Articles

Rabbi Dovid Cohen
Administrative Rabbinical Coordinator of the cRc

January 2009

All cRc food service establishments are required to have a religious Jew separating challah from every batter of dough as it is kneaded.  In some cases, it is appropriate to setup the following “backup system” to guarantee that no food is inadvertently sold without hafrashas challah due to an unforeseen situation.  Brief explanations or sources for specific items will be given in the footnotes.

Glossary of Terms Used in This Article

Tevel dough……………………. A batter containing at least 5 pounds of Jewish-owned flour, from which challah was never separated.  Typically, the tevel dough is made of wheat flour, but if the backup system will be used for other grains, then 5 pounds of each of those grains should be included in the tevel dough.
Establishment………………… The bakery, restaurant, or other food service establishment for which the backup hafrashas challah system is being implemented.
Designated Mashgiach….. The cRc representative who will recite the daily hafrashah for the establishment.

Setup

1. The owner of the tevel dough should transfer ownership of it to the designated Mashgiach.¹
2. The tevel dough should be brought to the establishment and the owner of the establishment should give permission to the designated Mashgiach to perform hafrashas challah for him in the future.
3. A fresh batter should be kneaded at the establishment, and challah should not be separated from the batter.  Rather, the designated Mashgiach should make a hafrashah on the batter from the tevel dough using the following wording said while holding the tevel dough:

A gram from the top of the tevel dough I am holding in my hand is hereby designated as challah for the batter of dough previously kneaded at this establishment from which challah was not separated. 
Henceforth, 30 minutes after² any batter of dough is kneaded at this establishment, a gram of this tevel dough located next to the previously designated piece, should be designated as challah for that new batter.  In the case of a belilah rakah batter,³ the aforementioned hafrashah should take place 30 minutes after baking instead of 30 minutes after kneading.  This system of continual hafrashah should remain in effect until I verbally cancel it or recite a renewed system of continual hafrashah.  

1. The tevel dough should be placed into a freezer (or refrigerator) at the establishment, and that freezer should preferably be located in the room where kneading will occur.⁴

Daily hafrashah

1. Approximately once a day, the designated Mashgiach should renew the hafrashah by reciting the second paragraph of the wording noted above, substituting the name of the establishment (e.g. “ABC Bakery”) for the words “this establishment” in the first sentence.

Maintenance

1. The tevel dough must be replaced when it spoils, after Pesach, or once all the grams of tevel have been used for hafrashas challah.  Thus, a 500 gram tevel dough must be replaced if (a) it is found to have spoiled, (b) if it was thrown out for Pesach, or (c) after 500 batters have been kneaded at the establishment. 
2. Additionally, the tevel and batter must both be from grains that have grown in the same (Jewish) year.  Therefore, for example, a tevel dough of rye flour produced in May 5769 is made from rye grown in 5768, and would have to be replaced in the summer of 5769 when the 5769 crop of rye starts arriving at the establishment.  That date changes based on the grain, and the size and location of the establishment,⁵ and it is the responsibility of the designated Mashgiach to know when the “new” crop arrives.