Page 46 - HaMizrachi #26 Tu Bishvat USA 2021

TU BISHVAT READING

Rabbi Michael Hattin

MITZVOT HAT’LUYOT BA’ARETZ CHALLAH

Challah and Hope

-d spoke to Moshe saying: enter the land (ואבת יכ) of your dwellings obligated to fulfill the mitzvah of challah
Speak to the people of Israel that I am giving to you.” As the Mid- as soon as they partook of the Land’s
“Gand say to them: ‘At once rash Sifre explains: “Rabbi Yishmael produce, even though their secure set-
upon entering the Land to which I am expounded: ‘The text indicates a differ- tlement of its soil may have been many
bringing you when you eat from its pro- ent form of entry concerning the mitz- years off.
duce, then you shall offer up a portion vah of challah than any other entry-re-
to G-d. The first part of your dough, the lated mitzvah in the Torah. Concerning Although the mitzvah of challah is
challah, you shall raise up, just as you all the other commandments contingent a function of geography because it is
contingent upon Am Yisrael entering
raise up a portion from the grain of the upon entering the Land, the text says
threshing floor. The first portion of your ‘When you enter the Land…’ or ‘It shall Canaan, it is not Land-dependent in the
kneading you shall raise up to G-d, for come to pass when G-d brings you into narrow halachic sense. Challah stands
in contrast to most other agricultural
all generations’” (Bamidbar 15:17–21). the Land…’ Here, however, the text says: mitzvot, for only produce grown in the
This section introduces the mitzvah ‘At once upon entering the Land.’ This Land of Israel must be tithed and only
of challah, or “taking the dough.” The indicates that as soon as the people the farmer in Israel must abstain from
Torah presents this mitzvah in the after- of Israel entered the Land, they were the planting of diverse seeds, etc. But
math of the sin of the spies, after Am immediately obligated in the mitzvah of after we enter the Land, anyone who
Yisrael had been condemned to perish in challah’” (Sifre Bamidbar Chapter 110). kneads dough, whether they live in Israel
the wilderness and not enter the Prom- or not, must fulfill the mitzvah of chal-
ised Land. lah. In other words, challah connects
The root of the word is probably derived us to the Land of Israel even though we
from a stem meaning “first,” for the chal- are not yet there.
lah is the first portion of the dough sepa- Thus, the mitzvah of challah provided
rated before it is baked, and presented to profound solace to Jews throughout
the kohen as a gift. Today, in the absence history who were separated from their
of a Temple and laws of tahara, the chal- Land. To the generation of the wilder-
lah is symbolically separated and then ness, the Land may have seemed far off,
disposed of respectfully, to preserve the but challah suggested the Land was rele-
memory of the original rite. Like the vant even prior to its formal settlement.
meal offerings and libations the Torah And for the many generations forced
speaks of at the beginning of the chap- to live exiled from the Land, challah
ter (15:1-16), the mitzvah of challah is reminded us that one could still be
also contingent upon entering the Land symbolically connected to its holy soil
of Israel, indicating that the judgment In other words, Am Yisrael were not even in the absence of possessing formal
meted out to the generation of the wil- obligated to fulfill all the other Land- deed. In both situations, the point was
derness would one day be rescinded. the same: to gently remind us that living
based agricultural commandments –
But in contrast to the meal offerings and such as the separation of tithes from in the Land of Israel was, and remains,
libations, the mitzvah of challah speaks their produce or the designation of the the goal.
of an unusual immediacy: “At once upon first fruits – immediately upon cross-
entering (םכאובב) the Land to which I am ing the Jordan and entering Canaan. Rabbi Michael Hattin teaches at the Pardes
bringing you when you eat from its pro- First, they would have to conquer the Institute of Jewish Studies in Jerusalem and
duce, then you shall offer up a portion Land and settle it, a process that took serves as the Director of the Beit Midrash
to G-d,” is more direct than “When you a number of years. However, they were for the Pardes Center for Jewish Educators.

46 |