Transforming the World: The Power of Challah Separation

The Opportunity: You Can Impact the World

What do you think about a once-in-a-lifetime chance to step into the control room of the world?

Yes, that's right: to enter a place from which you can influence the entire world, not just as a guest – but as the operator in charge of the control room. This could be the opportunity of your life: finally fulfilling your aspirations to change the world, to make it a better place, and to ensure some special gifts for you and your family. Interested?

If your answer is "yes" – you are invited. Here, you will find the key to the control room, along with a special invitation from the Creator of the world to you: the control room of the world is waiting for you. You have a chance to correct past mistakes, change the current reality, and attract an abundance of blessings for the future.

The entry conditions for this highly influential role are very simple: flour and water.

The Exchange: Dough Cords Instead of Labor Pains

These sweet, difficult moments. A new soul is about to enter the world. As the great moment approaches, the contractions intensify and the pain increases. It is pressing, tormenting, challenging, and filled with anticipation.

The whole world is currently in exactly this state: the labor pains of redemption, like childbirth, are not easy, and they are intensifying. Enemies threaten us from the outside, and divisions among the people challenge us from within; the economy suffocates us, and maintaining peace at home and raising children are becoming more complex with each generation. Soon, very soon, the world will be filled with light and the Master will come to His sanctuary. But the contractions in the meantime, the final labor pains of exile drawing us closer to the moment of wonderful redemption, are tormenting and pressing. The pain is great, and there is no escaping it.

But for you and me, women of the nation, we have been given the opportunity to be in charge of the control room, remember? We are capable of defending the world and saving our people from the pain of redemption. The Creator of the world grants us the amazing ability to exchange the labor pains for other cords: dough cords. Yes, the dough that you knead, roll out, and bake, could be what saves the world from the pain of redemption.

"And I say, my challah..." – everything depends on how we separate the challah, the special mitzvah we were given, and our prayer as we fulfill it. We can, with our own hands, change the state of the world!

We take flour and water, yeast and sugar, mix and knead, and create dough. We separate a small part of the dough and bless it. Each step in this mitzvah has special significance, and each step has its own merit.

What is Challah?

So, what exactly is "challah"?

Once upon a time, long before the days of Angel and Berman, the diligent woman would prepare bread for her family every morning in a small quantity, enough for that day. Only on Friday would the quantity of dough be doubled, so that the bread would suffice for the Shabbat meals and the additional bread. It was then that the amount of dough reached the volume that required the separation of challah. This is how the reality of having 'challah' on Friday originated – meaning: the separation of challah – giving rise to the term "challah" for the Shabbat bread.

But originally, the name "challah" refers to the small part that is separated from the dough.

While the Temple stood, the priests serving in the Holy made themselves available for service in the Temple, not having time to worry about their livelihood. Therefore, they were given twenty-four priestly gifts. A special priestly gift was lovingly given by women, which is the gift of challah. Thus, the verse states: "When you come into the land which I bring you... you shall lift up the first of your dough as a gift..." (Numbers 15:19).

This is the source of the name "challah."

Besides the fact that this priestly gift is especially for women, it is also the first commandment given to the people of Israel upon entering the land of Israel, making it particularly cherished.

The Declaration: The Name is God

Before we talk about the power of the mitzvah of challah separation to influence the state of the world, we should remember that this mitzvah, in essence, is one of the reasons the world was created. The story of creation in the Torah begins with the word "In the beginning," and challah, as we recall, is called "the first" ("The first of your dough," as stated in the verse cited above). The sages say: "The world was created for three things: for challah, for tithes, and for first fruits" (Genesis Rabba, Chapter 1).

When you and I separate challah, we re-activate the merit for which our world was created. Not only that: this action of separating challah from the dough also helps us remember who is the Creator of the world, and through that, we merit His kindness.

Look how the wheat comes to us: the farmer plows the field, sows, tends, harvests – and then, when he finally holds the wheat, the fruit of his labor, he lifts a contribution and a tithe from it. What does this action mean? It is an expression: it is not my power or the strength of my hand that brought me this wheat; not my intellect or my investment; this wheat is a blessing from Hashem!

In almost everything, we are commanded to dedicate the first to Hashem: redemption of the firstborn, first fruits of animals, the first of the donkey, the first fruits, and challah. This act, dedicating the first of our labor's fruits to the Holy One, Blessed be He, reminds us that everything we have – everything is from Him, Blessed be He.

Separating challah, the separation of the first of the dough, also operates within our hearts this recognition of Hashem's kindness. Through it, we can correct the sin of idolatry.

In the Parsha of "Shlach Lecha," immediately after the matter of challah separation, there is a warning not to serve idols. The proximity of these matters teaches us that the separation of challah fixes idolatry, as it is written: "Anyone who observes the mitzvah of challah separation is as if they nullified idolatry, and anyone who nullifies challah separation is as if they performed idolatry."

"Idolatry?" you might be asking. "What does that have to do with me?"

None of us worship idols, heaven forbid. But idolatry is not only bowing to a statue. There is also idolatry in nuances: in feelings of pride, in a sense of ownership, in forgetting to whom the world belongs and who manages it. When a person does not see Hashem in their life, and feels as if they are the owner of everything – they are, in a way, serving an idol, heaven forbid.

And when we separate challah, we proclaim once again: Hashem is the God, and everything is only from Him. The success, the ability, the livelihood, the entire reality, is only from Hashem. The verse in Psalms states: "The empty will end forever, His kindness will be declared for every generation," the initials spell: "Challah Redeems." When a person sees themselves as 'empty', and remembers that all their life and everything they have is a gift from Hashem, they merit to 'declare His kindness forever', to receive Hashem's kindness for eternity.

And this is our privilege: we can, through the separation of challah, merit and grant our people the kindness of Hashem.

The Correction: Restoring Holiness to Humanity

We have said that the separation of challah can impact the state of the world. Let's understand how and why.

Did you know that a person in the world is like the challah in the dough? First of all, because of the nature of creation: man was created through the mixing of dust and water, just as dough is created by mixing flour and water. And also because of essence: just as challah is the small, holy part that is separated from the dough, so too, a person is the holy part separated from the mundane world. Rabbi Yossi says: "Just as this woman is kneading her dough with water and lifting the challah, so initially 'a vapor will rise from the earth', and then 'the Lord God formed...'

When Hashem created the world, the world was all mundane. On the sixth day of creation, Hashem sanctified only a small part, lifting it above the mundane: human beings, the crown of creation. Humanity is the holy part of creation, and their role is to sanctify the world.

On the day humanity was created, called "the challah of the world," Eve caused man to eat from the tree of knowledge – from the wheat. True, the wheat we know today is low and small, but once it was a big tree, and it will return to being so in the days of Mashiach: "In the future to come, in the days of Mashiach, the wheat will rise like a palm tree on the tops of mountains, and each wheat grain will be as large as the kidney of a large ox."

And since Eve persuaded man to eat from the wheat – wheat from the root of sin – she corrupted the challah of the world. What does this mean? Imagine that you are separating challah, and someone takes the holy challah you separated and mixes it back into the dough... this is, in essence, what Eve did: she undervalued the holiness of Adam, mixing him with the mundane world. Sin is a result of confusion and lack of understanding of one's place in the world and how holy I truly am.

And therefore, it is the woman who received the responsible task: to correct the challah of the world. To separate challah from the dough, and to safeguard its holiness. This is the correction of the primal sin. Through this precious mitzvah, Jewish women around the world are able to increase holiness in the world.

The Right: Bringing Blessing Home

Let's enter the closest circle to us.

We talked about our ability to bring holiness and redemption to the people of Israel and the entire world, but let's see how you can, from the control room of the mitzvah, bring blessings to those closest to you: you, your husband, and your children. We – the women and mothers – have been given by Hashem the amazing ability to influence the lives of our families.

We find in our sources references to the separation of challah as a "blessing." In the book of Ezekiel, it is written: "And the first of your dough you shall give to the priest, to lay a blessing in your house" (Ezekiel 44:30). Rabbi Elazar Bar Rabbi Judah says: "Due to the sin of not separating challah, there is no blessing in the grain storages... and if they give challah, they are blessed." Rabbi Yosef Chaim of Baghdad, known as the "Ben Ish Chai," says: "Separate challah from your dough and bring blessing to your homes."

Separating challah is a blessing - and a blessing is essentially everything.

What do we want out of life? Everything that can make it beautiful: we want a good match, children, good livelihood, health, a nice apartment, a suitable job. Everything that seems to make life happy.

But, is it really true that anyone with that impressive list is a happy person? Does everyone who is married, blessed with children, owns an apartment, and is not in debt, live a happy life? Not exactly. There are people with children but also significant pain in raising them. There are those with money but with worries. Some have bought a house but are not enjoying it.

What makes the difference between them and those who are happy in life? The blessing. Everything in our lives requires a blessing for us to enjoy it. Just like our grandmothers used to bless: "May you have a blessing in money..."

We all need salvation, each in our own right, and each is looking for means of salvation. So here we have in our hands the special merit that contains all salvations: the blessing. Do you understand the power of these words? We are the ones who can bring the blessing into our homes and lives, and influence salvation for our family!

This blessing depends on the strength of our desire. Initially, the obligation to separate challah is once a year. But "challah" is related to expectation, anticipation, desire – its measure depends on our will, and desire has no limit... The more we fulfill this mitzvah, especially on the eve of Shabbat, the more we will merit many times of anticipation and desire, and we can draw more salvations.

The letters in the word "desire" also form the words "pipe" and "creator." The desire creates the pipe up to the throne of glory. At the time of kneading the dough, your hands become like pipes to the throne of glory, through which blessings, salvations, and success flow to you and your family.

Next time you enter the kitchen and begin to knead dough, know that at that very moment you are stepping into the control room of the world and starting to operate it, influencing blessings upon yourself, your family, all of Israel, and the entire world. What an amazing privilege!

Home Circles and Challah Separations – for bookings of home circles and challah separations: call 073-2221290, email [email protected]