The Key-Shaped Challah: A Post-Passover Custom and Its Many Meanings

The following reason for the custom of shaping the challah like a key is given in the name of the holy Ohev Yisrael of Apt (Rabbi Avraham Yehoshua Heschel of Apt, z”l). He explained it based on the verse in Song of Songs (8:2): “Open for me, my sister, my beloved” — and the Midrash (Song of Songs Rabbah, ad loc.) teaches that the Holy One, Blessed be He, says to the congregation of Israel: “Open for Me an opening no wider than the eye of a needle, and I will open for you an opening as wide as the entrance hall of the Temple.”

On Passover, all the heavenly gates and the supernal states of consciousness were flung open by the grace of the Creator, Who brought Israel out of Egypt — purely through His lovingkindness and not on account of our own merit. But after Passover, those gates close again, and it falls upon us to open them through our own spiritual work. This is what we hint at on this Shabbat by shaping the challah like a key: we open things just a little through the mitzvah of Shabbat, and God in His goodness opens things further for us — “He commands the skies above and opens the doors of heaven” (Psalms 78:23) — just as He gave our ancestors the manna in the month of Iyyar, which we bless on this very Shabbat.

The holy Rabbi Pinchas of Koritz (z”l) offered a different explanation, based on the Zohar (vol. III, 152), where it is clarified that the heavenly gates remain open all the way until Pesach Sheni (the “Second Passover,” observed on the 14th of Iyyar). (Source: Nit’ei Gavriel, Laws of Passover.)

Another approach found in various books explains the key challah as a symbol directed at the yetzer hara (the evil inclination), urging it to depart from us. The reasoning is as follows: the only difference between chametz (leavened bread, forbidden on Passover) and matzah (unleavened bread) in their Hebrew spellings is a single dot — the small corner that distinguishes the letter heh (ה) in matzah from the letter chet (ח) in chametz. That opening in the heh represents the gateway through which Israel draws close to their Father in Heaven. The spiritual work of Israel is therefore to transform chametz into matzah — to keep that opening clear. But in Egypt, Israel was so spiritually diminished that they could not do this on their own. So God Himself opened the gate for them — an it’aruta dile’eilah (an awakening from Above). In that moment, the Holy One was, as it were, “the One who comes to purify,” and Israel’s role was to assist and cooperate, so that the gate might remain open even after Passover.

Therefore, when after Passover the yetzer hara comes to defile a person and tries to seal that opening shut, we show him — through the key-shaped challah — that we are capable of opening the gate ourselves, through teshuvah (repentance and return to God). And since the Sages teach that in the place where ba’alei teshuvah (those who return) stand, even the perfectly righteous cannot stand — what, then, does the yetzer hara gain by causing defilement, God forbid?

There is yet another reason: the key-shaped challah signifies livelihood (parnasah). On Passover, judgment is rendered concerning the grain harvest (Rosh Hashanah 16a), and through this challah we hint that God should open for us the channel of abundance. Passover itself alludes to this, since the gematria (numerical value) of Pesach equals that of the word kemach (flour) — and as the Mishnah teaches, “If there is no flour, there is no Torah” (Avot 3:17). With ample livelihood and an untroubled mind, a person can serve the Almighty as one truly should. (Source: ibid.)

The following explanation seems fitting to me for the custom of shaping challah like a key on the holy Shabbat after Passover. It is well known that Israel draws blessing downward in the same measure as they serve the Holy One, Blessed be He. On Passover itself, we serve Him through eating and drinking — we are commanded to eat matzah. The Talmud teaches (Ta’anit 2a) that three keys are held by the Holy One Himself, one of which is the key of parnasah (livelihood). Since we have occupied ourselves with foods and sustenance during Passover, we arouse His mercy, and He entrusts us with the key of livelihood. This is what we hint at by shaping the challah into a key. (Source: Ginzei Yisrael by the holy Rabbi of Chortkov, z”l, Festivals, p. 177.)

The book Zikaron Elazar cites the holy Admor, the tzaddik (z”l), who in turn quotes the holy Admor Rabbi Shlomo of Sassov (z”l). Rabbi Shlomo explained the custom of placing the key shape on the challah of the first Shabbat after Passover in light of the teaching (Rosh Hashanah 16a) that on Passover judgment is rendered regarding the grain, and our livelihood is drawn down from Passover for the entire year. Therefore, on the Shabbat after Passover, we make a sign on the challah in the form of a key — like a person to whom an apartment is rented: he becomes the master of that dwelling the moment the key is handed over. In the same way, on Passover the key to our livelihood for the entire year is handed over to us, for good. (Source: Atzei Levanon, on the Shabbat after Passover.)

It is the custom on the first Shabbat after Passover to bake challot with a key design. The following seems to me a fitting explanation. I found in Kol HaRamaz — by the holy sage Rabbi Moshe Zacuto (z”l) — in his introduction to the Mishnah, a hint to the study of Mishnah. He cites the rabbinic teaching (Vayikra Rabbah 7:3) that the exiles are gathered only in the merit of the Mishnah. His proof: when Abraham said (Genesis 15:8), “How shall I know?”, the Holy One answered: “Know well that your descendants will be strangers… and they will be afflicted for four hundred years.” One might ask: why specifically four hundred years? The answer, it seems, is that God was hinting that Israel would be redeemed in the merit of the Mishnah — for the gematria of HaMishnah (the Mishnah) equals four hundred.

I also found in Bnei Yissaschar (Tammuz, essay 2, section 7) that the Mishnah contains 528 chapters — and 528 is the gematria of mafteiach (key, מפתח). (In truth there are only 523 chapters, but five chapters from the Tosefta are counted as part of the Mishnah’s framework — such as the chapter beginning “Shanu Chakhamim” in Avot, chapter 6, and one chapter from Tosefta Bikkurim, and similar texts.)

We thus find that Israel went out of Egypt in the merit of the Mishnah, as the Ramaz taught — and the Mishnah corresponds in number to the word mafteiach, since that is how many chapters it contains. Therefore, challot are shaped like keys to hint that just as Israel left Egypt in the merit of the Mishnah, so too should they dedicate themselves to its study in this present exile — and in that merit, may they be worthy of the final redemption speedily. Amen. (Source: Divrei Tzaddikim by the holy sage Rabbi Yosef Mordechai Kahana, z”l, Av Bet Din of Tetsh, a disciple of the author of Yeitav Lev, entry Chet, no. 6.)

The Ohev Yisrael writes reasons for the custom of making a key-shaped challah on the Shabbat after Passover — see there. One may also explain it based on the Tur (Orach Chayyim, section 114), which cites the Talmud (Ta’anit 2a): three keys were not entrusted to any agent (and in the West they said four). The Tur notes that their acronym spells mafteiach (מ-פ-ת-ח): Matar (rain), Parnasah (livelihood), Techiyah (resurrection of the dead), Chayyah (childbirth). It seems to me that this encompasses the three blessings of “children, life, and livelihood” (banei, chayyei, u’mezonei): “life” refers to children (as expounded on the verse, Genesis 30:22, “And He opened her womb”); “resurrection” refers to life itself; “livelihood” refers to sustenance; and “rain” encompasses them all — in the spirit of the teaching “The day of rain is as great as the giving of the Torah” (Ta’anit 7a), which itself embraces all three blessings, as I wrote in my discourses on Shavuot — see there.

A pamphlet on the selling of chametz (and likewise the book Chukat HaPesach) notes that all the matters of Passover — burning the chametz, baking the matzah — ought to be performed personally, not through agents, just as the plague of the firstborn was carried out by God Himself: “I Myself, and not an agent.” We must therefore serve the Almighty in this same spirit. As the Talmud relates (Bava Metzia 86b), whatever Abraham our Patriarch did personally, the Holy One repaid in kind personally — and this is a deeply satisfying teaching.

It follows that through this very principle, the mitzvah and its reward are bound to one another. Therefore, on the Shabbat after Passover — when, as the holy Zohar teaches (vol. II, 88a), all blessings above and below are suspended from the seventh day — the reward of Passover, carried out without any intermediary, also begins to flow. And that reward is hinted at in the acronym mafteiach (מ-פ-ת-ח), standing for the four keys that were not entrusted to any agent, as explained above. May it be His will to bestow upon Israel children, life, and ample livelihood. Amen, and may it be so. (Source: Yatzav Avraham by the holy sage Rabbi Avraham Tzvi Gintzler, z”l, Av Bet Din of Himnah, a disciple of the author of Arugat HaBosem, vol. III, p. 256.)

One may add yet another reason for the key design: according to the Magen Avraham (section 448, note 4), the handing over of a key is an essential step in the valid sale of chametz. It may therefore be that the first leavened bread eaten after Passover is marked with a key, to hint and remind oneself whether the sale was properly executed with the transfer of a key — for if it was not, the chametz may be forbidden after Passover according to those halachic opinions. From this practical concern, the custom may well have developed. So it seems to me, as one possible explanation. (Source: Yatzav Avraham, ibid.)