The Friday Night Food Fight

May you expedite the process by throwing the challah to each individual? The Shulchan Aruch (OC 171) writes that there is a prohibition against throwing food. The basic reason for this law is that the flying food may miss its intended target and become toast due to a seedy landing spot. The Magen Avraham concludes that one should not throw bread even on a clean table where it will certainly not become ruined.

The very act of throwing bread is itself considered disrespectful no matter how you slice it. The Dirshu Mishnah Berurah quotes the opinion of Rav Elyashiv that even bread like products such as mini cakes, pastries, and cookies should not be included in aufruf bags. Though the bag will prevent them from becoming ruined (this might be debatable), one should not throw bread like products.

A dissenting opinion based on the Vilna Gaon says that the extra stringency is limited to actual bread and not items that are somewhat similar. The Mishnah Berurah writes that throwing the bread that you recited Hamotzi on is even worse than throwing regular bread. It is considered bizuy mitzvah — disgracing a mitzvah.

I once ate by a choshuveh scholar in Yerushalayim who was a talmid of R’ Boruch Ber. When he distributed the challah, he soft-tossed pieces to those at the table. I concluded that a small toss is not considered throwing food. How do we define throwing? Does the challah have to travel in the air for a few inches, feet, or yards?

There is an interesting responsum from the Hisorerus Teshuvah, the son of the K’sav Sofer. He states that his father regularly tossed challah to those at the table. The K’sav Sofer held that the only reason accepted by the major rishonim not to throw food is that it may become inedible. If there is no such issue, then he ruled that it is perfectly acceptable to toss food in contradistinction to the ruling of the Mishnah Berurah. The Hisorerus Teshuvah makes an argument that throwing challah to those at the table is actually preferred!

The Rema writes (OC 167:5) that it is a mitzvah to have salt on the table before one recites Hamotzi. The table is likened to an altar and the bread to a sacrifice. Just as the pasuk (Vayikra 2:13) says that salt should be offered with all the sacrifices, we place salt on our mini-altar, our table. (Al pi kaballah, some have a custom to dip the challah three times in salt.)

The Hisorerus Teshuvah argues that we could take this comparison of our table to an altar one step further. We can compare the pieces of challah distributed to the sacrificial parts that were burnt on the altar. In Zevachim (62b) we learned that there is a hekesh made between the sacrificial blood and the sacrificial meat. Just as the blood was thrown (sprinkled) onto the altar, so too the parts of the sacrifice that are burned on the altar should be thrown there. There was a small gap between the ramp to the altar and the altar itself. The Kohein would stand at that gap and throw the sacrificial parts on the altar. Since we liken the pieces of challah being distributed to the sacrificial parts, we should throw them as well! I haven’t seen anywhere that we accept this logic as halacha. But if we did, perhaps KosherLamps could invent a high-powered challah launcher that could be used on Shabbos. Everyone in the upper crust of society would buy one!