Every summer our children attend summer camp, and every summer my wife works at summer camp. This year she has a new job at the summer camp where she and our children attend. This year she will be running the “Cooking/Baking” hobby or activity. For several sessions each day, she will have the campers cook or bake something that they can eat along with a recipe to bring home after the camp session. Preparations for camp usually begin soon after Shavuot and last for a couple of weeks until the minivan is packed and everyone leaves. Because of my wife’s new job, preparations began even earlier. So for the past six weeks, she has been pouring through cookbooks looking for easy recipes to do adolescents and teenagers. Of course, after she has found recipes that she thinks are feasible, she needs to practice. Needless to say, she has been doing a lot of cooking and baking. Among the most important food items that she feels obligated to teach is Challah baking. She has tried numerous recipes and techniques. As a result, there have been at least three dozen Challahs over the past 6 weeks that we have sampled and consumed. Of course, all of my wife’s preparations are designed for when she finally enters into camp and begins teaching the campers.
This week's Parsha is Shlach Lecha. Several disparate events occur in this parsha. First, we read the story of Moshe sending Twelve Spies (one representing each tribe) into Eretz Canaan. Their mission was to ascertain the lay of the land, the strength of the inhabitants, and the fertility of the land. Except for Joshua and Caleb, the remaining ten spies returned with a negative report. The people heard this and wanted to return to Egypt. As a result of both the report and B'nai Yisroel's response, this generation was prohibited from entering the land. Next, we read about the laws concerning the taking of Challah, a fire offering, a burnt offering, feast offering. We read about the offering required for unintentional sin. After this brief discussion about ritual, B'nai Yisroel is reminded about the ethical treatment of native members of the community or proselytes. Then we read about who desecrates Shabbat by gathering wood on Shabbat. Like the person who acts high handedly, this man was removed from the camp and punished with death. The Parsha concludes with a familiar passage that we know as the 3rd paragraph of the Shmah. We are commanded to wear tzitzit in order to remind us of three ideas: God's commandments, not to follow our eyes and our hearts (which will lead us astray), and God brought us out of Egypt (Num. 15:37-41).
It seems rather ironic and perhaps superfluous that following their prohibition from entering into the Land, we read about a series of offerings, including the taking of Challah, which will only go into effect once they enter into the land. "B’Vo’Achem El Ha’Aretz Asher Ani Meivi Etchem Shama, When you come to the Land to which I bring you V’Haya Ba’Achlachenm MiLechem Ha’Aretz TaRimu Terumah L’Adoshem It shall be that when you will eat of the bread of the Land, you shall set aside a portion for God. Reishit Arisoteichem Chalah Tareimu Terumah KiTrumat Goren Kein Tarimu Otah As the first of your kneading you shall set aside a loaf as a portion like the portion of the threshing floor, so shall you set it aside. M’Reishit Arisoteichem Titnu La’Adoshem Terumah L’Doroteichem From the first of your kneading shall you give a portion to God, for your generations. (Num. 15:18-21). The Mitzvah of Challah repeats words such as “Land” “Kneading” and “a Portion to God”. From planting the wheat, making the flour and eventually baking the Challah, and all the steps in between; the process is an incredibly physical endeavor. It is only human nature that when we are engaged in extremely physical endeavors we tend to think that the task, whatever it may be, in this case baking bread, relies solely upon human effort. It is precisely at those moments, where we need to remind ourselves that what may appear to be primarily a physical endeavor has an element of the spiritual, of the sanctified and of the holy. So the baker of the Challah take separates a portion for God. The Torah never specifies how much should be set aside for God’s portion. That amount was eventually decided by the Talmudic Sages. For now, B’nai Yisroel, the “Children of Israel” needed to learn the very important lesson that 1) they have been gifted the Land and us such anything they create from the land, they need to acknowledge God and 2) the success of their hard work is a result of their relationship with God.
For anyone who has baked Challah, man or woman, fulfilling this mitzvah is incredibly empowering. Anyone can do it, which means that anyone has it within themselves to do something for beyond themselves. To do something for oneself tends to focus on the physical. To do for another tends to focus upon the spiritual. The person needs to see beyond him or herself and appreciate that they are part of something larger. In this case, the person taking Challah is part of the Land and part of a relationship to God and part of the generations that will follow. The Challahs have all been delicious. I suppose the weight has not been only physical weight but spiritual as well. These pounds I have gained over these past several weeks has been my sacrifice on behalf of my wife’s perfecting her Challah baking skills. With her heading to camp, hopefully, I can lose this excessive “Challah Weight.”
Peace,
Rav Yitz
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