Challah on the table while reciting kiddush?

as far back as I can remember my family has always had the challah on the table covered w/ a beautiful challah cover. I recently ate by a family who kept the challah off the table for a specific halachik reason.
does any one else hold by this?

Silver Member Joined: Mar 28 2011 Posts: 543

thats a first, never heard of it.

maybe it was uncovered? Has to be covered during kiddush
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"Olam Chessed Yiboneh", Tehilim 89.

Platinum Member Joined: May 07 2008 Posts: 8963

I never heard of such a custom. Davka the custom is to put the challah on the table before lighting candles so the table becomes a base for the challah and not just for the candles. This makes it permissible to move the table if need be on Shabbos.

The whole point of the challah cover, aside from the very pretty symbolism of representing the layer of dew that covered the man, is to get around the halachic problem of making kiddush before motzi. There is a hierarchy in making blessings; the highest-ranked blessing is made first, then the second and so on. The highest rank is hamotzi, and hagafen is subordinate to that. So if you have bread and wine on the table together, by rights you would have to make motzi first.

OTOH we can't eat before making kiddush, so unless we're making kiddush on challah, which one does only if one has no wine or grape juice (or, I suppose, if one's health forbade having grape products), one has to have the hagafen first. The brilliant halachic device is to cover the challah so it "isn't there". Or, as is explained to children in grade school but is a rather juvenile explantion for adults, we cover the challah so it shouldn't "be embarrassed" that the wine is being given top billing.

I can't fathom why anyone would remove the challah from the table rather than cover it. If you don't have a lovely embellished cloth, a paper napkin will do.