- This topic has 46 replies, 19 voices, and was last updated 13 years ago by .
-
Posts
-
I am looking for 40 women to make challah in the zechus of a refuah shelaimah for my uncle who is very very sick. Does anyone want to volunteer?
Please keep him in your tefillos. His name is Pesach ben Sara Gittel. Hashem makes nissim every day, and you have no idea how powerful ONE tefila, even one word, makes in the world! We should hear only simchas throughout all of klal yisrael!
So once my sister in law agreed to bake challas as part of 40 women.
She comes home late thursday night exhausted, and then starts to take out the challa stuff.
My brother says, “You go to sleep- I’m making challa.”
Now that sounds like something Hashem wants.
Popa- I’m assuming she comes home late from work?
Because, yes, that’s what Hashem wants from us woman. We shouly not work, but stay home and bake Challos. Yup!
You make bad assumptions. I could make you feel really dumb, but I won’t.
popa,
if I’m reading that right, I wish someone a refuah shleima b’karov.
My wife will add him to the list tonight when she bakes, B”N.
I think its a very nice thought to do this for your uncle its not at all a half baked idea.
He should have a complete Refuah Shelaima!
Making challah now. Will have your uncle in mind.
Popa, if you wanted, you have a zechus and could daven for pesach ben sara gittel as you did not make smartcookie look really dumb as you proposed you were able to.
I thought the group was supposed to be 43 the gematria of Challah
Count me in. Besiras Tovos!!
My wife did it last night.
must the challah baker be a womnan?
must the challah baker be a womnan?
I was going to ask the same question. I think that in two weeks, I might be cooking for Shabbos, including baking challah. In such a case, I will be doing hafrashas challah as well.
The Wolf
Wolf – I remember you posting that you once baked challah before.
Wolf – I remember you posting that you once baked challah before.
Yep. While I love to cook, that time Eees was taking a set of comprehensive exams for grad school on a Friday, so I took over the complete cooking, including the challah baking. Her next exams are in two weeks (or so… I’m not sure of the exact date) so I might be cooking and baking that week too.
So, Emunas, it is only for women? Can men join? Or would it be a breach in tznius for men to join with women in this?
The Wolf
Does anyone have a source for this segulah?
Emunas,
I think what would be a lot more effective is if the family took upon themselves to be more strict about a certain mitzvah say Shmiras Shabbos…
With all due respect Segulos don’t really work. They can work in rare occasions but only as a last resort. Its ridiculous to think that if 40 or 43 women baked Challah someone sick would magically get better. You realize that if such a thing worked then there would be no Cholim left?
You want to do something big? Get people to do something permanent like learn an additional 30 minutes a day and have your uncle in mind. Or take on to learn the Halachos of a certain mitzvah and start doing it properly or get a few people to go cold turkey on movies, non Jewish music or certain other aveiros like talking during Chazaras Hashatz and Kaddish or other such things.
You have to understand, and its not just you a lot of people don’t get this, if you want something big from Hashem, you need to do something big. Its a chuzpah that people think they will come with some silly segulah and poof they will get engaged, healthy….
Another point is that your uncle, I don’t know who he is or how frum he is but usually if Hashem does something to someone it is to give them a wake up call. Maybe he needs to start Davening better or maybe there’s something he did to someone and he needs to get mechila. Many of the worst things happen to people due to aveiros bein Adam lchaveiro.
I think that it’s not so much the segula, as the zechus of the mitzva. We dont know things like if the mitzva for shmiras shabbos is more important than the mitzva of hafrashas challa. While taking on extra kabbalos would work, I’m not sure they would heal a sick person any more than the zechus of a mitzva
Emunas: I don’t think WIY meant any offense. I think he was giving some honest advice as to what he thought would be most beneficial to your uncle. I don’t think he meant to imply C”V that you weren’t doing anything else. I think he was saying that (in his opinion) there were things that you could do for your uncle that would have more of an effect in Shamayim than a Segula about taking Challah.
To WIY and downward. Segula/Sigula: treasure, rare object, in Talmudic sometimes a large investment. It is the investment sense that we use segulah today, a spiritual investment. Many times this concept is corrupted, but the challah baking is one of the purest. Consider the doing of a mitzva in concert, and the targeting the zchus to elsewhere, a form of tzedakah. Challah taking is most often accompanied by heartfelt tefilos, as in candle lighting. Do not dismiss the efficacy of tefilah, certainly the tefilos of a group, and most certainly the tefilos of women whilst engaged in the mitzva delegated to them. And do not make the mistake of thinking we know what is weighed and how in the chesbonos of the Dayan Emes. The neshoma should have many aliyos, and efforts of the challa bakers should be mostze chen. We do hold that a sincere tefillah is never ‘wasted’.
Emunas,
I never received an answer to my question. Please answer.
Thanks,
The Wolf
Just curious Emunas, do you live in Eretz Yisrael? Because Hafrashas Challah in America isn’t a Mitzvah.
EI: That’s just not true. It’s a Minhag in CHU”L, and a perplexing Minhag at that. Not even a Chiyuv Mid’rabannan. Baking break for Shabbos is definitely Kavod Shabbos, but being Mafrish Challah in CHU”L is not.
baking shabbos in chu”l IS a mitzva d’rabanan….
Emunas Itecha: I am very sorry for the loss of your uncle.May you and the family only know of simchas.
Thank you for your beautiful divrei torah! Truly an inspiration!
Don’t let the posts bother you from Sam 2 and the like. They have absolutely no idea where you’re coming from….. Don’t even try to explain it to them… it’s a waste of energy.
A mamin: What does that mean? I was just curious about the basis for this Segula and think that there is probably a big difference in it between America and Israel, so I was curious where she lived. I meant no harm or offense.
Sam2 I think that the purpose of this thread was to help a choleh, who unfortunately passed away. I think you took the thread off on a tangent without sensitivity to the family loss IMHO.
A mamin: You may be right about that. I apologize.
Popa- I just realized your comment to me. I have no problem with any poster here making me feel dumb, and you have a lot of Chutzpah.
Popa- I just realized your comment to me. I have no problem with any poster here making me feel dumb, and you have a lot of Chutzpah.
I do have a lot of chutzpah.
I don’t understand the rest of your post. And you may believe that I’m not refraining from posting what happened to protect your feelings- it is because it is a sensitive topic.
Emunas, I am so sorry for your uncle’s petirah. May he be a meilitz yosher for you and all of klal Yisroel. The reason for this type of segula seems to be very fundamental. 40 women do the mitzvas nashim of hafrashas challah, with the thought in mind that the s’char mitzvah should accrue to the choleh,in the zechus of a refuah for him. It’s not a difficult concept. The number 40 has mystical overtones in Judaism – the Flood rained for 40 days and nights, B”Y wandered for 40 years in the Midbar, it was 40 days that Moshe R’ was on Har Sinai getting the Torah, 40 days before a baby is born (or is it after conception?) his/her zivug is called out by a Heavenly Voice, 40 days after conception a baby’s gender is determined and it is no longer considered as “mayim,” but as a fetus. So I guess that is why the number 40 has such a status in this case.
But why use a magic number in the first place, sure 40 is better than 39 but is the difference between 39 and 40 any different than the difference between 38 and 39? (After all 39 is a signifigant number for Shabbos.)
I know the mitzvah of challah is for women, but a mitzvah is a mitzvah. I dont think that men davka cant do it.
You don’t have to ask your Rav if I can be mafrish challah. I have *exactly* the same requirement to do so that a woman does. I’ll continue to do so regardless of what your Rav says on the matter.
I wasn’t asking if I can be mafrish challah. What I was asking was, should I end up baking, do you want me in your group?
The Wolf
Emunas: Now that you are here, I apologize if I was being insensitive. I wanted to understand and give my thoughts on the Segula, but it was probably an inappropriate time to do so.
Emunas Itecha, you wrote: In the end, I didnt get 40 because it was all very last minute, but thank you for the offer.
I usually lurk, lost my log in/password info, so I sent an e-mail to Yeshiva World to pass on to you. My sister and I both took challah as a zechus for a refuah shlaymah for your uncle, Z”L. It is entirely possible that you did in fact have 40 for your group, as there may have been more that baked challah, but were not able to notify you of that fact.
FYI, there are many gemachs and e-mail lists that organize groups of challah bakers on a regular basis. Feel free to email me off list for more info. We should be zoche to hear about simchas, refuos and yeshuos!
- You must be logged in to reply to this topic.