baking Challah this week, Segula for Parnasa

proudmom

Wed, Apr 11 2007, 2:15 pm

It is considered a segulah for parnassah for the forthcoming year to bake challah the first Shabbat after Pesach with a key in the dough. We have heard of various ways of doing this:

To bake a regular challah and sprinkle sesame seeds or poppy seeds on the dough in the form of a key.

To wrap a key in tinfoil and place it in the dough.

To place a key on top of the dough and then bake it.

To shape your challah in the shape of a key.

We have also heard of various explanations behind this segulah:

Harav E. Bilitzer suggests that this key symbolizes the fact that during Pesach we were limited to eating only chometz, but now Hashem “unlocks” our limitations and permits us to eat chametz as well.

The Ohel Yisrael explains that by making such a challah we are hinting at the concept that Hashem asks the nation of Yisrael, “Open for Me an aperture, even if only as large as the eye of a needle, and I in turn will grant you access to Me as wide as the entranceway to the vestibule of the Beis Hamikdash.” This means that Hashem promises that as long as we try, even a little bit, to attach ourselves to Him, He will open for us the gates of plenty in both the spiritual and physical areas of life. During Pesach all the gates of Heaven are open for us even without our asking, but immediately after Pesach we have to put forth our own effort to keep them open. The key challah, symbolises our need to make these efforts at this time.

Hashem began to give the mann to Bnei Yisrael in the desert in the month of Iyar.Furthermore, the nation entered Eretz Yisrael just before Pesach, at which time they ceased to receive the mann. Immediately after Pesach of that year, everyone had to worry about earning a livelihood. (now they had no mann) Therefore the key in the challah immediately after Pesach is a request that Hashem should open the Shaarei Parnassah. (gates of livelihood)