The will be our final Sefirat HaOmer class this week. Usually our Friday class is based on the Parasha, but since today is a day where many ladies bake hallah and put a key in it, I would like to discuss that custom.
I want to preface it with the following: There are people that get nervous from this concept. Some people even say it is forbidden, or borderline witchcraft, to put a key in the dough and think that it will bring you parnassa, but the rule is that if you do something with an understanding, it’s different than just putting a horseshoe on your truck or a rabbit’s foot on your keychain. It’s different when you do something that has a certain sense of symbolism and logic to it, so therefore I would like to explain.
First of all, the concept of baking hallah is always a wonderful thing, every Friday, as is the Mitzvah of hafrashat Hallah. In the days of old, they would take off a piece of dough and give it to the Kohen. Today, when we are contaminated, we burn that dough. What is the significance of this mitzvah? Why is it so important? And why specifically on this Friday, after Passover are people more inclined to do this Mitzva?
It’s important to know that the word Omer indicates a certain measurement, like a pound or a quart. It was called a “korban HaOmer” because an “Omer” was the measurement of barley needed for the offering.
And it’s called “Sefirat HaOmer” because we count from that Omer offering. It’s strange that the offering is named by it’s measurement. There is a korban mincha which must be the amount of an “Isaron,” but we don’t refer to that korban by its amount. Korban HaOmer is the only korban referred to by its measurement. Why?
The midrash explains that when the Jewish people were in the desert for 40 years, it clearly says that there was an Omer’s worth of manna- Everyone got that portion-size. When we got to Eretz Yisrael, the Omer of Manna stopped coming down from Heaven.
We know that the significance of manna is clearly to teach us that man doesn’t live on bread alone, that it is the words that come out of G-d’s “mouth” that cause man to live. So now that we no longer have the manna, we need another way to remember that. How do we do that? A man remembers it when he starts his agricultural season between the barley crop and wheat crop, which we’ve mentioned over the past few days. And the lady remembers this lesson every single week when she bakes her Hallah for Shabbat and takes out an Omer’s worth of dough. The Gemara learns that the “beginning of your dough,” the amount of manna they had in the desert, is the amount needed to be hayav in the Mitzvah of Hallah- an Omer’s worth.
There are three Omers in the Torah.
The first is in reference to the manna, which came down as an Omer. Since this supernatural event stopped, we have the hidden miracles:
The man’s former offering at the beginning of the agricultural season, and for the ladies, an Omer’s worth of dough that she separates from her Hallah and gives to the Kohen. That is the mitzvah of Hallah every single day of the year; Whenever a lady makes the amount of dough necessary for the mitzvah, she should have in mind that she is remembering the manna.
We have two loaves of bread on Fridays, Leshem Mishneh, because two portions of manna came down.
We are all supposed to remember the manna every single day, and women have this important Mitzvah of remembering the manna in the kitchen as well. It’s an important lesson.
We can stop right here.
But for extra credit we will discuss what this has to do with the key, and why specifically this Friday.
We do this today because we should have had a Korban HaOmer in the Bet Hamikdash, and therefore, there are people that are careful to do the next best thing. Since we can’t give the Omer of barley, the next best thing is for the lady to do this Mitzvah out of her kitchen ( today this might be rabbinical if outside of Israel).
And what about the key?
The key goes back to a Gemarah which tells us that G-d has three keys. The key to parnassa/rain, the key to childbirth, the key to the resurrection of the dead. On occasion, Hashem will hand out a key to someone else, but never more than one at a time, because it can’t be that someone would have two keys, while G-d would only have one.
The Gemarah discusses that Hashem gave Eliyahu HaNavi the key of rain, and so there was a three year drought. G-d wanted to get the key back from him, so He caused the child of the host of Eliyahu HaNavi to die. Eliyahu wanted to resurrect this child, so he asked G-d for the key of resurrection. God told him that he had to return the key of rain first, so He forced the end of the drought.
During the time of this drought Eliyahu came to a certain town and met a lady whom he asked for some bread. The lady told him that that was her last meal, that she was about to die and only had enough food for herself and her son. But since Eliyahu HaNavi was a Kohen, she gave him a little bit, as her Mitzvah of Hafrashat Hallah. G-d then made a miracle through Eliyahu HaNavi, that her oil and flour did not end throughout the drought, and miraculously, there was abundance in her home.
What do we see from this?
That in the merit of the mitzvah of Hallah, she connected herself to the key of Parnassah that Eliyahu HaNavi had. Therefore, some people symbolically place a key in the dough of their Hallah this week, in order to remind themselves that through the Mitzvah of Hallah, we connect ourselves to the key to parnassa. How does this work? It works through our Emunah and Bitachon. We believe that Hashem is in charge of our livelihood, whether it’s a man in his field or a lady in her kitchen. The success of the bread, and how the dough rises, is in the hands of God. And we recognize that it’s God’s involvement in our lives that brings beracha down.
We bless everyone with all the Berachot that come from the Mitzvah of Hallah.
And if it’s not too late by the time you see this, it is definitely better to bake your own dough than just buy it in the bakery.
Have a wonderful day.