we separate a small portion of dough when we bake, and toss it into the oven, we do so with the kavenah of remembering not just the Temple, but that God gives us everything, and that all belongs to Him, and it is our obligation, now that the priesthood is gone, to share and to give to those who are needy,.i.e. tsaddakah.  

In this regard we are pleased to announce that we will donate a large portion (more than an egg's worth) to any Tzedakah of all sets of our two volume books sold. We have set up this as a "Tzaddakah Bundle."Rabbi Arthur Segal : (003) Tzadakkah Bundle.  Make sure in the notation when it asks for the charity you want the money to go to you list all the data and the correct mailing address. Checks will be sent to your named charity in YOUR name. It is a win-win-win situation . The books help us all of the Talmudim, and will help you and your congregants, with TaNaK and Talmud study as they parse the ethical and spiritual lessons from the Talmud , Torah and TaNaK. And just like those telethons for PBS etc, you get two things of value for your purchase: Giving Tzaddakah and two well reviewed books that will be companion pieces to your TaNaK or Chumash and your collection of Talmudic Tractates. www.JewishSpiritualRenewal.org.   We can all afford 1/24th of our dough, right?

Have a blessed Tu B'Av and shavuah Tov.

Rabbi Arthur Segal

Hilton Head Island,SC

Bluffton, SC

Savannah, GA

Jewish Spiritual Renewal

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A Short Snap Shot of Rabbi Arthur Segal

Rabbi Arthur Segal

United States

I am available for Shabbatons, and can speak on various aspects of Jewish history, (from the ancient past to modern day, and can be area specific, if a group wishes), Spirituality, developing a Personal Relationship with God, on the Jews of India and other 'exotic' communities, and on Talmud, Torah and other great texts. We have visited these exotic Jewish communities first hand. I adhere to the Mishna's edict of not using the Torah as a ''spade'', and do not ask for honorariums for my services. I am trans-denominational and renewal and spiritually centered.

 I am available to perform Jewish weddings,  and other life cycle events, ONLY IF, it is  a destination wedding and the local full time pulpit rabbi is unavailable, or if there is no local full time pulpit rabbi,  or it is in my local area and all of the full time pulpit rabbis are unavailable.

 My post-doc in Psych from Penn helps tremendously when I do Rabbinic counseling. My phone number and address will be made available once I am sure of one's sincerity in working with me.

Rabbi Segal is the author of three books and many articles on Torah, Talmud and TaNaK and Jewish history. His books are : The Handbook to Jewish Spiritual Renewal: A Path of Transformation for the Modern Jew, A Spiritual and Ethical Compendium to the Torah and Talmud, and  Spiritual Wisdom of our Talmudic Sages. The first two are published by Amazon through their publishing house, BookSurge. 

For information on how to purchase these, please contact RabbiSegal@JewishSpiritualRenewal.net and visit WWW.JewishSpiritualRenewal.Net.  OR CLICK ON THE IMAGES BELOW. 

 Todah Rabah and Shalom uvracha. Rabbi Arthur Segal ,( Dr. Arthur Segal )RabbiASegal@aol.com . 

 

Click to Order	THE HANDBOOK TO JEWISH SPIRITUAL RENEWAL: A Path of Transformation for the Modern Jew Rabbi Dr. Arthur Segal distills millennia of sage advice into a step-by-step process to reclaim your Judaism and your spirituality in a concise easy-to-read and easy-to-follow manner. If you find yourself wishing for the strength to sustain you through the ups and downs of life; if you want to learn how to live life to its fullest without angst, worry, low self-esteem or fear; or if you wish that your relationships with family, friends and co-workers were based on love and service and free of ego, arguments, resentments and feelings of being unloved...this book is for you. Price: $19.99 254 Pages Published by: Amazon's BookSurge
Click to Order	A SPIRITUAL AND ETHICAL COMPENDIUM TO THE TORAH AND TALMUD Rabbi Dr. Arthur Segal dissects each of the Torah's weekly sections (parashot) using the Talmud and other rabbinic texts to show the true Jewish take on what the Torah is trying to teach us. This companion to The Handbook to Jewish Spiritual Renewal: A Path of Transformation for the Modern Jew brings the Torah alive with daily relevance to the Modern Jew. All of the Torah can be summed up in one word: Chesed. It means kindness. The Talmud teaches that the Torah is about loving our fellow man and that we are to go and study. The rest is commentary. This compendium clarifies the commentary and allows one to study Torah and Talmud to learn the Judaic ideals of love, forgiveness, kindness, mercy and peace. A must read for all Jews and deserves a place in every Jewish home. Price: $24.99 494 Pages Published by: Amazon's BookSurge

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You can purchase each book individually, but if you purchase them together as a set with the Tzadakkah Bundle, I will donate a portion of the sales price in your name to a tzadakkah of your choice, such as your synagogue.

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(001) The Handbook to Jewish Spiritual Renewal

In The Handbook to Jewish Spiritual Renewal: A Path of Transformation for the Modern Jew, Rabbi Dr. Arthur Segal distills millennia of sage advice to reclaim your Judaism and your spirituality.

• Price : $19.99

(002) A Spiritual and Ethical Compendium to the Torah and Talmud

A Spiritual and Ethical Compendium to the Torah and Talmud dissects each of the Torah's weekly sections (parashot) using the Talmud and other rabbinic texts to show the true Jewish take on what the Torah is trying to teach us.

• Price : $24.99

(003) Tzadakkah Bundle

The Handbook to Jewish Spiritual Renewal and A Spiritual and Ethical Compendium to the Torah and Talmud. Purchase both books as a set, and I will donate a portion of the sales price in your name to the tzadakkah of your choice. -- Rabbi Segal

• Price : $44.98

 

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