{"id":12155,"date":"2026-07-11T00:01:51","date_gmt":"2026-07-10T21:01:51","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/ph.yhb.org.il\/en\/?p=12155"},"modified":"2026-08-05T12:34:36","modified_gmt":"2026-08-05T09:34:36","slug":"17-11-01","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/ph.yhb.org.il\/en\/17-11-01\/","title":{"rendered":"01. The Meaning of Separating \u1e24alla from Bread"},"content":{"rendered":"<p style=\"direction: ltr\">There is a mitzva to set aside a portion of dough intended for bread as <em>\u1e25alla<\/em> and give it to a kohen. The kohen and his family would use it to prepare bread and cakes and eat them in a state of <em>tahara<\/em>. These gifts helped sustain them as they fulfilled their sacred mission of teaching Torah to Israel. As the Torah states: \u201cThe Lord spoke to Moshe, saying: Speak to the Children of Israel and say to them: When you come to the land to which I am bringing you, then, when you eat of the bread of the land, you shall raise up an offering to the Lord. The first of your doughs you shall raise up as <em>\u1e25alla<\/em>, as an offering; like the offering of the threshing floor, so shall you raise it up. From the first of your doughs you shall give an offering to the Lord throughout your generations\u201d (Bamidbar 15:17\u201321).<\/p>\n<p style=\"direction: ltr\">Bread is humanity\u2019s staple food, and it reveals something central to human uniqueness: the human being does not merely consume what the world provides. He takes the raw materials of creation and, through choice, learning, and labor, turns them into something new. Animals eat what is available to them \u2013 grasses, leaves, grains, vegetables, fruits, and meat. Bread, by contrast, reaches the table only through a long chain of human work: the soil is plowed, the grain is sown, the stalks are harvested, the kernels are separated from stalks and chaff through threshing, winnowing, and sorting, the kernels are ground into flour, the flour is kneaded with water into dough, and the dough is baked into bread. Of all the foods people eat, bread is the one most shaped by human intelligence and craft.<\/p>\n<p style=\"direction: ltr\">So too, the human being does not arrive in the world fully formed. Animals quickly and instinctively learn how to survive and reproduce. A person must spend years learning how to secure food, clothing, and shelter, how to build a family, and how to harness the immense forces of nature. This capacity \u2013 to choose, to learn, to create, and to refine the world \u2013 is an expression of the image of God within humanity.<\/p>\n<p style=\"direction: ltr\">Yet the very powers that make human creativity possible can also be turned toward evil. A person can use his intelligence and skill to raise himself above others, to deceive and steal, to destroy and betray, and to place his desires at the center of life. The prohibition against eating bread before <em>\u1e25alla<\/em> has been separated reminds him that his creative powers are not self-generated; God gave them to him, and he must not misuse them. By giving <em>\u1e25alla<\/em> to the kohen, the bread \u2013 and the entire human process that produced it \u2013 becomes linked to holiness. Those who eat from this bread can thereby elevate their creative strength and direct it toward goodness and blessing. This is what the Sages meant when they said: \u201cWhoever fulfills the mitzva of <em>\u1e25alla<\/em> is as though he has nullified idolatry, and whoever neglects the mitzva of <em>\u1e25alla<\/em> is as though he has upheld idolatry\u201d (<em>Vayikra Rabba<\/em> 15:6). In this broader sense, \u201cidolatry\u201d includes all the ways a person turns his life toward the false gods of money, desire, and pride.<\/p>\n<p style=\"direction: ltr\">The Sages further taught that the human being is \u201cthe <em>\u1e25alla<\/em> of the world.\u201d God created the earth and all its raw materials, kneaded them, as it were, with rainwater, and from that \u201cdough\u201d brought forth all plant and animal life. From within that \u201cdough,\u201d He then separated <em>\u1e25alla<\/em> \u2013 and from it created the human being in His image, so that humanity would guide the world toward goodness. When Adam Ha-rishon sinned, he brought <em>tum\u2019a<\/em> upon himself and upon the entire world. To repair that sin, Israel was commanded to separate <em>\u1e25alla<\/em> for the kohen and preserve it in a state of <em>tahara<\/em>, so that they would remember their calling. This mitzva is especially connected to women, because a woman has a unique capacity to shape and direct the creative forces of human life, and through that, to help repair the sin (see <em>Bereishit Rabba<\/em> 14:1; 17:7\u20138).<\/p>\n<p style=\"direction: ltr\">The Sages also taught: \u201cBy virtue of three things the world was created: by virtue of <em>\u1e25alla<\/em>, by virtue of <em>ma\u2019asrot<\/em>, and by virtue of <em>bikurim<\/em>\u201d (<em>Bereishit Rabba<\/em> 1:4). All three mitzvot are called \u201cfirst,\u201d teaching us that the first aim of creation is to reveal holiness within the world. <em>Bikurim<\/em>, <em>terumot<\/em>, and <em>ma\u2019asrot<\/em> are given from produce that grows through the ordinary processes of nature. Through <em>bikurim<\/em>, one connects to the overarching vision of the people of Israel (above, 7:15). Through <em>terumot<\/em> and <em>ma\u2019asrot<\/em>, blessing spreads to the fields and their crops (above, 7:13). <em>\u1e24alla<\/em>, by contrast, is given from the work of human hands. Through it, a person merits that blessing rest upon his labor and his home, as the verse states: \u201cAnd the first of your doughs you shall give to the kohen \u2013 to bring blessing upon your house\u201d (Ye\u1e25ezkel 44:30).<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>There is a mitzva to set aside a portion of dough intended for bread as \u1e25alla and give it to a kohen. The kohen and his family would use it to prepare bread and cakes and eat them in a state of tahara. These gifts helped sustain them as they fulfilled their sacred mission of [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":64,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[232],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-12155","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-17-11"],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v28.0 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/product\/yoast-seo-wordpress\/ -->\n<title>01. The Meaning of Separating \u1e24alla from Bread - Peninei Halakha<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/ph.yhb.org.il\/en\/17-11-01\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"01. 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