The Numerical Side of Challah
One of the commandments given in the aftermath of the Sin of the Spies is that of Challah. The verse that mentions the word “challah” explicitly is, “From the first of your dough, donate a loaf [challah] as a raised offering, as the raised-offering of the threshing floor, you must donate” (המרותימוּרה תלתם חכתֹסִרֲית אשֵרהתֹאּימוּרָּן תן כּרֹּת גַמרותִכּ). In a beautiful example of self-reference, this verse has exactly 43 letters, the value of “challah” (הָּלח). The full paragraph (parashah) describing the mitzvah of challah includes 5 verses, which have altogether 42 words, one less than the value of “challah.” These 5 verses contain 178 letters, which means that apart from the verse we saw, the rest have 135 letters. 178 is the value of the word “desire” (ץֵפָח), which appears only twice in the Pentateuch, the first time in parashat Vayeishev (when Chamor desires Dinah to be his wife) and the second in our parashah, in the verse, “If God desires us, He will bring us to this land and give it to us, this land flowing with milk and honey.” Interestingly, this verse too contains a word that equals the numbers of letters in it: “us” (ּנוּב). This link between the two verses can be understood as saying that God wants us is like a man desires a woman to be his bride and that for a woman to be a bride coveted by her husband, is through challah.
As noted, the 4 other verses in the paragraph of challah contain 135 letters, which is the value of the word coined by the sages for “dough” (הָּסִע), dough. So, the 178 letters in the paragraph divide into “challah” (הָּלח) and “dough” (הָּסִע) letters.
Today we usually take challah at home when making challah for Shabbat. Is there some special connection between challah and Shabbat? The description of Shabbat in the account of creation has 3 verses. If we substitute the 178 letters in the parashah of challah for these 3 verses, we will find that now the entire account of creation has 1849 letters, which is exactly 43, the value of “challah” (הָּלח), squared.
The Torah’s System of Measurement
There is another connection between the mitzvah of challah and the number 43. The minimal amount of dough required to take challah is an omer (רֶמֹע), the amount of manna each individual received daily in the wilderness. An omer is one tenth of an ephah (הָיפֵא). An ephah is three s e’a h (הָאְס), which in turn is 6 kav (בַק), which is 4 log (גֹלו), which is 6 beitzah (הָיצֵּב).
The question is, how many beitzah in an ephah, which then if we divide by 10, will tell us how many beitzah in an omer, the minimal amount of dough required for challah. The answer is that 1 (ephah) is 3 (s e’a h) times 6 (kav) times 4 (log) times 6 (beitzah), which is 432 beitzah in one ephah. Thus, the minimum amount of dough is 43.2 beitzah. The beitzah or “egg” is the most regal measure in Torah. How much a beitzah is in practice is a big controversy. But the egg is the basic measure. Incidentally, the number 432 is the value of “Eden-river-garden” (רהן נֶדֵע ןָּג), the three elements in Creation whose initials spell “pleasure.” In any case, we once again see a connection between challah and the number 43.
Seven Units of Measurement
Now we said that the egg is the basic unit of measurement in Torah. What is the largest unit? The largest is a chomer (רֶמֹח), which is 10 ephah. Between the chomer and the ephah is a lesser known unit known as a letech (ךֶתֶל), 5 ephah, so a letech is also half a chomer. In summary, how many beitzah in a chomer? 4320! And altogether, we have seven units of measurement. Clearly, we should correspond these units to the sefirot from loving-kindness to kingdom. Let us first show the partzuf:
- might-gevurah הָרּבוּגְךֶתֶל
- loving-kindness-chessed דֶסֶחרֹר (כּומֹח)
- beauty-tiferet תֶרֶאְפִּתהָיפֵא
- splendor-hod דֹהובַק
- victory-netzach חַצֶנהָאְס
- foundation-yesod דֹסוי גֹלו
- kingdom-malchut תּכוְלַמהָיצֵּב
The first thing we notice is that the unit of measurement known as a chomer is in loving-kindness. The value of chomer (רֶמֹח) is 248, which is also the value of “Abraham” (םָהָרְבַא), the archetypal soul of loving-kindness. The ratio between a chomer and a letech is 1:2. This is known as “the whole and the half,” the ratio describing the relationship between male and female, between husband and wife, and in our partzuf the relationship between loving-kindness (the male) and might (the female).
The first two units of measurement—the chomer and the letech—are warehouse sized. In other words, they are not something a regular person would encounter at home. The first unit that is “home-sized” is the ephah; recall that the amount of manna consumed by an individual daily was one-tenth of an ephah. This “concealment” of the first two units and the relative revelation of the third corresponds to the well-known principle that loving-kindness and might are concealed while open revelation only begins with beauty (Tiferet).
The kav unit corresponds to acknowledgment (hod), which in the body is the left leg. The word “kav” also means a crutch, which people use to walk on.
The log unit, which corresponds to foundation, usually appears in the Torah to describe a quantity of olive oil. In our partzuf of the Seven Species that are blessed in the Land of Israel. The fruit that corresponds to foundation is the olive.
Finally, the beitzah, the egg corresponds to kingdom. Elsewhere, we discuss in length this relationship between an egg and the system of government, the kingdom or malchut found in a state.
1. Numbers 15:20.
2. Genesis 34:19.
3. Numbers 14:8.
4. Challah 1:5.
5. Which is about 2.5 liters of dough. Because dough can be made with varying amount of water and other ingredients, most rulings provide an amount of flour which would theoretically make this amount of dough and place it at 1.66kg.
