Bais HaVaad on the Parsha, Parshas Shlach

Dough Mixer

Excerpted and adapted from a shiur by HaRav Chaim Weg

June 15, 2023

As the first of your kneading you shall set aside a loaf as a portion…

Bemidbar 15:20

According to Rashi, “reishis arisoseichem (the first of your kneading)” refers to the minimum quantity of flour that is subject to the mitzvah of hafrashas challah, one omer. According to poskim, five pounds is enough to meet this shiur with certainty and make a bracha. (Many are strict to separate challah from a dough made from as little as 2.5 pounds of flour, without a bracha.) Doughs can combine for the shiur by touching strongly enough that when separated, one takes a piece from the other (neshichah) or by being temporarily in the same basket (tziruf sal) or other container.

If several smaller cakes or challos are put into the freezer, would that qualify as tziruf sal to combine them for the minimum and subject them to challah?[1] R’ Pesach Eliyahu Falk (Shu”t Machazei Eliyahu) rules leniently by combining several arguments, each of which is controversial on its own:

• Some poskim hold that tziruf sal requires that the items touch, and plastic bags may prevent that.
• Some poskim say that since you chose to keep the doughs or loaves separate from each other with plastic bags, the freezer doesn’t combine them.
• Some poskim maintain that a large stationary container doesn’t qualify as a sal, and this may apply to a freezer.
• If the items are of different flavors, e.g., chocolate cake and vanilla cake, or if they were kneaded with the intent that they would be consumed by different people, tziruf sal may not apply.

[1] Loaves that are joined only after baking still require challah if they reach the minimum shiur.