תְחִינָה פון דיא מִצְוֺת חַלָה | Prayer for the Mitsvot of Preparing Ḥallah, by Sarah bat Tovim from the Tkhine of Three Gates (ca. early 18th c.)

Source Link: https://opensiddur.org/?p=33466

Date: 2020-09-07

Last Updated: 2022-04-04

Categories: Erev Shabbat

Tags: 18th Century C.E., 56th century A.M., baking ḥallah, taking dough, Yiddish vernacular prayer, חלה challah ḥallah, תחינות tkhines

Excerpt: The Prayer for the mitsvot of preparing Ḥallah from the Teḥinah of the Three Gates by Sarah bat Tovim (18th century). . . .

Content:

Source (Yiddish)	Translation (English)
שְׁלֹשָה מִצְוֺת נִצְטַווּ הַנָשִׁים דרײַא מִצְוֺת זײנען דיא נָשִׁים גבּאָטין גיװאָרין חַנָ״ה שׁמוֹתָן דר נאָמן פוּן די דרײַא מִצְוֺת איז חַנָ״ה דאָשׂ װאָרט חַנָ״ה מאכט חַלָה נִדָה הַדְלָקַת הַנֵר׃	“Women have been given three mitsvot”: Women have been given three mitsvot whose acronym is Ḥet, Nun, Hey and stands for Ḥallah, Niddah, and Hadlaqat ha-ner, which means the taking of ḥallah, observing the rules of niddah, and the kindling of light.
בְּשַׁעַת צינדין מוז מען מִתְפַּלֵל זײַן צו גאָט אז דיא קינדער זאָלין קענען לערען: שְׁלֹשָה מִצְוֺת אֵלֶה אִם תִּשְׁמְרוּ. דאָשׂ איז טײַטשׁ אױבּ איר װעט די דרײַ מִצְוֺת ערליך האלטין. אֲזַי קְרוֹבָה לֵידָתָן דאָשׂ איז טײַטשׁ עשׂ װעט נאָהינט זײַן אײַער גיװינען שֶׁלֹא בְּצַעַר: יָגֵן בַּעֲדָן זְכוּתָן. עשׂ װעט מַגִין זײַן דער זְכוּת פון די מִצְוֺת פאר אײַך: יוֹם בָּא עֵת לֵדָתָן דאָס איז טײַטשׁ אז עשׂ װעט קומען דר טאָג פון אײַער גיװינען: ה׳ יִשְׁמָרְכֶם מִדֶּבֶר וְאָסוֹן הַשֵׁם יִתְבָּרֵךְ װעט אײַך היטין פון מאָרד אונ אָסוֹן וְתִרְאוּ שִׂמְחָה וְשָׂשׂוֹן׃	“If you observe these three mitsvot,” that is, if you keep these three mitsvot faithfully, “you will give birth quickly,” that is, your lying-in will be quick and without pain. “Their merit will protect them.” The merit of these mitsvot will protect you. “When the day of their giving birth will come” means that when the day of your lying-in conies, “God will protect you from plague and disaster.”[1] Mishnah, Shabbat 2:6: “Because of three transgressions women die at childbirth: because they neglect the laws of menstrual purity, taking challah, and lighting the candles.”  Hashem yitborekh (bless them) will protect you from death and disaster, that you may see happiness and joy.
רֵאשִׁית עֲרִיסוֹתֵיכֶם תָּרִימוּ חַלָה דר טײַטש פוּן דעם פָּסוּק איז אזוֹ דאָשׂ ערסטע פוּן אײערע טײג זאָלט איר אָפּ שׁײדין חַלָה בִּזְכוּת זֶה ה׳ אוֹצְרוֹתֵיכֶם שׂוֹבַע יְמַלֵא דיא װערטער איז טײַטשׁ פוּן װעגן דעם זְכוּת פוּן מִצְוֺת חַלָה װעט הש״י בָּרוּךְ הוּא וּבָרוּךְ שְׁמוֹ אײַך געבּין דיא בְּרָכָה אין אײַערע אוֹצְרוֹת אוּנ װעט זײא אָן פילין מיט זעט פאר צײַטין פלעגט אזוֹ זײַן דער כֹּהֵן האָט גינוּמען תְּרוּמָה אוּנ דער לֵוִי האָט גינוּמען מַעְשֵׂר אוּנ דער עָנִי מַעְשֵׂר עָנִי אױך צו צײַטן מַעְשֵׂר שֵׁנִי אָבּער איצוּנדערט בַּעֲוֺנוֹתֵינוּ הָרַבִּים אז דאָשׂ בּה״מ איז חָרוּב איז אלץ בָּטַל גיװאָרין נאָר דיא מִצְוָה פוּן חַלָה איז גיבּליבּין	“From the first part of your dough you shall contribute ḥallah,”[2] Numbers 15:20.  which means that you should remove a portion of the first dough that you knead and by virtue of this, “God will fill your storehouses to the brim.”[3] Cf. Proverbs 8:21.  This means that by the merit of fulfilling the mitsvah of ḥallah, Hashem yitbarekh (bless them and blessed be their Name) will bless your storehouses and will fill them to the brim. In the past, the Kohen would take the heave offering[4] Leviticus 22:10-14 and Mishnah, Terumot.  and the Levi would take a tithe.[5] Deuteronomy 14:27 and Mishnah, Maaserot 1-2.  The pauper would take the pauper’s tithe and there would also be a second tithe at other appointed times. But now, because of our many sins, the Beit haMiqdashh has been destroyed, and all sacrifices have been annulled except for the mitsvah of ḥallah, which has remained.
דרוּם רבּשׁ״ע בּעטין מיר דיך אז דוּא זאָלסט אָן נעמען דיא מִצְוֺת חַלָה אוּנ זאָלסט שׁיקין גרױס בְּרָכָה װאוּ מיר װעלין זיך קערין אוּנ װענדין אוּנזרע קינדערלעך זאָלין ניט פאר פרעמדין אוּנ מיר זאָלין קענען אוּנזרע קינדרלעך אלײן פַּרְנָסָה געבּין איך מיט מײַן מאן בּיז לאנג לעבּין אוּנ דיא מִצְוֺת חַלָה זאָל אָן גינוּמען װערין זיא זאָל גיװאוֹגין זײַן װיא גאָר דיא תּרי״ג מִצְוֺת פוּן הײליגער תּוֹרָה׃	Therefore, Ribono shel Olam, we beseech you to accept this mitsvah of ḥallah and to send us many blessings, wherever we may turn. May our children not become estranged from us, and may we be able to provide for our children, I and my husband, for many years to come. May the mitsvah of ḥallah be accepted as equivalent to the 613 mitsvot of the holy Torah.
דִינִים פוּן חַלָה	Rules of Ḥallah
װען זי טוּט נעמען חַלָה זאָל זי אזוֹ זאָגין װעט מען ניט פר שׁנײַדין זײערע יאָרן אוּנ טעג ח״ו װען מען קנעט טײג אױשׂ אזוֹא פיל מעל כְּמִנְיַן חַלָה דאָשׂ איז טײַטשׁ אזוֹ פיל מעל װי פיל דאָשׂ װאָרט חַלָה טרעפט אָן דהײַנוּ מ״ג בֵּיצִים דאָשׂ איז דרײַ אוּנ פערציג אײַער דָשׂ בּטרעפט דרײַ קװאָרט מעל מוּז מען פוּן דעם טײג אָפּ שׁײדן חַלָה׃	This is said when one removes the portion of the dough, so that her years and days not be – ḥas v’shalom – cut off. If the dough one is kneading is equivalent to the numerical value of the word ḥallah[6] Ḥet = 8, Lamed = 30, Hey = 5; cf. Mishnah, Hallah 1.  that is, 43 egg-sized units – which is equal to three measures of flour – then a ḥallah portion must be removed.
אז מען נעמט חַלָה מאכט מען די בְּרָכָה	When the dough is removed, the following blessing is said:
בָּרוּךְ הוּא וּבָרוּךְ שְׁמוֹ׃   בָּרוּךְ אַתָּה יְיָ אֱלֹהֵינוּ מֶלֶךְ הָעוֹלָם אֲשֶׂר קִדְשָׁנוּ בְּמִצְוֺתָיו וְצִוָנוּ לְהַפְרִישׁ חַלָה׃	Bless them and blessed is their Name.   Blessed are you, YHVH our elo’ah, Cosmic Majesty, who has hallowed us with their mitsvot and commanded us to set aside ḥallah.”
לְכָּבוֹד גאָט לְכָּבוֹד אוּנזער גיבּאט לְכָּבוֹד דעם ליבּין שַׁבָּת קוֹדֶשׂ װאָשׂ אוּנזער הער גאָט האָט אוּנז גיגעבּין דעם ליבּין שַׁבָּת קוֹדֶשׂ אוּנ האָט אוּנז גיבּאָטין דיא ליבּע מִצְוָה איך זאָל זיא קענען רעכט מְקַיֵים זײַן אוּנ עשׂ זאָל אזוֹא גיװאוֹגין זײַן װיא כׇּל תרי״ג מִצְוֺת פוּן כׇּל יִשְׂרָאֵל אָמֵן כֵּן יְהִי רָצוֹן׃	In honor of God, and in honor of our commandment and in honor of the precious Shabbat Ḳodesh which our Lord God has given us and commanded us to observe, may I perform this mitsvah properly and may it be valued as equivalent to all the 613 mitsvot of all Yisra’el. Amen, may it be their will.
יְהִי רָצוֹן מִלְפָנֶיךָ יְיָ אֱלֹהֵינוּ וֵאלֹהֵי אֲבוֹתֵינוּ שֶׁיִבָּנֶה בֵּית הַמִקְדָשׁ בִּמְהֵרָה בְיָמֵינוּ וְתֵן חֶלְקֵנוּ בְּתוֹרָתֶךָ. וְשָׁם נַעֲבָדְךָ בְּיִרְאָה כִּימֵי עוֹלָם וּכְשָׁנִים קַדְמוֹנִיוֹת׃	“May it be your will, YHVH, our elo’ah, and elo’ah of our ancestors, that the Beit haMiqdash be rebuilt speedily in our days, and grant us a portion in your Torah.[7] From the prayer Elohai Netsor, after the Amidah.  There we shall worship you in awe as in the days of old and in ancient times.”[8] Malachi 3:4.
מײַן חַלָה זאָל אזוֹ אָן גינוּמען זײַן אז אײַן קָרְבָּן אױף דעם מִזְבֵּחַ איז אָן גינוּמען גיװאָרין מײַן מִצְוָה זאָל אָן גינוּמן זײַן גלײַך װי איך האָבּ זי רעכט מְקַיֵים גװען.	May my ḥallah be accepted as a sacrifice on the holy altar and may my mitsvah accepted as if it had been properly executed there.
פר צײַטן איז דאָס אָן גקוּמן דעם כֹּהֵן אוּנ ער האָט פר דעם פר געבּין די זינד אזוֹ זאָל מיר אױך פאר געבּין װערין מײַנע זינד איך זאָל זײַן גלײַך װי אײַן נאײַ גיבּאָרין קינד איך זאָל קענען מײַנע ליבּע שַׁבָּתִים אוּנ יָמִים טוֹבִים עהרין ער זאָל מיך בּשׁערין איך זאָל מיך קענען מיט מײַן מאן אוּנ מיט מײַנע קינדר דר נערין עשׂ זאָל אָן גנוּמען װערן מײַן מִצְוָה פוּן חַלָה נעמען אז מײַנע קינדרלעך זאָלין גשׁפּײַזט װערן פוּן דעם ליבּן גאָט בּ״ה מיט גרױשׂ רַחֲמָנוּת אוּנ מיט גרױס דער בּארימקײַט עשׂ זאָל גגליכין זײַן מײַן מִצְוֺת חַלָה גלײַך װיא איך האָבּ מַעְשֵׂר גיגעבּין. װיא איך טוּא מײַן מִצְוָה פוּן חַלָה מיטין גאנצין הארצין. אזוֹא זאָל גאָט בּ״ה מיך היטין פאר פּײַן אוּנ שמארצין׃	In olden times, this was set aside for the Kohen and, in return, he forgave our sins. May my sins now be forgiven so that I may become like a newborn child. May I be able to honor my precious Shabbats and Yom Tovs. May Hashem destine for me that I, my husband, and my children may be nourished and may my mitsvah of taking ḥallah be accepted so that my little children may be sustained by dear God (barukh Hashem) with great compassion and with great mercy. May my observance of the mitsvah of ḥallah be considered equal to having given the tithe. Just as I observe the mitsvah of ḥallah with my whole heart, so may God (barukh Hashem) protect me from anguish and pain.

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This is the tkhine for the mitsvot of preparing ḥallah as found in Sarah bat Tovim’s Tkhine of Three Gates, likely written by her sometime in the early 18th century. The transcription was drawn from that of Rabbi Tracy Klirs published with her HUC dissertation and subsequently published by HUC Press in In the Merit of Our Mothers (1991). I have made some changes to the translation, re-Hebraizing loshen qodesh and biblical names, and presenting Hashem as gender-neutral. The text concerning ḥallah is preceded by some general text and is interspersed with some text concerning candle lighting. I have joined together both of the sections concerning ḥallah. –Aharon Varady

Source(s)

 

Notes[+]

Notes

1	Mishnah, Shabbat 2:6: “Because of three transgressions women die at childbirth: because they neglect the laws of menstrual purity, taking challah, and lighting the candles.”
2	Numbers 15:20.
3	Cf. Proverbs 8:21.
4	Leviticus 22:10-14 and Mishnah, Terumot.
5	Deuteronomy 14:27 and Mishnah, Maaserot 1-2.
6	Ḥet = 8, Lamed = 30, Hey = 5; cf. Mishnah, Hallah 1.
7	From the prayer Elohai Netsor, after the Amidah.
8	Malachi 3:4.

Contributor: Aharon N. Varady (editing/transcription)

Co-authors:

• 
  Name: Aharon N. Varady (editing/transcription)
  Bio: Aharon Varady (M.A.J.Ed./JTSA Davidson) is a volunteer transcriber for the Open Siddur Project. If you find any mistakes in his transcriptions, please let him know. Shgiyot mi yavin; Ministarot naqeni שְׁגִיאוֹת מִי־יָבִין; מִנִּסְתָּרוֹת נַקֵּנִי "Who can know all one's flaws? From hidden errors, correct me" (Psalms 19:13). If you'd like to directly support his work, please consider donating via his Patreon account. (Varady also translates prayers and contributes his own original work besides serving as the primary shammes of the Open Siddur Project and its website, opensiddur.org.)
  Website: https://aharon.varady.net
  Profile Link: https://opensiddur.org/profile/aharon-varady
• 
  Name: Tracy Guren Klirs (translation)
  Bio: Rabbi Tracy Guren Klirs received her B.A. in Yiddish literature at the University of Chicago and graduated Phi Beta Kappa in 1977. She was ordained as a rabbi from the Hebrew Union College-Jewish Institute of Religion in Cincinnati in 1984. Her book, The Merit of Our Mothers: A Bilingual Anthology of Jewish Women’s Prayers, was published by HUC Press in 1992. She serves as the rabbi of Temple Kol Tikvah in Davidson, North Carolina.
  Website: https://www.facebook.com/RabbiKlirs
  Profile Link: https://opensiddur.org/profile/tracy-guren-klirs
• 
  Name: Sarah bat Tovim
  Bio: Sarah bat Tovim (alt. Sore bas Toyvim, fl. late 17th/early 18th century), daughter of Mordecai (or daughter of Isaac or Jacob, as sometimes listed on the title pages of various editions of her works), of Satanov in Podolia, in present-day Ukraine, great-granddaughter of Rabbi Mordecai of Brisk (on this, all editions agree), became the emblematic tkhine [q.v.] author, and one of her works, Shloyshe sheorim, perhaps the most beloved of all tkhines. An elusive figure, in the course of time she took on legendary proportions; indeed, some have insisted that she never existed. The fact that the name of her father (although not her great-grandfather) changes from edition to edition of her work, and the unusual circumstance that no edition mentions a husband, make it difficult to document her life. In fact, the skepticism about Sarah’s existence is rooted in the older scholarly view that no tkhines were written by women authors, and that all of them were maskilic fabrications. Since a number of women authors have now been historically authenticated, there seems no reason to doubt that there was a woman, probably known as Sore bas Toyvim who composed most or all of the two eighteenth-century texts attributed to her. Rather unusually for the genre of tkhines, her works contain a strong autobiographical element: She refers to herself as “I, the renowned woman Sore bas toyvim, of distinguished ancestry” and tells the story of her fall from a wealthy youth to an old age of poverty and wandering, a fall she attributes to the sin of talking in synagogue. (from the article at the Jewish Woman's Archive by Dr. Chava Weissler)
  Website: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sarah_Bas_Tovim
  Profile Link: https://opensiddur.org/profile/sarah-bat-tovim

Featured Image:

Title: Challah-by-Brad-Greenlee-(CC-BY-2.0)
Caption: Image: Challah by Brad Greenlee (license CC-BY-2.0)