דינים- הפרשת חלה

הקדמה "וידבר..."- theמצוה of הפרשת חלה here.

There are many הפרשות which have to come off- תרומה, מעשר… There is an additional תרומה here that is given to the כהן. All the other הפרשות are to acknowledge the ברכה that ה' bestowed upon our land. הפרשת חלה is a different kind of הפרשה – it’s not a ברכת השדה, it’s a ברכת הבית. It may happen that you will have bounty, but there will be people with nothing to put on their table and vice versa. So my personal הצלחה is established through הפרשת חלה. When a person does הפרשת חלה, he brings הצלחה into his own home. The שיעור for הפרשה is an עומר because in the מדבר, every person got עומר לגלגולת. Everyone got a perfect עומר-ה' would check up on everyone to make sure they had what they’re supposed to. This is השגחה פרטית. So הפרשת חלה is acknowledging what I personally have.

There are two angles to this מצוה:
The כהן is supported through this.
What I personally gain.

There is no limit as to how much to give, but something has to remain to the one who made it. Both the כהן and the giver are vital to this מצוה.

א הפרשת חלה is a מצות עשה, a חיוב that we have. הפרשת חלה is very similar to the קדושה of תרומה. A זר may not eat it. Any זר who eats תרומה gets severely punished. Only the כהן and his household (including his עבד) can eat תרומה and from הפרשת חלה. If a ישראל is at a כהן’s house, he still can’t eat from it.

ב Only something made from the חמשת מיני דגן is considered a לחם. Something made of rice or corn flour isn’t included.

ג Two conditions which would make the מצוה of הפרשת חלה a דאוריתא:
"בבואם אל הארץ"- when רוב ב''י are in א''י.
"מלחם הארץ"- kneaded in א''י.
In חו''ל we have neither condition, but חז''ל gave us a חיוב in חו''ל as well. Nowadays in א''י, they don’t have the whole חיוב, but the מצוה is much more חמור than in חו''ל.

ד In חו''ל, if you forget to be מפריש, you may still eat from the חלה, but you must leave over for after שבת (because you can’t be מפריש on שבת). You leave over the שיעור for הפרשה plus some more. You can also be מפריש from something after something is baked, but in א''י, you can’t eat from something until you are מפריש. הפרשה also applies to cookies.

ה משה said to כ''י, "ראשית ערסתיכם"- they all got עומר לגלגולת, therefore חז''ל tell us that if you made a dough that fills up the volume of an עומר, you would have to be מפריש. How much is an עומר? The volume forty- three and a half eggs would displace, which is a tenth of an איפה. If you fill the same amount of space with flour (poured in a normal way) and level it, that would be how much you need to be מפריש. Some say this is eggs with their shells and others say it is just the interior. If I don’t have that amount of flour, there is no חיוב of הפרשה. If I don’t have that amount of flour, but after my dough rose it now has more volume, it doesn’t make a difference. You can’t cut down on your recipe so that you won’t have to do הפרשת חלה.

ו How does this translate for us? There are different sized eggs and חז''ל say that in the old days, eggs were possibly double what they are today, therefore there are חלוקי דעות. Up to a certain amount, you aren’t מחויב because it doesn’t fall under any דעות. Up to about two and a half pounds, eight cups, is definitely פטור from הפרשת חלה. The most widely accepted שיעור is the חזון איש’s- from five pounds and up, הפרשת חלה is required with a ברכה. From two and a half to five pounds, you do הפרשת חלה without a ברכה. For anything more than five pounds, you make a ברכה. The מנהג הישן in ירושלים was three and a half pounds for a ברכה.

ז Sometimes a recipe may call for multi grains. You may not have enough of anything individually, but together they equal a שיעור, so you do הפרשת חלה. In regard to חמשת מיני דגן mixed with קטניות, ask a שאלת חכם. For example, wheat and rice combined- if you can taste the wheat, it does combine for a שיעור. חז''ל recommend that if you could do something to be מחייב the עיסה, you should. If you are baking many things, they teach us how to combine dough so that you can do הפרשת חלה. Combining dough is called צירוף. When combining things, you must combine things that are שיך to each other, like two cookie doughs. You can’t combine a cookie dough with a bread dough. Once you do צירוף, the two doughs have already been joined and you can do the הפרשה when they are not physically together.

How do you do צירוף?
נשיכה- take two batches of dough. You put them close enough together that when you pull them apart, one will bite from the other.
צירוף כלי- make them within the sides of the same כלי. They don’t have to be touching, but it’s preferable that they should be. You can do this with a cloth or towel. If you have two doughs on a garbage bag and you can’t move them, take a tablecloth and drape it over so that they’re within the same closed space. If you have two bowls and you want to cover them, make sure that the cloth doesn’t sag in middle, making a separation.

A dough that became מחויב through צירוף must have הפרשה before you can eat from it, even in חו''ל. You can also be מצרף baked goods. צירוף can happen by mistake, but once it’s joined it’s מחויב for הפרשה and you can’t eat from it before you do הפרשה. Once something had הפרשה, it can never be joined to make something else ראוי for הפרשה.

Certain things by nature can’t be joined together:
Dough belonging to two different people. Since you are מקפיד על תערובתם- want two separate things, they can’t be joined. If you aren’t מקפיד על תערובתם, they can be joined.
When doughs are very different from each other, they can’t be joined.
If you have dough which you are going to bake at separate times and use on separate occasions, some say that you can’t be מצרף them. If you bake them all at one time and then put them away, you can do צירוף.

Sometimes, even if you make one large dough, you can’t be מפריש:
If it belongs to two different people who are מקפיד על תערובתם. If you make one large שיעור, but דעתו לחלק עיסה- you are dividing it up as dough into many portions, you can’t be מפריש.
Let’s say you are making a large flakey dough and you want to make knishes and pastries out of it. This concept of דעתו לחלק עיסה, that you are going to divide it up, some as dough will be made into one thing and some as something else, so they are now very different. Some say that it may not need הפרשה.
If you make a large dough, but you only need some of it now, the rest you will put away and bake later- some say that you don’t have to be מפריש.

ח The תורה didn’t give a שיעור of how much you should be מפריש, but חז''ל gave a suggestion- "1" ⁄"24" , a חשוב enough שיעור to give to the כהן. A baker was given a different שיעור by חז''ל- "1" ⁄"48" .

ט Two reasons that we don’t give הפרשת חלה to the כהן today:
They are all טמא. הפרשת חלה דאוריתא would be אסור to be eaten if the חלה or the כהן is טמא. הפרשת חלה in חו''ל is less חמור, but we haven’t had טהרה in years so it doesn’t apply.
There are some people who think that they are כהנים, but really there is a mistake and they aren’t. So since we don’t know who is really a כהן, we don’t want to be מכשיל a זר to eat from הפרשת חלה. So we burn it so that no one should be מכשיל.
This is why you don’t have to give so much- because it’s not going to anyone. It would even be enough to pinch a drop off, but the מנהג is to be מפריש a כזית. A זר can’t have הנאה from הפרשת חלה. He can’t use it to feed a fire, he can’t even have הנאה from כילוי- burning the חלה. A כהן would be allowed to be נהנה from a fire fueled with הפרשת חלה. If you lit the fire when a כהן was present, then even if he leaves you wouldn’t have to put it out.

י- יב "לחם הארץ"- we learn out from here that:
It’s thick and not a loose batter
It’s baked, not cooked or deep fried
If it has either the first or second characteristic, it’s definitely bread. If it has neither characteristic, even if it has enough flour, it doesn’t require הפרשה, for example fried sesame chicken. If you would bake it though, it would require הפרשה. If you have the second characteristic, even without the first, it needs הפרשה. But if you have the first characteristic and not the second, for example a thick batter that’s fried, it’s יש אומרים. If you made a thick dough and had in mind to fry it, there’s a חלוקי דעות if it’s לחם or not, so according to some you would be מפריש without a ברכה. If you made a חלה dough, and you were going to bake it, but then you ended up making garlic knots and frying them, you still do הפרשה. If you make noodles out of a thick dough, since it doesn’t look like לחם, there is a חלוקי דעות- some say that you are מפריש without a ברכה and others say you don’t need הפרשה at all. Lukshen kugel does bring up a שאילה.

יג שבעת המשקין - category of liquids which come up, have specific הלכות.



Two הלכות regarding הפרשת חלה:
If a dough has as its liquid none of the שבעת המשקין whatsoever, it is questionable whether הפרשת חלה applies at all.
Additionally, it can’t be מקבל טומאה at all, and this lands you with a problem- you must give it to the כהן.

You can’t burn this and you can’t give it to the כהן, so what to do you do? You must mix in a drop of water or any other of the שבעת המשקין into the ingredients. You can’t wait until it’s dough to add it, because then it’s too late. Now, you can be מפריש and burn it.

יד Our batters and doughs today are מחייב בהפרשה. So even if it’s a cake batter you would be מפריש if it’s a big enough שיעור. But batter needs הפרשה after it’s baked, because until then it doesn’t have the צורה of לחם. Let’s say you don’t want to cut into something, you could put some batter in a separate כלי and bake it and you’ll be מפריש from that after it bakes.

טו Once it’s dough, it requires הפרשה, but you could be מפריש after it’s baked.

טז When you are מפריש, you precede it with a ברכה, "להפריש חלה ", and some say "להפריש חלה מן העיסה". Some say that it is preferable to stand when saying the ברכה . Don’t be מפריש until after the ברכה or at least if you cut it off, don’t have in mind that you’re being מפריש. First say the ברכה and then have in mind that you are being מפריש.

When you do your הפרשה, you make the ברכה, remove a piece of dough, put it down and then say "הרי זו חלה"- you can say this in any language. You could think this, but it is better to say it. You have to put it down before you say it so that the piece that you put down is for theהפרשה , but whatever is left on your hand or the knife isn’t part of the הפרשה . If you would say "הרי זו חלה" while the dough is still in your hand and you touch the rest of your dough, you are mixing הפרשה in with the rest of the dough and you have a problem.

In חו''ל, if you make a large enough dough that’s חיוב בהפרשה, you don’t need all the dough to be together בשעת הפרשה. There are some situations where חלה has to be taken בהיקף- when all of the dough is in the same parameters in front of you:
עיסת א''י
עיסה שנתחיבה בחלה ע''י צירוף
In order for it to be מן המוקף, the כלים must be touching each other, but not covered. Situation where you could to היקף, but you don’t have to: if you are making two sets of חלה. You have two bowls of five pounds in front of you. You could do הפרשה on each. But if they’re the same doughs, you could take one הפרשה. To do this, it has to be מן המוקף- put the two bowls touching.

After you say the ברכה and "הרי זו חלה", you say a "יהי רצון" (same as at the end of ש''ע) and other תחינות. One can be מבקש at the time of הפרשת חלה. There is a very nice יהי רצון for כפרה, פרנסה…

יז אדם was considered חלתו של העולם because he was made from עפר מן האדמה and חז''ל say that ה' was מפריש from the earth all over. חוה was מקלקל him, therefore the woman of כ''י were given the opportunity to be מתקן the חטא of חוה. The חיוב is on the owner of the חלה, but the husband usually gives it over to the wife. You should ask your mother one initial time if you have authorization to be מפריש when you bake. If you are afraid that the dough is going to be forgotten about or your mother won’t have time to do it, someone else can be מפריש.

יח If you buy bread from a גוי, it doesn’t ever have the חיוב of הפרשת חלה because it belonged to a גוי. But if you have a yiddishe bakery, the bread is מחויב בהפרשה. If you buy bread from a bakery where you have a חשש that they don’t do הפרשה, you must be מפריש from what you bought without a ברכה.