Non-Jewish
Origins
The baking of a key inside a bread is a
non-Jewish custom which has its foundation in Christian, and possibly even
earlier, pagan culture. At least one old Irish source tells how at times when a
town was under attack, the men said, “let our women-folk be instructed in the
art of baking cakes containing keys.”[7]
Keys
were traditionally manufactured in the form of a cross, the traditional symbol
of Christianity,[8] a physical
item all Christian commoners would posses in their home.[9]
On Easter, the Christian holiday which celebrates the idea of Jesus ‘rising’
from the dead, they would bake the symbol of Jesus—the key shaped like a
cross—into or onto a rising loaf.[10]
This was not only a religious gesture, but the bread was a special holiday
treat. Sometimes these breads were wholly formed in the shape of a cross; other
times the shape of a cross was made out of dough and applied on top. In the
context of historically baking a key into bread—the key itself, intrinsically,
was a symbol of Christianity and by extension symbolized Jesus ‘rising’ in the
dough.[11]
Connection
to Passover
The modern Jewish custom of baking the symbolic shlissel challah, annually takes place
on the shabbat immediately following
the holiday of Pessah, when tens (if
not hundreds) of thousands of religiously observant Jewish women[12]
practice this observance.
In Christianity, baked
goods associated with keys are commonly called ‘Easter breads,’[13]
and in Europe they are also known as ‘Paschals,’[14]
as the holiday of Easter in the East is known as ‘Pascha’ or ‘Pascua.’ This is
most likely the reason Christians often call Easter breads baked with keys 
Paschals.[15]
Before the Romans destroyed the Beit
HaMikdash (the holy Temple) in Jerusalem, the focus of the Passover holiday
for the Jewish people was the Korban
Pessah (lit. Pessah sacrifice,
also known as the Paschal Lamb[16]).
Within Christianity, Jesus is known as the ‘Paschal Lamb.’
Geographic
Origins
Professor Marvin Herzog, a world renowned
Yiddish linguist at Columbia University
tells that dough twisted in the form of a key (among other shapes such as a
ladder) were found to top challah loafs in Poland, “…the distribution of some
of these things was a regional matter.”[17]
As an example of the regionality, Prof. Herzog created a map demonstrating
where dough was shaped as a ladder and placed on challah, and how it was
specific only to certain communities and was not universal. Insomuch as a
ladder motif was regional, it can be conjectured that the use of a key or key
motif could have evolved the same way. Both a ladder and a key are symbolic as
tools that could metaphysically help one attain heaven, as they both help ‘gain
access.’
Lack of
Sources
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 ha-Minhagim (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.[18]
The idea of baking shlissel challah
is not from the Torah; it’s not in the Tannaitic, Amoraitic, Savoraitic, Gaonic
or Rishonic literature. Rabbi Shlomo Aviner of Israel’s Yeshivat Ateret Yerushalayim said that while baking challah with a
key in it is not forbidden, “there is no meaning in doing so.”[19]
Rabbi Moshe Ben-Chaim[20]
of Mesora.Org [orthodox] teaches that:
The Torah teaches that
Hashem punishes the wicked, and rewards the righteous. It does not say that
challah baking or any other activity will help address our needs…When the
matriarchs were barren, they did not resort to segulas, but introspected and
prayed…Nothing in Torah supports this concept of segula; Torah sources reject
the idea of a segula…baking challas with brachos cannot help…segulas are
useless, and violate the Torah prohibition of Nichush [good luck charms]. It
does not matter if the charm is a rabbit’s foot, a horseshoe, a challah, key or
a red bendel. The practice assumes that forces exist, which do not, and it is
idolatrous.[21]
Rabbi Reuven Mann, Principal of Yeshiva B'nei Torah in Far Rockaway, New
York [orthodox] says one should ask themselves: “What connection is there
between putting a key in the dough of a challah (schlissel challah) and the
improvement of my material situation (parnasa)?”[22]
He says:
The dangers of deviation
are very great. For by inventing new practices not prescribed by Torah one, in
fact, implicitly denies the Torah. He is in effect saying that the Torah is not
perfect, for it does not work in my case, and there are other man made
practices out there which will work for me. In effect this is a negation of
Torah and constitutes a form of idolatry, heaven forbid….[this] indicates that
a person has lost faith in the authentic prescriptions of Torah. By performing
these “unauthorized actions” one is implicitly affirming that there are other
“forces” out there besides God which will respond to the needs of the performer
of these ritualistic practices. This constitutes a form of “Avodah Zorah.”
Who Is
Doing It?
As this is written in 2011, the concept and
observance of shlissel challah continues
to grow and be exploited, especially in the USA and among newly religious Jews
who are being taught it is acceptable to use a loaf of bread and a machine made
die-cut piece of brass as an intermediary between them and the Almighty.
The baking is conducted
today across the Jewish spectrum. It is widely popular (but certainly not
universally practiced) in both the Hassidic and non-Hassidic haredi communities.[23]
It is also conducted by the Modern-Orthodox, among the ‘Yeshivish’ communities
and by other American Orthodox Jews such as those with Lithuanian and German
family ancestry.[24] The idea of
shlissel challah is known to be
taught in schools, but probably is upon the whim of the individual teacher. An
informal telephone survey of 40 participants demonstrated that it has been
taught in haredi educational institutions such as the Bais Yaakov and Bnos Yisroel
schools in New York City, Los Angeles, Miami and other locations. It is also
taught by teachers in the Centrist / Zionistic Orthodox Jewish schools.[25]
After Pessah, shlissel challah can be found being sold in stores, a challah with
a key right inside the bag! As the custom of shlissel challah continues to be passed along from mother to
daughter and in social groups, it also has been popularized on Facebook,
Twitter and promoted on other popular internet social media outlets. On the
internet can even be found an anonymously distributed prayer, said to be
specifically developed for those who make the key challah.[26]
An internet search will
find dozens of articles and comments on shlissel
challah:
·
Shlissel Challah is a
segula, good omen, for parnassa, or livelihood. It's a very interesting custom
with many sources and traditions.[27]
·
It's really bizarre, and
EVERYONE is doing it. It was all the talk among the women at the playground.
Mind you, the talk was about technique for making it, not whether the practice
has any merit or makes any sense.[28]
·
My friend told me about
this and we baked the key in the challah and this week we got a tax refund that
we were not expecting![29]
·
I also shape a piece of
dough in the shape of a key and place it lengthwise on the challah, from end to
end, so that everyone can eat a piece of the key.[30]
·
I had a aunt who one
year put a car key and got a new car and another year put a house key and
bought a house that year.[31]
·
The economic downturn
has affected virtually every community and Lakewood...For the Shabbos after
Pesach, Lakewood Mayor R’ Menashe Miller arranged for a key to Lakewood’s Town
Hall [to be used in schlissel challah][32]
·
This week is the week to
bake shlissel challah, challah imprinted with or shaped like a key. It is a
segulah for parnassah, and fun, too![33]
Halakhic Acceptance
Several clever ideas have been devised which
attempt to connect the non-Jewish idea of ‘key bread’ to the Torah, however
these all fail to bring a Jewish wrapper to a wholly non-Jewish tradition. A
popular one attempts to inexplicably connect the idea of a spiritual “gate” to
a physical “key,” during the period when Jews count the 49 days during the Omer
up to the 50th day which is the holiday of Shavuot.[34] The
idea of the 50th day represents the sha’ar hanun (50th gate), which according to kabbalah is known as the sha’ar binah (gate of understanding—and,
since we are said to go {spiritually} from gate to gate,[35]
this is why the focus is on a key, as a key will ‘unlock’ a gate.
Further,
modern commentators have exploited the name of HaRambam (Maimonides), to
indicate that he demonstrates an association between the idea of a key with
challah.[36] Such
alleged connections are baseless and are only meager attempts to legitimize the
idea of shlissel challah. Nonetheless,
it’s well known that HaRambam himself would have been utterly against the
practice of baking a key into a bread which allegedly could influence the
Almighty. It is one of HaRambam’s clear principles that any belief in an
intermediary between man and God (including a physical object), is considered
heretical to the Torah. He teaches that God is the only One we may serve and
praise; that we may not act in this way toward anything beneath God, whether it
be an angel, a star, or one of the elements; there are no intermediaries
between us and God; that all our prayers should be directed towards God; and
that nothing else should even be considered. This would certainly include
baking a key inside a loaf of bread and/or shaping a bread in the form of a
key, then expecting it to either change your fortune or influence your future.
Commentary
It is up to each of us to halt legitimizing any
extrahalakhic or even extraminhagic activities. The need for a quick ‘spiritual
fix’ such as baking a bread with a key in it and hoping God rewards the
baker(s), seems to have replaced the desire for pure prayer with kavanah (intrinsic intent).
Increasingly, tefillot (prayer) is
being trumped by what is ‘cool,’ ‘the in thing,’ or being ‘with it.’ The truth of
the matter is, often in the observant Jewish world, people care more about
‘fitting in’ with their peers, then with God.
On the far end of the
scale, it can be said that shlissel
challah observance is a nothing less than ‘the way of the Amorites.’ It is
precisely this type of behavior and observance which Jews are supposed to
separate themselves from, so it doesn’t go on to influence our thoughts and
deeds. Am Yisrael was not created to
lose itself in such folklore, and Judaism without disciplined study is nothing
but folklore. Judaism allows and encourages the use of our minds. It’s never
too late to realign our path with Torah sources, not blind faith practices
which are “trendy,” “in,” or “cool.”
Educated Jews should
help to promote Torah sources to our friends and neighbors, not false practices
which are of non-Jewish origin and have nothing to do with Judaism.
Examples of traditional keys
(from left to right: A, B, C)
A. Key with three circles representing the Trinity
B. Key with a cross representing the “four corners” of the
Earth (From Christianity iconography which discusses the Gospels (the books of
Matthew, Mark, Luke and John) being preached in the four corners of the Earth)
C. Key with a cross on it
Examples of shlissel challah Source: COLlive: Chabad
news website Source: pragmaticattic.wordpress.com/2011/04/28/shlissel-challah
