There is a minhag to bake ‘Shlissel Challah’ (shlissel means key in Yiddish) for the Shabbos after Pesach. Shlissel Challos are best known as a segula for parnasa, though there are other reasons for it, as we shall soon see.
Some bake the challah with an actual key inside. Others make the challah in the shape of a key and some put sesame seeds on top in the form of a key. There are those who make the challah flat to look like matzos. We will discuss this later on.
The Ohev Yisrael says about Shlissel Challah that, “The minhagim of our fathers are most definitely Torah.” There are many reasons given for this minhag of baking Shlissel Challah; we will go through some of them. (Some of what is written below can also be found in Ta’amei Minhagim, Nitei Gavriel, Sefer Hatoda’a and Minhag Yisrael Torah).
The second mishna in Rosh HaShana says, that on Pesach we are judged on the grains, or in modern day terminology - parnasa. Rabbeinu Nissim asks that if we were already judged on Rosh HaShana as to how much sustenance we will allotted throughout the year, what are we being judged for on Pesach? He answers that on Pesach it is determined how much grain there will be in the coming year for the world, and on Rosh HaShana it is decided how much of that grain each individual receives.
The Meiri, however, says that on Rosh HaShana it is decided if one will live or die, suffer or not and other such things, but Pesach is when we are judged on the grains. Based on this, there are customs in Sephardic communities to do things on Motzai Pesach as a sign that we want Hashem to give us livelihood. The Moroccan minhag is to have a Seuda with Chometz called a ‘Mimuna”. The word Mimuna strongly resembles the word Mamona, the Aramaic term for money. In Aram Soba (Syria) and Turkey, they put wheat kernels in all four corners of the house on Motzai Pesach as a sign of prosperity for the coming year. (Moed L’Kol Chai - Rav Chaim Palagi, Bais HaBichira). From this mishna in Rosh HaShana we already see that there is a connection between Pesach and parnasa.
Reasons for Shlissel Challah
1) In Shir Hashirim (which we read on Pesach) it says, פִּ תְ חִ י לִ י אֲ חֹ תִ י רַ ﬠְ יָ תִ י - “Open for Me, My sister, My beloved". Chazal say that Hashem asks us to open up for Him a small hole - even just as small as the tip of a needle - and He will open up a huge opening for us. Also, Klal Yisrael is called a bride and a wife is also referred to as one’s bread. During Pesach, all the upper gates and minds are open and after Pesach they close and we need to reopen them.
For this reason, the Shabbos after Pesach, we put a key in the challah to hint that we must now open a small opening, through the mitzvah of Shabbos (and, if I might add, the mitzvah of challah), and in that merit, Hashem should open up the Heavens and shower on us all His goods from his vast storehouses. This coincides perfectly with the fact that on this Shabbos we bless the month of Iyar, since it was during this month that Hashem began to feed the Mon to our forefathers.
2) The Mon ceased falling after Pesach, that is when we bring the Omer offering. From then on, we needed to eat from the produce of the ground; we needed parnasa. Therefore, after Pesach, we daven to Hashem to open up the gates of parnasa and we have a minhag to put the form of a key on the challos to allude that Hashem should open up for us the gates of parnasa.
3) During the sefira, we count 49 days until Shavuos - the 50th day. This counting represents the 50 sha’arei bina, gates of understanding. We go from gate to gate, and each gate has a key. That is why we make an image of a key on the challah.
4) It says in Shir Hashirim (1:11), וֹתּרֵ י זָ הָ ב נַ ﬠֲשׂ ֶ ה לָּ ﬠִ ם נְ קֻ וֹדּת הַ כָּ סֶ ף - "We will make for you circlets of gold with spots of silver." When the Torah enumerates the materials needed for the construction of the Mishkan it says,זהב וכסף ונחשת, putting zahav (gold) before kesef (silver). In Bereishis, by the creation of the world, during the first day it says Yehi Ohr. Ohr is chesed (which is represented by silver) The second day represents gevura, which in turn is represented by gold.
The reason why during the creation of the world the order is ‘silver’ (chesed) then ‘gold (gevura), is because at the time of creation there was pure chesed, as it says (Tehillim 89:3), “The world was built on chesed,” therefore, chesed, which is represented in kesef, precedes gevura, which is represented by zahav.
By the Mishkan, however, Hashem had to, so-to-speak, contract (tzimtzum) the Shechina (Divine Presence) to dwell in the Mishkan, and any form of constriction (tzimtzum) is associated with Gevura. This is why zahav precedes kesef in the building of the Mishkan. Still, the word zahav written there has the nekuda (vowel sound) of a פַ תַּ ח (it has a pasach instead of the usual kometz), it says זְ הַ ב הַ תְּ נוּפָ ה (Shemos 38:24), and that is the nekuda of chesed – the nekuda of chochma. And פתח (the vowel) also means an opening as in פתח ושער - from there comes all the kindness.
Putting it all together, when we say in Shir Hashirim, וֹתּרֵ י זָ הָ ב נַ ﬠֲשׂ ֶ ה לָּ ﬠִ ם נְ קֻ וֹדּת הַ כָּ סֶ ף, this means that the Mishkan was made with zahav - the aspect of tzimtzum, but with the nekuda of kesef, meaning the that word “zahav”, instead of having the usual vowel, kometz, is written with the nekuda of pasach, which is associated with chesed.
The Shabbos after Pesach always coincides with the second week of the sefira which is gevura, the aspect of zahav, except that it is menukad with kesef – the nekuda of pasach, which represent chesed. On this Shabbos we make the image of a key on the challah, since every gate has a מפתח (key), in way of beseeching Hashem to open up all the gates of blessings.
5) The previous four reasons are all brought by the Ohev Yisrael in Shabbos Achar Pesach and Likutim Parshas Shmini. There is a fifth reason brought by the Ohev Yisrael, also based on the posukוֹתּרֵ י זָ הָ ב נַ ﬠֲשׂ ֶ ה לָּ ﬠִ ם נְ קֻ וֹדּת הַ כָּ סֶ ף, connecting the Written and Oral Torah to Challah. (See Ohev Yisrael, Shabbos AchAr Pesach).
6) The matzah we ate on Pesach is supposed to instill in us Yiras Hashem. The Gemara in Mesechtas Shabbos (31a-b) compares Yiras Shomayim to a key, the Gemara says, “Rabbah bar Rav Huna said: Any person that has Torah but doesn’t have Yiras Shomayim is comparable to a treasurer who has the keys to the inner chambers (of the treasure house) but the keys to the outer area were not handed to him. How can he get to the inner chambers (if he can’t first get into the outer parts)?”
Therefore, we put a key in the challah the Shabbos after Pesach to show we want the Yirah obtained from the matzos to stay with us, because if one has Yirah then he will succeed in his Torah learning (Yismach Yisrael).
7) At the beginning of Hilchos Chometz U’Matza, the Rambam lists 8 mitzvos (3 positive & 5 negative) involved in chometz on Pesach. The key we put in the challah alludes to this Rambam. The letters of מפתח (key) stand for ]פ״תפ״ת׳צות מ׳ ח bread, representing the chometz and מ׳ is for matza, these allude to Hilchos Chometz U’Matza, and the ח׳ is the 8 mitzvos involved] (Tzvi LaTzaddik).
8) The Shabbos after Pesach we make challos that resemble matzos, as an allusion to the matzos that were eaten on Pesach Sheini. We place a key in the challah to allude to the “gates” being open until Pesach Sheini (Imrei Pinchos).
9) One minhag is to put keys in the challah and make them in the form of matzos. The reason is that in these seven weeks of the sefira, we are supposed to work on our Avodas Hashem until re-attain the level we reached on first night of Pesach. The way to do this is to put the “left into the right”, meaning mix the trait of ahava (right side) with yirah (left side). In the second week of sefira, we have these two traits in our hands, since the first week of sefira is chesed - ahava, and the second week is gevura - yirah. That is why we make the challah look like matza. Matza represents the Yetzer Tov, the right, and chometz represents the Yetzer Hora, the left. Now, we have challos which are true chometz, in the form of matza; “the left is in the right”, chometz in matza (Shearis L’Pinchos).
10) There are many reasons given for the shlissel challah, and I say that the shlissel challos are the keys to parnasa (Segulos HaBeShT V’Talmidov quoting Nachlas Yaakov).
Different ways of making Shlissel Challah
As mentioned above (reasons 8 and 9) there are those that make the challah round and flat for this Shabbos, in the image of matza.
Some make the challah in the shape of a key. Some attach a piece of dough in the shape of a key. Breslov Customs for Pesach (page 57) says this is the minhag of the family of Rav Elazar Kenig shlit”a and of Manistritch.
Sefer Hatoda’ah mentions making the image of a key with sesame seeds on top of the challah. These first three customs can, perhaps, be seen from the wording of the Ohev Yisrael in one place where he says to put the image of a key on the challah.
Others place an actual key in the challah. Perhaps this is done because of the wording in many places of indenting the challah with a key.
Either way it is done, the key or image of the key is usually on top of the challah. An interesting observation about this: The Gemara quoted by the Yismach Yisrael (reason 6), about the key, is at the top of daf 31b. At the bottom of the daf is the mishna mentioning the women’s mitzvah of challah. Here the key is on top and the challah on the bottom!
Conclusion
The Gemara in Ta’anis says that there are three keys that Hashem directly controls, without the assistance of Malachim. They are, rain, which the Gemara explains is parnasa, childbirth (or conception) and techias hameisim. If I may humbly add, when we are making the challah to have in mind the parnasa of others also, and also those who don’t have children and most importantly, to daven for techias hamaeisim.
Regardless of how one performs this minhag, they are all correct and all have holy sources. When I started writing this, I did not realize how much information there was on this minhag which is done only once a year. I learnt a valuable lesson - every minhag and of course, every mitzva has many holy reasons behind it and it is not done just because someone decided this is a nice thing to do, as some say. The more I looked into shlissel challah, the more I found it in seforim, written by Rabbonim who were gaonim in every part of Torah - nistar and nigleh, and Tzaddikim in every aspect - between “Hashem and man” and “between man and man”. They were able to understand reasons for every little action we do as a way of serving Hashem. May we all be blessed with parnasa berevach together with all of Klal Yisrael, Amen!
Note: See below for instructions on how to fulfill the mitzva of separating challah - the most important part of baking challah. It is said in the name of Rav Dovid of Tolna that one should make sure the dough separated as challah is burnt completely until no part of it is edible. In addition to being the ideal way to burn the challah, he says that if a davar tamei eats the unburnt challah, it can cause one’s children to go off the derech, chas v'shalom.
The segulah that I received from my Rebbe, the Clevelander Rebbe Shlit"a of Ra'anana, is that on the first Shabbos after Pesach you "knead the challah dough" with a key. In fact, that is the custom recorded and found in the sefer Ohev Yisrael of the Apta Rebbe. Our custom is (I wash the key first in soap and hot water) to knead the challah dough and poke the key into the dough while reciting the open the shaarim prayers found in most zemiros bentchers at the end of the zemiros for Melave Malka - where we ask Hashem to open many gates for us. Other people I have seen also bake a key shape on the challah, but I didn’t receive any such tradition.
The Ohev Yisrael says:
לשבת שאחר הפסח המנהג הוא מימים קדמונים לנקוב את החלות בשבת שלאחר פסח במפתחות, ונעשה .על החלה צורת מפתח
In at least three other places, the Ohev Yisrael uses similar wording to ונעשה על החלה צורת מפתח. This is probably where the minhag of some to bake a key shape image on the challah comes from.
