So the class tonight is on the mitzvah of challah, taking challah, which means the mitzvah of taking off a little piece from the dough that you make when you bake bread, not to confuse it with challah that the common expression for challah of challah is the loaves that we bake to use on Friday night, we call that challah, but that's not really the real word. That's bread or whatever other expression we use for it. The reason it's called challah is because when you bake bread, you take off challah, you do the mitzvah of taking off a piece of challah, and many times people specially bake for Shabbos, bake those loaves for Shabbos in order to have the opportunity to perform the mitzvah of taking off challah. So that's how it turned into that we call those loaves challah. But that's not what we're going to talk about. We're not discussing today how to bake challah, that's a separate class that women should have how to bake challah. We're going to discuss the mitzvah of taking off challah. No, it is taking off from the loaf a piece, but it's not the bread is called challah. The bread is called bread, לחם, and from that bread, we take off a piece of challah. So when you bake the bread in order to make the do the mitzvah of challah, the name challah is used on the whole loaf, but the word challah is not referred to the loaf. Nowadays it became that way, but that's not the way it really is. This mitzvah of taking off challah is always known as one of the three mitzvot that's specially given to women. We know that the women have three mitzvot, which are hinted in the abbreviation of the word חנה, ח-נ-ה. So, it's challah, niddah, and הדלקת הנר. The mitzvah of taking off challah, the mitzvah of family purity, טהרת המשפחה, which is niddah, and the ה is הדלקת הנר, the mitzvah of lighting candles Friday night. And these are three mitzvot given to the women. The women are the three these three mitzvot are performed by the women. Sometimes we use the ראשי תיבות, the abbreviation of the word החן. החן means the grace, the favor. So, החן, ה-ח-נ, is an abbreviation of הדלקת הנר and challah and נדה. So taking off challah is one of the three mitzvot that is upon the women. But I want to make it clear that it's not true, it's not a mitzvah that is given to the women. Anybody who bakes bread has to take off challah before he's allowed to eat the bread. The reason we call this as a mitzvah for the women because mostly the women are in the kitchen. Mostly the women are the ones that bake, cook and bake. So, therefore, we refer to it as a mitzvah of the women. Just like the other two mitzvot. הדלקת הנר, the mitzvah of lighting Shabbos candles. It's not a mitzvah that only the women are obligated. It's a mitzvah on the household. If there is no women in the house, then a man has to bentsch licht. So, it's a mitzvah on any everybody. It says that because the women are more מצוי בבית, they are more found at home, and they are the ones that are more involved in preparing the house, therefore, it's considered a mitzvah put on the women, they usually do it. But the mitzvah is on the men as much as on the women. And the same thing is with the mitzvah of נדה. Here it's a little bit more connected to the women because the change that takes place is in the woman's body, but nevertheless, the the obligation to keep that mitzvah, in this case it's a prohibition, of נדה is on the man and on the woman equally. When the woman is a נדה and there are all these prohibitions between the husband and the wife when the woman is a נדה, the prohibition is not only on the woman, the prohibition is on the man also. So the mitzvah of נדה is a mitzvah on the man, too. But it's more in the hands of the woman because she is the one that the change goes through in her body and she's the one that's able to make sure that the mitzvah of נדה is kept by going to the mikveh and doing all the things that she's supposed to do, so we consider it a mitzvah of the woman. But in truth, this is a mitzvah on both. So too, like going back to the mitzvah of challah, it's not a mitzvah on the women only. Usually the women do, but it's a mitzvah on everybody that you have to take challah. There are רמזים, there are hints why technically the mitzvah is more connected to the women. It says היא קלקלה חלתו של עולם, it says in a Midrash, that because she is the one that spoiled the challah of the world, so she has to fix it by performing the mitzvah of challah. How is it that the woman spoiled the challah of the world. אדם הראשון is considered the challah of the world. אדם הראשון was made similar to a dough. Hashem, it says in Chumash, Hashem took the dust, the sand, earth, mixed it with water. It's like flour with water. And this was the first one, the first human being, so this is the first piece, the challah that's taken of the world. And she was the one that convinced him to eat from the tree, so she was the one that spoiled the challah of the world. So Hashem gave her the mitzvah, more she should perform the mitzvah of challah. That's why technically it is more in the hands of the woman. Just like by candles we also say, why is the מצות הדלקת הנר of lighting Shabbos candles in the hands of the woman more technically, not as far as an obligation, but comes out that way? Because היא כבתה נרו של עולם, she extinguished the candle of the world. She was the one that brought about this chet, this sin of the עץ הדעת, so therefore she has the obligation of bringing back light into the world. So these are remezim, hints why they do it. But in halachah, the mitzvah of challah is on the man as much as on the woman.

And what is the mitzvah? The mitzvah is that when you make a dough to bake bread, you have to take off a little bit before and give that to Hashem. Now what does that mean give it to Hashem? We have representatives of Hashem in this world, and those are the kohanim. The kohanim did the service in the בית המקדש, so they represented Hashem. So giving it to the kohanim was a way we would show that we're giving it to Hashem. This is actually one of the מתנות כהונה. There are different presents we're supposed to give to the kohanim. In the time of the בית המקדש there were כ״ד מתנות כהונה, 24 presents. One of the 24 presents is giving the כהן חלה, but in essence what we really want to do is give it to Hashem. And when you take off that little piece of dough from the dough, so that piece is holy. That piece has a kedushah, is holy. It is like terumah. We know that one of the things they had to take off, and nowadays they still take it off in ארץ ישראל, in a different way that they used to do it, but they used to take off terumah. A certain amount you would take off from the crops that grew, from the grain that grew, and that was given to the kohen. And that terumah was holy, was only allowed to be eaten by a kohen, and the kohen himself was only allowed to eat it while he was tahor, while he was clean, spiritually clean. But if a kohen became tamei, or if the terumah became tamei, it wasn't allowed to be eaten even by a kohen. And challah is exactly like terumah. When you take off challah, that challah gets the kedushah like terumah, and it's holy, it could only be eaten by a kohen, and it could only be eaten by a kohen when he is tahor, and when the piece of dough is tahor. If he is tamei or the piece of dough became tamei, the kohen can't eat it. Nowadays, the kohen can't eat the terumah anyway, for two reasons. Number one, we're all tamei. All people nowadays are tamei, because in order to be tahor, one of the things we had to do if a person became tamei by touching or coming in contact in any form or shape with a dead body, so going to the mikveh itself would not make you tahor. You have to sprinkle with the ashes from the parah adumah. We don't have a parah adumah now, and therefore we are all tamei. So number one, the dough that we make, being that we're tamei and we make dough, we're making tameidik dough, so the terumah that we take off is tamei. Plus, the kohen, all kohanim are tamei. As much as a kohen has an obligation, a prohibition not to go to a cemetery, not to come in contact with a dead body, but it happens that we are, and therefore, and we can't get rid of the tumah, so all kohanim are tamei, so the kohanim cannot eat the terumah and cannot eat challah. Besides that, the kohanim nowadays don't even have a din of כהנים מוחזקים. There are two types of kohanim: כהנים מוחזקים and כהנים מיוחסים. כהנים מוחזקים is a kohen that has a חזקה, a 100% established proof that he is a kohen. And then you have מיוחס means it's assumed that he is a kohen. Now how do you establish a חזקה on a kohen? So there was a whole process in the time of the Beit HaMikdash that the Sanhedrin would go through to investigate each kohen before they would establish this kohen is 100% a kohen. Now we don't have that process, so therefore in halacha we accept them as kohanim and therefore anybody who is a kohen does the Birkat Kohanim, he comes up to duchenen, we use a kohen for Pidyon HaBen, but nevertheless, the kohanim are considered כהנים מיוחסים, meaning they're only assumed, their yichus is of kohanim, but not מוחזקים. So therefore for a kohen to eat terumah, it's not so simple that a kohen nowadays should be able to eat terumah, even if we would be able to find a kohen who who is טהור. So we can't give it to a kohen. So we would think, since we can't give the terumah, or in this case the challah to a kohen anyway, we shouldn't take off challah. It's not so, because the mitzvah of challah has two parts to it. One part is, it's a mitzvah. We have to, when we make a dough, we have to take off challah. But then there's another part to it: the negative part. We are not allowed to eat from the dough if challah was not taken off. It's called טבל. So if you can't eat from it, so whether we could give it to the kohen or not, it is forbidden to eat from that dough. So what do we do? Therefore we have to take off challah, and not give it to the kohen. So what do we do? We're supposed to take off challah and burn it. So we have to take off challah because otherwise this piece will be forbidden. But we can't give it to the kohen, so we burn it. And because of that, the shiur, the amount that we take off, changed. And I'll explain it. Originally, the din is from the Torah that there is no shiur how much challah you have to take off. You could be have a big dough, made of 50 pounds of flour, you take off a drop, a משהו, and give it to the kohen, and you have fulfilled your obligation, as it is מדאורייתא, from the Torah. Came the רבנן, and the רבנן said, \"Well, Hashem wants the kohen to benefit from this challah.\" So the chachamim made shiurim how much you must take off. And the shiur that they made is that if you are a baker, you bake it commercially, you take off 1 out of 48, 1/48, which would be close, a little bit or almost 2%. An individual that's a baal habayit, we call it, an individual person who bakes privately, not commercially, has to take 1 out of 24, 1/24. That's what the רבנן made. But that was only when the challah was actually given to the kohen, for the benefit of the kohen. But nowadays that we don't give it to the kohen anyway, so the chachamim said, you don't have to take off that amount. So it's enough if you take off as it was originally מדאורייתא, you take off just a drop. Nevertheless, the Rema does say that the custom is that we should take off at least a kezayit. A kezayit you take off, no matter how big the dough is, you take off a kezayit, and that kezayit you burn, and by taking that off, you are allowed to eat from this bread. There is also a measurement of from how much, how big a dough, how much flour, you must take off challah. There's a shiur, the shiur is taken from the amount of the מן. When Hashem gave the מן in the desert, it says the מן was the amount of עשירית האיפה, an עומר, tenth of an איפה. And that, the chachamim learn out, only if you make dough with that amount, you are obligated to take off challah. Now how much is that amount in our numbers? So there are differences of opinion. And therefore, some have a custom that up to 2 1/2 ounces of flour, sorry, pounds, up to 2 1/2 pounds of flour, you don't have to take off at all. Because for sure, that is under the shiur, so there is no obligation to take off. Between 2 1/2 and 4 pounds, you should take off, but still without a bracha. Why? Because it's not really really the shiur. From over 4 pounds, that's for sure the shiur, you make with a bracha. Because anything that a safek whether you have to or not, so when it comes to a mitzvah, if you have a doubt whether you have to do it or not, you have to do it. But when it comes to a bracha, safek brachos lehakel. You don't make a bracha if you're not sure. And therefore, between 2 1/2 and 4, since it's a safek whether you have to take off, so you should take off, but you can't make a bracha. Under 2 1/2, for sure you don't have to take off. And even if you do take off, it's worthless, it means nothing. Some say a little different: it's between 3 and 5 pounds that you make without a bracha, and it's over 5 pounds that you make with a bracha. But under 3, you shouldn't, you don't even have to take off. When you take off challah, that challah that we take off, and again, this is not a class of halacha, but I'm just bringing a general point, when you take off challah, we said the challah that you take off is holy, and you have to burn it. No one could eat it. Even a kohen, like he said, nowadays can't, no one could eat it. So we could look at it if we want that that challah is not kasher, but for an opposite reason than treifah food. Treifah food is not kasher because it is disgusting, it is bad, Hashem said it's no good. This is not kasher for an opposite reason, because it's too good. It's so good, it's holy, that we can't eat it. And therefore, just as an example, if a piece of this challah that you took off fell into some food, you couldn't eat the food, unless there's a din of bitul, unless it gets nullified amongst a certain amount. Or even if this falls in into a hot pot, and is absorbed in the pot, just like if treifah food falls into a pot, so then that pot becomes treifah. If this falls into a pot, the pot will become treifah, but not we can't use the word treifah on it, but the pot will be forbidden, you couldn't use the pot, you have to kasher it. You have to get that taste that absorbed in the pot, get it out, because this is holy. But that's only if the challah was taken from enough flour. If the challah was taken from a small amount that doesn't require that mitzvah, then that challah is nothing. And I always tell the story that I heard once of this rav, one of the great rabbanim, was a Lubavitcher Rav, he was in the city, 100 years ago, and the way he his was set up like many cities, he was the chief rabbi, and then he had dayanim under him. Different rabbanim who were under him who would paskan shailos. And he would sit in the Beis Din shtibl, we would call it, and he would have different rabbanim, and people came with a shaila they would ask the other rabbis, and if it was a very hard question, difficult question, they would come to him. At his later years he couldn't see anymore, he was blind, but nevertheless he would sit in the Beis Din and they would ask him questions. So he was once sitting there in his place, and he overheard a lady come in and ask one of the other dayanim sitting there a question, a shaila. And the shaila was, she baked bread, she took off challah, and the challah fell into a pot. What is the din of the pot? So right away that dayan said to her, \"You have to kosher the pot.\" He overheard it, but he couldn't see, but he overheard it. So he screams out loud to that dayyan, \"Tell her to wait a minute. Come over here, I want to ask you something, want to talk to you.\" So he called him over. He came over and this older rabbi asks him, \"Could you describe to me how she's dressed?\" So he describes, \"She's dressed with this, this.\" \"Tell her it's kosher.\" So, didn't understand why, but the rav said kosher, kosher, so he comes over to her, he says, \"The chief rabbi said it's kosher,\" and she left. When she left, he comes over to him, he says, \"I don't understand, what has her dress got to do with being kosher?\" Says, \"You don't understand. All the ladies who are dressed the way she was dressed are very, very poor. She definitely did not have enough flour that it requires challah. So the challah that she took off was not challah. It was definitely less than whatever, three pounds or two and a half pounds, so when you take off challah, it's nothing, it has no kedushah, and therefore you could tell her it's kosher.\" This is just to show how smart a rav has to be, that besides the question that's asked, you have to be smart to look a little bit further, a little bit deeper. But anyway, this is what challah is. The way the mitzvah of challah is from the practical point as I described it.

What is the meaning behind the mitzvah of challah? So here we all know it's a famous thing and it's brought down in many sefarim that the meaning behind the mitzvah of challah is that food, bread בכלל represents the whole meal. We find in many pesukim where it uses the word לחם, bread, and it doesn't mean just bread, it means the whole meal. Besides that, food בכלל is an expression used some sometimes for all person's needs. His food are his needs, that means all his needs. And when we take off challah from the bread, what we really show that we believe that all food that we have and really all the things that we get for our needs are all come from Hashem. And therefore, the first and foremost part of it we give to Hashem. When we say we give the first because it has to be the first. The pasuk says ראשית עריסותיכם, the first part of the dough. Even though the halachah is that if you didn't take off challah before while it's dough, you still have an ability, you can you're able to take it off after the challah after it's baked, you could take off a piece, but it's always before you eat, it's always the first. And the first represents not only the first in time or the first in space, but the first in חשיבות, in importance. So it's as if you're telling Hashem, \"I'm giving you the most important part. Why am I giving you the most important part? Because really it's all yours. So it's you- yours. You're letting me have part of it, so the best I have to give to you.\" So by giving challah to the kohen, which is only a representative of Hashem, we show Hashem and ourselves and we're expressing the fact that we believe that everything comes from Hashem. This is similar to another mitzvah which has the same idea is the mitzvah of mezuzah. In front of the door, by the door, or front of the house, we put up a mezuzah. What is that to show? It's to show that we understand that the house actually belongs to Hashem, and that's why we do it right in front of the house. It says it should be done the closest possible to the outside. So, all of the house should be included in what the mezuzah represents, or in the room to show that the room that is going to come, which is our house, really really belongs to Hashem, and we're putting up a sign to show that it belongs to Hashem. So too is with the mitzvah of challah, that by taking off challah, what we do is we show that we understand and we acknowledge that all our food and all our needs, everything comes from Hashem. And it says that because, it says in Tanach, Yechezkel, that because of keeping the mitzvah of challah, it says that when you do the mitzvah of challah, להניח ברכה אל ביתך, it brings a berachah into your house, which is again similar to mezuzah. By mezuzah it also says that by putting up מזוזה, השם ישמור צאתך ובואך, השם watches over you in your house and outside the house, and it brings berachah as it says, the word mezuzah is made up, mezuzot is made up, it says in the Zohar, of two words if you juggle the letters around, it's made up of the two words זז מות, to push away, to move away the death. So mezuzah protects a person. So, it obviously brings blessings. The same thing it does by challah, that if you fulfill the mitzvah of challah, it says in Tanach, is להניח ברכה אל ביתך, it brings a berachah into your house. So this is the general explanation of what challah is. Now, to get more a little bit into the details,

there is a Midrash, and from this Midrash we'll see what challah is all about. It says in Midrash that any person who does not keep the mitzvah of challah, of taking off challah, is כאילו מקיים עבודה זרה. It's as if you allowed the עבודה זרה to exist, as if you allowed the idol to exist. And anybody who does fulfill the mitzvah of חלה, כל המקיים מצות חלה, is as if you destroy עבודה זרה, you destroy the idols. That's what it says in the Midrash. Now, if we look into the wording of the Midrash, and we know that the Chazal, everything that Chazal tell us are are true, but besides that, even the words are exact, and we have to be מדייק, we have to look into the exact wording of the Chazal. So, number one, let's look at the general idea. What is the connection between challah and עבודה זרה? עבודה זרה is the a major mitzvah, I mean a negative mitzvah. It's basically the foundation of all of Yiddishkeit is not to worship עבודה זרה, the belief in one God and not to believe in any עבודה זרה. The mitzvah of challah seemingly is a small mitzvah. I mean, we can't say a small mitzvah, all mitzvot are big, but nevertheless, between mitzvot themselves, we find certain mitzvot are called יסודות, are fundamental mitzvot, and certain mitzvot are not fundamental. The mitzvah of שעטנז, you're not allowed to wear שעטנז, it doesn't say it's a יסוד in the whole Torah. Certain mitzvot it says is the יסוד. עבודה זרה and אמונה in Hashem is the יסוד. Challah doesn't seem to be a foundation in Torah. So how do we equate challah to עבודה זרה? Challah is one small mitzvah amongst 613, while עבודה זרה is so major, is so fundamental. Besides that, let's look into the wording of the חז״ל. They said, and I quoted it before, anybody fulfills the who doesn't fulfill the mitzvah of challah is as if he is מקיים עבודה זרה, as if he allows the עבודה זרה to exist. And if anybody who does fulfill the mitzvah of challah, destroys the עבודה זרה. Is that the proper way it should have said? It should have said, if anybody fulfills the mitzvah of challah makes an עבודה זרה, if it is connected to עבודה זרה. Anybody who does not fulfill, anybody does not fulfill, makes עבודה זרה. Anybody who does fulfill, denies the עבודה זרה. We find in other cases, by other mitzvot where it says, if you do this and this thing, this shows you deny an עבודה זרה. If you do this and this, it's as if you made an עבודה זרה. Let's do an example: כל הכועס כאילו עובד עבודה זרה, anybody who gets angry, Gemara says is as if he worshipped עבודה זרה. That makes sense. You should say here, anybody who does not keep challah is as if he worships עבודה זרה. Why is the expression, if you don't keep if you don't keep challah, it's as if you allowed the עבודה זרה to exist? You know what that seems to be saying? That there is an עבודה זרה in existence, and if you keep challah, you get rid of that עבודה זרה, and if you don't keep challah, you allow it to exist. It doesn't say if you don't keep challah, you make an עבודה זרה. That would make sense, like doing this aveirah, not keeping this mitzvah, you are making an עבודה זרה. If you do it, then you are not making עבודה זרה, destroying עבודה זרה. But saying if you don't keep challah, you allow the עבודה זרה to exist, it shows as if there is an existing עבודה זרה, and by not keeping challah, we allow that עבודה זרה to continue to exist. What does that mean? What is there? What kind of עבודה זרה is there that we allow to continue to exist by not keeping challah? But the pshat is like this. As we said before, challah is from the bread, from the food, which really means all a person's needs. Whatever a person gets, the way Hashem set up the world, comes through him working for it. That's how it is. Fortunately, or unfortunately, that's how it is. You have to work for a living. You don't work, you don't make a living. You have to work. Just like it is concerning actual making bread, you have to work. You have to plow, and you have to plant, and then you have to cut, then you have to grind, you have to work. החורש והזורע Actually, all the thirty-nine melachot of Shabbos are all set up in an order of how you work to make bread. And how you work to make clothes. So you have to work. Since, in order to get all our needs, we have to work, it is very easy for a person to think that his work is what brings him success. It's his work that gives him food. It's his work that gives him clothes, because he sees it that way. He looks at it, he says, \"Look, I worked, I got food. If I wouldn't work, I wouldn't make a living, I wouldn't get food. I wouldn't make any money, I wouldn't be able to buy food.\" So people might think forget and think that, as the pasuk is כחי ועוצם ידי עשה לי את החיל הזה, my own power, my own strength, gave me my success. Now, could be even further. You could have a person that realizes that Hashem created the world, true, and Hashem brought everything into being. But he only did it 5,763 62 years ago. Once he made the world with everything in it, and then it all goes on by itself through what the world would call the laws of nature. But it's not Hashem making it happen. And this is not true. This is אפיקורסות. This is a denial of the truth. But people would think so. Just like if a person doesn't believe that Hashem created the world and made everything happen is an apikores, is against the true understanding, the true what we know, the true belief of Torah, so, too, if a person believes that Hashem created the world, but he let it continue by itself, and he doesn't believe that המחדש בטובו בכל יום תמיד מעשה בראשית, השם renews every day, it doesn't really mean every day, it means every second, constantly renews the creation of the world, this person denies in the truth of Hashem. When a person takes off challah and gives it to Hashem, to the kohen, which represents Hashem, he acknowledges that not only did Hashem create the world, he acknowledges that everything comes from Hashem, and therefore the dough that I have is here only because Hashem made it happen. And it goes a step further. He acknowledges that the fact that I have the ability to work and bring it to this point of having the dough and kneading it and making everything happen, why am I able to work? Because Hashem at this very moment gives me existence. If Hashem would stop continuing to give me existence, I wouldn't be able to do this. The dough wouldn't exist, the flour wouldn't exist, I wouldn't exist, and there's nothing I could do. And therefore, I acknowledge that everything is from Hashem. So really when I give challah, I take off challah, I'm not giving the kohen a present. I'm giving what's his, meaning what's Hashem's to begin with, because the whole thing is Hashem's. Now the truth is, when we make a berachah when we eat, we acknowledge that, too. So when we make a berachah, why do we make a berachah before we eat? Because we know that it's not ours, it's Hashem's, and we can't even make any use of it. We're stealing, stealing from Hashem. So we have to ask Hashem permission, so we make a berachah. So it's true, so the mitzvah of berachah also has this meaning. But as far as a ma'aseh, as an act, the act of taking off challah shows this. This is what challah is all about. Now let's turn to what עבודה זרה is, and then we'll see that challah, taking off challah, the connection between taking off challah and עבודה זרה. What's עבודה זרה? So people think עבודה זרה, and this I explained in many of the classes here, people think עבודה זרה is when you take a rock or a statue and you bow down or you look at the stars and you say, \"You're my god,\" just like that. That is true, that's עבודה זרה. But that's not the depth of עבודה זרה. That's not the what עבודה זרה is all about. עבודה זרה, the Rambam says, is that the people believed that the stars or the constellations have their own power. People believed that they have their own choice what to give, because the truth is we do get benefit from the stars, from the sun and the moon and everything else, and it says everything is dependent on what's written in the stars, so they do give things and they do have an influence of what goes on in the world. It's true. So the people thought that since they have an influence, we might as well thank them for what they're giving us, or if we need something, we'll turn to them and say, \"Please give us.\" Because they do give, and they could, and they sometimes may not give, so we have to ask him and thank him. What's their mistake? Their mistake is, it's true that the stars give us, but they don't give us because of their own power. They're only tools in the hands of Hashem. Hashem gives us. He gives us through the stars. He gives us through the sun. And as I explained always, the expression in the sefarim is that they are כגרזן ביד החוצב, they're like the axe in the hand of the chopper. When you chop down the tree, you have to use a tool, so the tool, the axe, chopped down the tree, but no fool will think that you could walk over to the axe, axe, and say, \"Thank you for what you did,\" or walks over to the axe and say, \"Please, tomorrow chop me down another tree.\" Daven to the axe! You have to tell the person who used the axe, \"Thank you,\" and ask him to do it. When we want to ask for certain things that we need, we can't ask the stars, we have to ask Hashem. We tell Hashem, \"Please, have the stars give us.\" Like you would ask the person, \"Please take the axe and chop down the tree.\" And when we thank him, we thank Hashem for using the stars. So they're only like כגרזן ביד החוצב. So what's עבודה זרה? עבודה זרה is the belief that there are other things in the world that have their own power. But the truth is we could go a step further, as we always learn, and this is not what, this is not only what עבודה זרה is. You could have עבודה זרה in a finer, more delicate level. Not only if we believe in another power, if we believe in another מציאות, if we believe in another being, if we think that there is another true being in existence besides Hashem, that's false. That is, to a certain degree, עבודה זרה. If we believe there is another מציאות, another being, because in truth we know that אין עוד מלבדו, there is nothing but Hashem. And the reason we are here is because Hashem put us. So in truth, our being is only dependent on him, so we are not a real being. We're only here because he wanted us to, he put us here, he wants us to be here. So we are only an expression of his will, but in truth there is no other being but Hashem. If we think that there is another being, that is עבודה זרה. That's why when we say שמע ישראל השם אלוקינו השם אחד, השם is one, we have to think in our mind: Hashem is one, not that he's the only God, obviously he's the only God, he's the only being, there is nothing else. If we believe that there is another being, that is, to a certain degree, עבודה זרה. And that's why, as I once explained, it says that the Yidden who live, the Gemara says the Yidden who live in חוץ לארץ, outside of ארץ ישראל, are considered עובדי עבודה זרה. Just by living outside of ארץ ישראל, it's as if you worship עבודה זרה. Betaharah, it says, in a pure way. What does that mean, to worship idols in a pure way? I never heard of worshipping idols in a, if you worship idols, it's not pure, and if it's pure, it's not worshipping idols. So the sefarim explain this is what it means: in ארץ ישראל, it's easier to feel the existence of Hashem. It's a holy place. Obviously, if you want. Hashem doesn't take away free choice. If a person doesn't want, he could be in ארץ ישראל and not feel it. And because of that, he could be in ארץ ישראל and feel the opposite. But if a person tunes himself into it, in ארץ ישראל you could feel Hashem. The pasuk says, ארץ אשר עיני השם אלקיך בה מראשית השנה ועד אחרית שנה. It's a land where the eyes of Hashem are there from the beginning of the year to the end of the year. Which means Hashem is משגיח בהשגחה פרטית, he takes care of ארץ ישראל with divine providence. And the question is, Hashem takes care of everything in the world, there's nothing but him, what do we mean that ארץ ישראל is the place? And the answer is, sure, it's all over, but in ארץ ישראל, it's more בגילוי, it's more revealed, you could feel it more. So in ארץ ישראל you could feel the truth of Hashem. Outside of ארץ ישראל you don't feel it. Outside of ארץ ישראל you got to work very hard to feel the existence of Hashem, to feel that everything, any מציאות, all beings are not a real being. It's very hard. In ארץ ישראל, if you want, it's easier, and here it's harder. So that's why the Gemara says that the Yidden who live in chutz la'aretz, outside of Eretz Yisrael, are ovdei avodah zarah. They're like worshipping idols, because as I said before, I Idols doesn't mean just bowing down or even accepting another power, accepting another being as a true being is avodah zarah. And in chutz la'aretz, that's how we feel, because that's the nature. It's not our fault, that's why it's called tahor, it's clean. We didn't do anything, it's not our fault. That's the nature of the world. Hashem created the world with the nature that things look as if they are a true existence. It looks as if this is something, it looks as if it's something. So, it's not our fault, that's טבע, that's the nature. This is why the word טבע in Hebrew means, besides meaning nature, also means, comes from the word טובעו בים, when something is sunk into the water, something drowns, it's called טבע, because טבע means that the truth of Hashem is swallowed in, covered up. Like something falls into the water, it's there, but you can't see it, it's covered. So too, the truth of Hashem is covered in the world, it's called טבע. So the טבע, the nature of the world is that we don't see the true existence of Hashem. What comes out from what I said is that the nature of the world in, just from its creation in itself, is to a certain degree avodah zarah. So there is a constant existence of avodah zarah in a very, very fine level, at a very delicate level. The mere fact that there is a world the way it is, is to a certain degree avodah zarah. And what we have to do is break that avodah zarah. We have to work to understand that this is all not true, that this is all superficial, and the truth, this is all not a true existence. So when we take off challah and we show that we understand that everything comes from Hashem and there is nothing but Hashem, what it means is we are breaking the existent avodah zarah that exists there from before. If we don't take off challah, we're not making an avodah zarah. If we don't take off challah, we're allowing the avodah zarah to continue exist. The question we asked before on the expression of the Chazal, why do they say if you don't take off challah, it's as if you're allowing the avodah zarah to exist? Should have said if you don't take off challah, you make an avodah zarah. No, if we don't take off challah, we allow that exist that that avodah zarah that exists from before, we allow it to exist, which is similar to it says in Rambam, taking from the Chazal, that כל התורה כולה לא ניתנה אלא לעשות שלום בעולם, the Torah was given to make peace in the world. Then there's another ma'amar Chazal, it says תלמידי חכמים מרבים שלום בעולם. Talmidei chachamim bring a lot of peace into the world. And the question is asked, peace between who? Torah was given to make peace. People think it means the Torah was given that in case you have two people argue, two people fight, through the Torah you make peace between them. So is that the pshat? The whole Torah was given that just in case there are people who have a machlokes, people will argue, so you should use the Torah to bring peace between them? And the greatness of Talmidei Chachamim is that they make peace in the world between people? That's not what it means. I mean that's true also, but it must be mean much more than that. It can't be that this is all that this maamar Chazal means. It means like this: there is an ongoing fight from the beginning of creation in the world. What's the fight? The fight between the truth and what think the way things seem to be. The truth is nothing but השם, אמת השם לעולם, there is the emet of Hashem in the world. But then the creation, the teva of the creation seems to say different: what do you mean only Hashem? Look how many things there are. So there is a constant war. It manifests itself into the concept of a war between the forces of good and the forces of evil, which is the same thing. The forces of evil are to cover up on Hashem, and we think evil means somebody who shoots, a terrorist is evil, sure that's the epitome of evil. But just the belief in another existence of Hashem is evil. Evil means something that is not true, something that doesn't fit to the real truth the way Hashem wants it. And what is good? Good is Hashem. Hashem is called good, and this is the real good. So there is a constant war from the beginning of creation between the truth and the way it seems. Now what we have to do is make peace between the two. That means that in the world, which seems to cover up on Hashem, there should be this revelation of the truth. And that's what it means the Torah was given to make peace in the world, to bring peace. The Torah was given that through Torah there is no more fight. The teva does not cover up anymore on the truth, so there's no more war. Talmidei Chachamim, through learning Torah and spreading Torah, what they do is they make מרבים שלום, they bring a lot of peace, that They take away, they stop this war, there is no more fight because the teva, the nature, understands, we bring out the fact that this is all from Hashem, so that it makes shalom between the two. And this is what challah does. Challah, if you don't take off challah, you allow the עבודה זרה. If you don't take off challah, that means that you do not acknowledge that everything comes from Hashem. The moment you don't acknowledge that, you allow the עבודה זרה to continue. If you take off challah, then you show that you acknowledge that everything comes from Hashem, then you're fighting, you're destroying that existing עבודה זרה. And we takeh see a connection in the shiurim, in the measurements between עבודה זרה and challah. In עבודה זרה we also find that the shiur of עבודה זרה, how much עבודה זרה is forbidden, other things which are prohibited have a shiur, a shiur measurement, you can't eat a kezayit, even though you're not allowed to eat anything, any part of it, but the real issur is a kezayit or a revi'it, avodah zarah there is no shiur, even a mashu is forbidden, a hundred percent. And by challah we find the same thing, that the real way to take off challah originally was a mashu, just take off one drop and you are yotzei, because we're talking here about getting rid of that משהו עבודה זרה. On the other hand, we find by avodah zarah that from that mashu there could be we call a התפשטות, you could have it spread out that not only there is a point of denial in the truth, but you could start behaving that way, there could be a התפשטות, you start doing things. So in the challah also we find the shiur originally is a mashu, but then there is a shiur how much you should take off, you have to take off more to show that it's not enough just a little bit, you have to have that concept of challah penetrate into more than just the point, it has to go further and further. And

just to finish off, it's interesting how we see that the shiur, there is a different shiur between a baker and an individual person. A baker is basically a businessman, there you don't need so much, you take off one forty-eighth, as I said in the beginning, and an individual takes off one twenty-fourth. Not now, but at a time when they used to give the challah to the kohen. Why does a baker take off less? So, just the point of it, it says in sefarim that a person who goes out into the street, and a person who is involved in business, sees the truth of Hashem more than a person that sits home, even more than a person sits in yeshiva and learns. Why? Because if you're out there in the street and you see how things develop, you have to come to a conclusion that the hand of Hashem is there. You see how your business deals go and you see how things go up and things go down, and you see how things work out for you, you come to recognize that it comes from Hashem. But if you sit home, you have to work very hard to recognize that it all comes from Hashem. So therefore, a baker who represents a businessman doesn't have to take off so much challah. He doesn't need so much to push him to understand that everything comes from Hashem. But a person, an individual person who sits home and does his own thing, there you need more. That's why the chachamim said you give more challah, because you have to work harder to bring it about in yourself that feeling. Generally speaking, the difference is between a woman and a man. A man doesn't usually take off challah, like I said in the beginning, and a woman does. And on one hand is because a man is outside in the world, he sees more. The woman who's home sees less. But then there is an opposite sevara here also. The woman takes off more challah than the man because the woman have emunah more, and therefore she has that feeling of wanting to give more to the kohen, wanting to give more to Hashem. We always know that emunah is by the woman more than by the man. That's why it says when the Yidden went out of Mitzrayim, it says it was in the zechus of the women they went out, בזכות נשים צדקניות שבאותו הדור נגאלו אבותינו ממצרים, the zechus of the women. And also says in the zechus of emunah the Yidden went out. So which one of the two is it? Is it the zechus of the women or the zechus of emunah? And the answer that's given is, it's all the same, because who has the emunah? The women. And that's why the women who are home usually would take off one twenty-fourth, and the man, if he would bake, it usually would be for business, he would take off less. So not because he needs it less, this is the opposite, because a woman has that feeling, and therefore the mitzvah is given to her according to the way she lives, to give more because she has that emunah more. And her job is to instill that emunah into the whole family, into the husband. And bichlal from here we see that the spiritual level level of the home is in the hands of the woman. Because challah is the spirit, is the spiritual feeling that a person is supposed to have in all his physical needs of the home. הדלקת הנר, the candles, are also the light of the home. Niddah is the whole family life. And all three are in the hands of the woman, because their job is to instill the ruchniyus into the home. That's why they're called the עקרת הבית. And when the women do it, the men also take from it. Now, on the other hand, we know that the man, he's the one that sets the tone, and the woman is the one that is able to develop and bring it down to reality. So, it's a combination of both, like I once explained in the shiur that we had בנוגע the role of the man and the role of the woman. The role of the man is to bring the nekudah. That's why איש ואישה is both have א' ש', but the ish has the י' and the woman has the, אישה has the ה'. י' is the nekudah, the point. He brings the point, sets the tone, that's his job, the tone of ruchniyus. And the wife is the one that's able to apply it in a really realistic way. She, for her to get the tone is not as easy, for the husband to apply it is not as easy. But if you work as a team, together you bring about the true ruchniyus. And as it says, איש ואישה, a man and a woman, a husband and a wife, זכו, they're זוכה, what happens? שכינה שרויה ביניהם, you have the Shechinah there, you have the י' ק' between them. And it says in Yechezkel, and especially, like I said before, in the mitzvah of challah, that is להניח ברכה אל ביתך, that brings the berachah into the house. And when Mashiach will come, we will see all the berachot that we get from all the mitzvot, and especially from the mitzvah of challah. Yes? Yeah, for other, about other reasons it says, one of the reasons because the פרשה starts with the פסוק you will go to Eretz Yisrael. Says, when you will go to Eretz Yisrael you should do, even though it's a mitzvah that is not dependent on Eretz Yisrael, but still, that's how the parashah starts. So, since it was after the spies and Hashem said the Yidden should stay in the desert, so they like almost gave up hope of going ever to Eretz Yisrael, so Hashem said to them: You will go to Eretz Yisrael, and then gave them this mitzvah of challah. But then besides that it says that the mitzvah of challah is to show that we have the true emunah, bitachon, and we know that everything comes from Hashem, which is the complete opposite of the spies. What did the spies do? What did they say? They said we can't go into Eretz Yisrael because they're stronger than we are. And as Rashi brings from the Gemara, they even said more than that: Not only are the goyim stronger than we are, the כנענים, they are stronger than Him! So they said. So what does that mean? That they were the complete opposite of what challah is. They did not believe in the true metziut of Hashem. They said, well, the goyim are stronger than Hashem. So Hashem said, well, you guys are on the wrong track. I have to give you a mitzvah that the mitzvah will show that you understand that everything comes from Hashem, and that's why right after the maaseh with the spies, He gave them the mitzvah of challah. Yes? About, how big? It's about an ounce in weight. Like matzah, we have to eat a kezayit, it's an ounce. This is about an ounce. A little bit less probably, but that's about an ounce. Yes? Because the din is that even a kohen who's tamei, he's not allowed to become tamei again. That's, that's the halachah. So that's why they can't go to cemetery or funeral or touch a dead body. Okay. Thank you all. Again, join us