[By Rabbi Yair Hoffman for the Five Towns Jewish Times]

The custom of Schlissel Challah has become very widespread, not only in the Chassidish world but in many other communities as well.

We find mention of the custom to bake Challah in the shape of a key in many, many Chassidish Seforim. The Klausenberger Rebbe, the Satmar Rebbe, the Belzer Rebbe, Rav Moshe Aryeh Freund, and numerous Chassidishe Rebbes and Poskim all punctiliously observed this custom.

Most of the reasons have to do with the Kabbalistic notion of “Tirayin Petichin” that the gates to Heaven are opened. This concept of opened gates is found throughout the Zohar and is discussed by such authorities as the Shla (whose father was a student of the Remah).

The earliest reference is in the works of Rabbi Pinchas Shapiro of Koritz (born 1726), a descendent of the Megaleh Amukos and a student of the Baal Shem Tov. In his work called Imrei Pinchas (#298) he explains that the reason to bake Schlissel Challah on the Shabbos following Pesach is that during Pesach, the gates to Heaven were opened and remain open until Pesach Sheni. The key alludes to the fact that these gates are now open and that we should focus our prayers ever more on that account.

The Apter Rebbe, author of the Ohaiv Yisroel (Likkutim al HaTorah Pesach), mentions the custom as well but provides a slightly different reason. He writes that the gates to Heaven were opened to our prayers the entire Pesach and we must now re-open them with the Mitzvah of our Shabbos observance. The pasuk referenced for this custom is mentioned in the Ohev Yisroel itself. In Shir HaShirim 5:2, which is read on Shabbos Chol HaMoed the verse states, “Open for me, my sister.” Chazal darshen (Yalkut Shimoni Shir HaShirim 988), “You have become My sister with the observance of the two Mitzvos in Egypt the blood of the Korban Pesach and the blood of Bris Milah..Open for Me an opening like the eye of the needle and I (Hashem) shall open for you like the opening of a wide hall.” The Ohev Yisroel mentions two other reasons for the custom, primarily that Hashem should open His “store house of plenty” for us as he did in Iyar after the exodus.

The Belzer Rebbe (Choshvei Machshavos p. 152) provided the explanation that although the Geulaha may not have happened yet as it was scheduled to occur on Nissan, at least the key to Hashem’s storehouse of parnassah and plenty have been opened.

The Taamei HaMinhagim (596 and 597) provides a number of reasons as well.

The author can be reached at [email protected]