Thursday, June 14, 2012

Shelach 5772


This week’s parsha recounts the episode of the twelve spies sent to Canaan. Ten of the twelve return with a false, negative report, that the land cannot be conquered, despite what G-d has promised. After the story of the spies, the parsha relates several mitzvot, including hafrashat challah, separation of a portion of dough before baking.

 When you arrive in the Land to which I am bringing you, and you eat from the bread of the Land, you shall set aside a terumah (gift) for the L-rd. The first portion of your dough, you shall separate a loaf for a terumah…From the first portion of your dough you shall give a terumah to the L-rd in [all] your generations. The mitzvah today in English is called “taking challah” and is accomplished by taking an egg-sized piece of kneaded dough from the mixture, setting it aside before baking and making a blessing over it. (For instructions, see http://www.secretofchallah.com/50708/how_to_separate_challah)

How does the mitzvah of hafrashat challah relate to the episode of the spies?

Rabbi Avrohom Gordimer on ou.org notes that Torah refers to hafrashat challah as a form of terumah (gift offering to G-d). Just as one would dedicate the first portion of produce as terumah, so do we dedicate a section of each batch of dough. While terumah of produce is taken from raw, unprocessed produce, the challah offering is taken from dough, a substance that the baker has processed by combining flour with water.

The baker may mistakenly view this dough as his personal handiwork, just as the spies mistakenly believed that their success in conquering Canaan would depend on their own efforts and power. Writes Rabbi Gordimer: “[Through the mitzvah of hafrashat challah] the baker must treat his batch as raw produce and recognize that G-d is the Master of the Universe and is to be credited for all that is. 

Writes Chana Slavaticki on chabad.org: “On a broader scale, bread, also known as the ‘staff of life’, is a metaphor for all of physicality and materialism. In many cultures, the term ‘dough’ is slang for money (as in ‘got dough?’). This is because money enables us to buy our ‘dough’ – our sustenance as well as all our material needs. It is also why one who earns an income is called the ‘breadwinner’. Just as the farmer [or baker] can mistakenly conclude that it was his talent and effort that resulted in his dough, it is all too easy for a person to attribute his ‘dough’ (his material success) to his brilliance, beauty, creativity or charisma.”

As parents, it is tempting to take credit for our own successes and for those of our children. Our Sages tell us that this is avodah zarah, idolatry. All we accomplish, and all we possess, comes from G-d.

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