#87: Machshavah

We learned that one of the primary reasons for covering the challah when reciting Kiddush is to avoid “embarrassing” the challah when reciting Kiddush first. Many people wonder why we must be so careful about the dignity of the challah when the challah has no feelings. The following story with Rabbi Shraga Feivel Mendlowitz (adapted from here) answers this question quite powerfully (a similar story is famously told about R.Yisroel Salanter as well).

Rabbi Shraga Feivel Mendlowitz was the founder of Yeshiva Torah Voda’ath. Once he stayed in Miami for Shabbos at the home of a former student. The man escorted Rabbi Mendlowitz home from shul, but when he opened the door the young man was shocked and embarrassed. His wife, exhausted from a week’s worth of child rearing, and the responsibility of keeping a home was sprawled on the couch. The Shabbos table was half-set, the dishes placed in a pile next to the Kiddush cup and wine. In front of the head seat were two large challot sitting uncovered.

The student, who was embarrassed at the state of affairs, called out to his wife in a somewhat demeaning manner. “Please let us finish preparing the table.” Turning to his mentor, he exclaimed,“I’m sure that leaving the bread uncovered was an oversight! Everyone knows,” he exclaimed, shifting his self-inflicted embarrassment upon his wife, “that we must cover the challah before the Kiddush.”

Rabbi Mendlowitz was annoyed at the man’s self-righteous behavior and turned to him. “Over the years,I have heard many problems that people faced. Students, couples, and adults from all walks of life have entered my office to discuss their personal situations with me. Not once did a challah ever enter my office, suffering an inferiority complex because it was left uncovered during Kiddush! Do you know why? Because we are not concerned with the challah! We are concerned with making ourselves cognizant of feelings. We worry about challahs because the goal is to worry about people. How then can you embarrass your wife over not covering the challah when the act of covering is supposed to train you in sensitivity?”

May the message of covering the challah stay with us throughout the week, guiding our relationships and interactions with others, well beyond Shabbos.

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Dedicated by Fran Broder as a zechus for the hostages to be released safely to their families and may everlasting peace come to Eretz Yisrael in the merit of learning Hilchos Shabbos.