The sources and reasons behind Shlissel Challah

The custom some women (or men) have of baking the house key into the challah on the Shabbat following Pesach (also known as a shlissel [=key] challah) is explained with the following reasons:

Based on “Pitchi Li Achoti, Ra’ayati…” (“Open up, my darling…” — Shir HaShirim 5:2), on which the Midrash states “Pitchu li petach ke-chudo shel machat…,” (cf. Shir HaShirim Rabbah 5, s.v. “Kol Dodi Dofek“) = something like “Open your hearts (in teshuvah) like the eye of the needle, and I (God) will open the rest like [a very large opening].

According to Kabbalah on Pesach the gates to heaven were open, and following Pesach the lower gates are shut, and it’s up to us to open them again, therefore on the first Shabbat we put the key on the challah to show that through the mitzvah of Shabbat we are opening the locks [original source?].

In the desert the Jewish people ate from the manna until after Pesach upon entering the land (with the bringing of the Omer, see: Josh. 5:11), at which point the ate from the produce of the land, and became dependant on their livelihood for the first time (now they had no manna). The key in the challah after Pesach is a request the God should open the Sha’arei Parnasah (gates of livelihood). Alternatively, the manna began to fall in the month of Iyyar, and this Shabbat is always Shabbat Mevarchim Iyyar.

See: Sefer Ta’amei HaMinhagim, pp. 249-50.

See: Encyclopedia Judaica, vol. 6, pp. 1419-20 for a photo of a shlissel challah (and other “special” challot). It seems (from both of the above sources) that the minhag was to bake the key on top of the challah not inside (a la the old jail break trick)

Rabbi Jeffrey Saks
https://www.theyeshivaworld.com/news/headlines-breaking-stories/228479/for-today-schlissel-challah-an-analysis.html

The earliest written source for this custom is the sefer Oheiv Yisrael by Rabbi Avraham Yehoshua Heshel, the Apter Rav. He calls schlissel challah “an ancient custom,” and also offers several kabbalistic interpretations. He also writes that after spending forty years in the desert, the Israelites continued to eat the manna until they brought the Omer offering on the second day of Passover. From that day on, they no longer ate manna, but food that had grown in the Land of Israel. Since they now had to start worrying about their sustenance rather than having it handed to them each morning, the key on the challah is a form of prayer to God to open up the gates of livelihood.

Wikipedia

The Klausenberger Rebbe, the Satmar Rebbe, the Belzer Rebbe, Rav Moshe Aryeh Freund, and numerous Chassidishe Rebbes and Poskim all punctiliously observed this custom.

Most of the reasons have to do with the Kabbalistic notion of “Tirayin Petichin” that the gates to Heaven are opened. This concept of opened gates is found throughout the Zohar and is discussed by such authorities as the Shla (whose father was a student of the Remah).

The earliest reference is in the works of Rabbi Pinchas Shapiro of Koritz (born 1726), a descendent of the Megaleh Amukos and a student of the Baal Shem Tov. In his work called Imrei Pinchas (#298) he explains that the reason to bake Schlissel Challah on the Shabbos following Pesach is that during Pesach, the gates to Heaven were opened and remain open until Pesach Sheni. The key alludes to the fact that these gates are now open and that we should focus our prayers ever more on that account.

The Apter Rebbe, author of the Ohaiv Yisroel (Likkutim al HaTorah Pesach), mentions the custom as well but provides a slightly different reason. He writes that the gates to Heaven were opened to our prayers the entire Pesach and we must now re-open them with the Mitzvah of our Shabbos observance. Although Alfassa writes that there is no Pasuk that is referenced for this custom, the verse does indeed exist and is mentioned in the Ohev Yisroel itself.

In Shir HaShirim 5:2, which is read on Shabbos Chol HaMoed the verse states, “Open for me, my sister..” Chazal darshen (Yalkut Shimoni Shir HaShirim 988), “You have become My sister with the observance of the two Mitzvos in Egypt the blood of the Korban Pesach and the blood of Bris Milah..Open for Me an opening like the eye of the needle and I (Hashem) shall open for you like the opening of a wide hall.” The Ohev Yisroel mentions two other reasons for the custom, primarily that Hashem should open His “store house of plenty” for us as He did in Iyar after the exodus.

The Belzer Rebbe (Choshvei Machshavos p. 152) provided the explanation that although the Geulaha may not have happened yet as it was scheduled to occur on Nissan, at least the key to Hashem’s storehouse of parnassah and plenty have been opened.

The Taamei HaMinhagim (596 and 597) provides a number of reasons as well.

By Rabbi Yair Hoffman

https://www.theyeshivaworld.com/news/headlines-breaking-stories/228479/for-today-schlissel-challah-an-analysis.html

The minhag to bake shlissel challah for the first Shabbos after Pesach is a long-standing one. To quote the Sefer HaTodah by R’Eliyahu Kitov: “The Shabbat after Pesach when we announce the coming of Iyar some…have the custom to make challah in the form of a key and to sprinkle it with sesame seeds. This is to remind us of the Mahn [manna] that began falling (in the desert) in the month of Iyar; it also symbolizes that the 'key' to our parnossa [livelihood] is in Hashem’s hands. We pray that Hashem will …shower us with abundance.”

Sesame seeds are used to depict mahn as they are small and white as it says about the mahn, “they were like small seeds, white, and [tasted] as if they were dipped in honey.”

So since nearly all of us want blessing for a good parnossa, we usually find a way to push ourselves to get those challahs done, even after all the work of Pesach has just finished. I know of one generous soul who always makes extra key challos to give to some of her neighbors to wish them a blessed year filled with parnassah tovah

Tamar Ansh

https://www.kosher.com/lifestyle/shlissel-challahs-why-how-102