Rabbi for the separation of challah

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asked 4 years ago

Hello Rabbi,
I want to organize a challah-making evening for some of my friends who are looking for a match.
Does the rabbi leading the evening need special certification?
I’m asking because I have a righteous neighbor who wants to host the evening for free, but I see online that there are organizations that specialize in the subject and have special rabbinates for challah distribution nationwide, here is an example:

רבנית להפרשת חלה ערב מרגש שלעולם לא תשכחו! ✔️

Thank you very much!

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מיכי Staff answered 4 years ago

At first I thought it was a troll, but I have a vague feeling that it might not be. Anyone who reads this site knows that I oppose the separation of challah as a virtue for various matters. The separation of challah is a mitzvah like any other mitzvah, and it must be done when a sufficient amount of dough is baked to remove it from the tevel. It should not be done as a virtue for marriages and the like, for two reasons: A. It does not help. B. There is more to this than a prohibition and even accessories to idolatry. Clearly, this is not what is supposed to help someone find their partner. If you want to help with this, you should help them look for a partner and make the right decision. Tested and proven. And as for rabbis who are authorized to perform challah nationwide and organizations that specialize, it really seems like a scam. I know organizations that specialize in a more tested and proven way in idolatry, the Mission for example. If you want to fail in the accessories of idolatry, it is recommended to contact them (although regarding them, it is worth discussing whether this is really a matter of faith. Maybe it is worth contacting Baal Peor). I learned from my late father that when our family members were looking for ways to make a living, he told them that there was one proven way: to go to work.

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. replied 4 years ago

The Rabbi actually seems to me that this is not a troll, and if so, it is not right that it seems that way.
In 2:1,
1? Why can't it be that if a person is more righteous, then the decrees towards him will be more providential and he will be less subject to nature? And in any case, the separation of challah adds another mitzvah to the basket of mitzvahs.
2. Why can't there be special mitzvahs? For example, it is said about honoring parents (and perhaps about the entire first part of the Ten Commandments?) so that your days may be prolonged. Or it is said about sending away the nest: “Send away the mother and take the children with you, so that it may go well with you and you may prolong your days”.
Can't it be that here too there is no special mitzvah?

3. Regarding tithes, and is challah included in this? But perhaps today there is no actual division for the priest, but it is said in Malachi:
” Bring all the tithes into the storehouse, and let them be a prey in my house, and prove me now in this thing, saith the LORD of hosts, if I will not open you the windows of heaven, and pour you out a blessing, until there be no more room. ”

In the same matter, if I'm not mistaken, I heard at the time from Rabbi Medan something along the lines of the prophecy there being about the dispute between the prophet and the people as to whether there is providence and whether there is a righteous or wicked one, and after that failed anyway, the prophecy closes (the Book of Malachi) and we move on to the second (and a book of remembrance was written before it).

. replied 4 years ago

It's natural that he also linked it to the separation of the people (naturally following the exile), but I don't completely remember now how.

מיכי Staff replied 4 years ago

Regarding providence, my view is that today there is probably no such thing. God’s involvement in the world has disappeared (or at least almost disappeared). This is detailed here in many places, and in my trilogy in the second book.
But even if there were involvement, one should not use the mitzvot and the Torah as a virtue to bring benefit. Simply put, there is a Torah prohibition in this, although there is some room for improvement. I intend to devote a column to this soon.
And even if all of this were true, how could anyone know that the parshat challah is a virtue for couples or for anything else? Why not standing on one leg, studying Chapter 2 of the Psalms, honoring parents, eating the fruits of the seventh day, or redeeming a donkey’s fat? These baseless inventions, even if they are not forbidden, are baseless nonsense. Incidentally, according to the Maimonides, baseless nonsense is the basis of the prohibition of “Do not guess” and the rest of the accessories of the law.

אסף replied 4 years ago

Simply put, not trolling, but "hidden" advertising.