What A Dream Taught Us About Challah

1:19Nine of them were given to the Egyptians. So it appears from that particular Gemara and Midrash that the superpower-type idols began in Egypt rather than beforehand. The other thing is that at the time of Beit HaMikdash, this is obviously after Egypt, so this continued to spread around the world, and also the test was still there. Now, how come you're not going to see any idols walking around in a Walmart today? That's because the Chachamim, the Gemara says, prayed for HaKadosh Baruch Hu to remove this test from the nation because they simply couldn't stand it. They couldn't stand it. One of the Gemarot says that Rava was teaching his students, and he said he was teaching them about Torah, and then he mentioned Menashe. He says, our dear friend Menashe, you know, Menashe was a king of Am Yisrael, who was, for a period of time, a very big rasha that literally committed every crime under the sun.

2:29He killed his grandfather, Yeshayahu. Yeshayahu the prophet was his grandfather. He killed him, chopped him to pieces. Killed a bunch of tzaddikim. Violated his family. I mean, he did everything, like literally every crime under the sun. Put idols in the Beit HaMikdash. Horrible stuff. Eventually, he did teshuva. Eventually, he did teshuva, which we talked to you about that teshuva. But years later, At the time of the Gemara, one of the tzaddikim says, "Oh, our dear friend Menashe," referring to him very casually. That night, the Gemara recounts, Menashe comes to him in a dream and says, "How dare you call me your friend? I don't know you. Who do you think you are? You don't know anything. You're an am ha'aretz next to me," meaning you're an ignorant person. "You don't know any Torah compared to me. To call me a friend, you would have to be on the same level of learning Torah. You know nothing." You probably don't even know which part of the challah you're supposed to use as the first piece of the hamotzi. You know, on Shabbat, you have the challah. You do the two challot. Both challot have to be complete. Don't cut your challot before you do the hamotzi. Okay, and also don't do hamotzi on a challah that's partially eaten or partially cut. It has to be two complete challot.

3:51Okay? So now you do the, bring the challot, you do the blessing, obviously this is after you've washed your hands and made a blessing on that. Then you have to take a piece out of the challah and eat it yourself, and then give it to the rest of your family. So Menashe tells one of the Gedolei HaDor, someone capable of reviving the dead, "You are probably such an Am Ha'aretz, such an ignoramus," he calls him. Imagine what we are in comparison to him now. He's considered an ignoramus in this context. He says, "You're such an ignoramus, you probably don't even know this simple thing, like which part of the challah you're supposed to actually use as the first piece." So the Rabbi responds to him, "You're right, I don't know. But if you're such a big Chacham, how come you worshiped idols?" Right, you know so much Torah, how come you worship idols? So Menashe answers him in a dream and he says to him, if you lived in my generation and you saw the way the idols were in my generation, you would chase after them worse than me to the point where you would raise your cloak and tie it around yourself so you could run faster after the idols.

5:07So don't judge me. You weren't in my generation. So Chava says to him, okay, you're right. That's what the law is, that we're not allowed to judge somebody unless we were in his shoes, in his situation. But can you at least teach me what you said, though? Which part of the challah do you actually take? He says, yes. You take the one that was cooked the most. The challah is not cooked evenly. Especially if you cook it yourself, you bake challah yourself, you have the merit to have a tzaddeiket wife, or if you're a tzaddeiket yourself, you make challot, it doesn't bake equally. Sometimes there's a little bit of a spot somewhere here and there that's a little darker. That's the first piece. That's the first piece you take. That's the first motzi. After that, it doesn't make a difference. But that's the first piece of motzi. That's what we learn from a dream. Imagine the kind of Torah you learn from a dream. We have to be awake. I'm still not yet going to ask you to join us. Maybe one day. We're very excited to offer you the new Be'ezrat Hashem app 3.0. It's a newer, faster app, full of Torah, lots of kedusha, by the shiurim that we do, myself, Rav Freim, Rav Chaim,

6:21where you'll also have newer features, allowing you to use the app while running other applications on your phone. You'll be able to share the shiurim directly from the app. You'll be able to donate online and support our kehillah and the Torah work that we're engaged in. And the most exciting feature is that you'll be able to actually ask questions directly on the app and get answers from the rabbis directly from the app. This is something unprecedented, and Baruch Hashem, we will be able to offer it. Thank you again for all of your support. Check it out. Make sure you have the kosher Torah that will re-energize your neshama each and every single day. Kol tuv.