[Avodah] See-Through Challah Cover

[T613K at aol.com]

From: Lisa Liel <lisa at starways.net>
>Since the Challah is  covered it is not an
> embarrassment to the challah that you are making  Borei Pri HaGofen
> first. [--RYL]

Is that even a real thing?   I thought that was a bubbe mayse that people 
made up to explain covering the  challah.  I thought it was a matter of 
avoiding a safek and hiding the  challah so that you can say borei pri 
hagafen before hamotzi.  Do we  honestly worry about the feelings of a 
loaf of  bread?

Lisa




>>>>
 
 
It is called projection.  We, as human being, project onto  inanimate  
objects the emotions we would feel if we were  them.  In the case of hagafen and 
hamotzi, it is not a  safek, there is a definite priority:  bread before 
wine.  If you, as  an older person, or as a teacher, were not treated with 
proper respect, and  someone gave priority to a younger person, or to a 
student, over you, you would  feel bad.  Ascribing emotions to the challa makes us 
more careful about the  halachos of giving honor to those who should be 
honored.
 
You might also ask why, since it had sheltered him, Moshe couldn't hit the  
Nile,   Would the Nile really be upset about his lack of hakaras  hatov?  
IIRC he also could not hit the ground, since it had hidden the  Egyptian he 
killed.  Would the ground really be upset etc?
 
In addition to the foregoing rational analysis, one might also  speculate 
that inanimate objects do possess some kind of spirit.  I  remember many 
years ago at the House of Love and Prayer somewhere in Israel,  Shlomo Carlebach 
once talking to a group in a singsong, with a guitar, saying  that an apple 
prays, "Please Hashem make me a good apple, make me a tasty apple,  make me 
a beautiful apple that will give pleasure to a person who eats  me."  I am 
paraphrasing.  At that time, I was the only person present  with my eyes 
open -- literally -- he had told a circle of youngsters to all  close their 
eyes, and all but one obeyed.  So I, with my eyes open, was  somewhat skeptical 
that the apple really prays.
 
And yet...and yet....I have remembered that apple's prayer all my life, and 
 sometimes wonder:  do the objects that human beings use -- especially the  
objects we make brachos over -- at some level really have some kind of 
spirit,  some kind of feeling, some kind of desire -- a desire to serve Hashem 
by being  of use to His creatures?
 

--Toby Katz
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