[Avodah] The Origins of the Non-Jewish Custom Of 'Shlissel Challah' (Key Bread) "The Loaf of Idolatry?"

[Micha Berger]

On Mon, Dec 19, 2011 at 09:45:25PM -0500, Moshe Y. Gluck wrote:
: R' YL:
: > See http://www.alfassa.com/bread.html  and the download there.
: 
: Don't miss the citation to listowner R' MB...
: Lakewood. :-)

He writes:
    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 haMinhagim (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. Micha Berger,
    founder of the AishDas Society, [orthodox] calls this type of logic
    "reverse engineering," it's like drawing a circle 
    around an arrow in a tree, and subsequently 
    declaring the arrow is a bullseye. [17]

    [17] See aishdas.org/avodah/vol25/v25n384.shtml & 
    aishdas.org/avodah/vol28/v28n067.shtml#03

But if you see those two posts, you will not actually find an objection
to such practices. I share concerns with a Judaism overly focused on al
menas leqabel peras, and people who look for metaphysical causal ways
of getting their way. Focus on the beris, doing retzono, and He will
do retzonkha. But this quote has nothing to do with it.

So let's see http://aishdas.org/avodah/vol25/v25n384.shtml :
> On Wed, Nov 12, 2008 at 09:02:06AM +1100, Meir Rabi wrote:
>: Does this not all sound very much like reverse engineering or drawing the
>: target after having shot the arrow?

> Yes, it does. Taamei hamitzvos are lessons drawn from halakhah -- very
> much after the arrow is shot. One doesn't darshen halakhah from the
> taam. It might be useful as a factor when choosing between two shitos or
> sevaros. But only one formal halachic process actually "shot the arrow"
> and the question is still unresolved.

And http://aishdas.org/avodah/vol28/v28n067.shtml#03 where I actually
discuss shlissl challah on the Shabbos following Pesach:
> Sourdough is hard to come by this week, as it takes over a week to
> ferment. The other source of yeast frequently used before the Fleishman's
> figured out how to isolate it is barm, a sideproduct of making bear.
> But barm has more yeast and is more reactive than they were used to,
> and would make softer more floury bread than sourdough. Most metals kill
> yeast, although stainless steel doesn't. So they put a piece of metal
> into the challah to kill some of the extra yeast off.

> Then, once people did it, they reverse-engineered kavanos for the
> practice.

But I have no problem with reverse engineering, as long as you're not
using it to make halakhah. It's a great way to create spiritual excercises,
ways of staying inspired. Or, in frum-speak: minhagim and other hanhagos
tovos.

IOW, if the practice helps someone think of "pischu Li pesach kechudo shel
machat..." or of the need to keep shaarei Shamayim even as Pesach ends,
or the mafteiach shel parnasah at a time when we the mun began to fall,
more power to 'em.

The question of whether I should care more about what the Rambam condemned
than the clear acceptant of many practices in the generations since
is also central to defining the halachic process. I think he comes down
on the wrong side of that split.

:                                             or the great reference to
: Lakewood. :-)

We use simanim on RH. Why not shlissl challah as a means to think
about He Who never shares the key to parnasah as a similar kavanah
aid?

Last, the key is related to cross, and thus shlisl challah like a cross
bun thing is a huge stretch. 

Tir'u baTov!
-Micha

-- 
Micha Berger             The waste of time is the most extravagant
micha at aishdas.org        of all expense.
http://www.aishdas.org                           -Theophrastus
Fax: (270) 514-1507