Do pastries covered by a plastic tablecloth at a kiddush require hafrashat challah?

It is common for kiddushim, celebratory meals, and festive gatherings to include homemade baked goods arranged on tables. Sometimes, a disposable plastic tablecloth is spread over the baked items to keep insects away or prevent children from eating before the appropriate time. Does this combine them for the challah obligation?

Rabbi Netanel Oyerbach | Emunat Itecha | Issue 115, Nissan 5777

For the Hebrew article with footnotes, see here.

A. Description of the Situation and the Halachic Question

It is common for kiddushim, celebratory meals, and festive gatherings to include homemade baked goods arranged on tables. Sometimes, a disposable plastic tablecloth is spread over the baked items to keep insects away or prevent children from eating before the appropriate time.

Generally, the women baking these cakes do not use enough flour to obligate hafrashat challah. However, since many women bring baked goods to these events, and the pastries are all placed on a single table with a plastic cover spread over them, the total combined quantity of flour may reach the amount that obligates hafrashat challah with a blessing.

This leads to the question: Should challah be separated in such cases?

B. The Halachic Source

The Shulchan Aruch (YD 325:1) writes:

Two doughs, each individually lacking the required amount... if they are of a type that can be combined... and they are not touching but are placed in the same basket, the basket combines them—even after baking and it becomes bread. But if they are placed on a board without sides, they are not combined. However, some say that if they are covered with a cloth, it is considered like a vessel and they are combined.

This implies that when baked goods made from the five grains are placed together—each individually below the amount requiring separation—they can be combined to reach the required quantity if they are placed in a container with sides. The Shulchan Aruch further states that even if the baked goods are placed on a flat surface without sides, they may be combined if a cloth is spread over them, effectively treating the cloth as a unifying vessel.

Before delving into the details, we must assume several premises:

1. The baked goods are made from one of the five grains, as required for combining.
2. There is no intention to avoid contact between the items, which allows for their combination.

Based on this, one might think that covering the baked goods on a table (which has no sides) with a cloth would allow them to combine into the minimum quantity for challah obligation.

However, several specific questions arise from this case:

1. Does a disposable plastic tablecloth qualify as a combining “cover”?
2. Must the cover also be underneath the baked goods, or is a top cover sufficient?
3. If the intention of covering is merely for preventing access to insects or children, and not to combine the items, does it still count?

C. Covering with a Plastic Tablecloth

The Shulchan Aruch above considers covering with a cloth equivalent to a container for combining purposes. But does this also apply to baked goods placed inside a plastic bag or covered with a disposable plastic sheet, which is not considered a proper kli (vessel)?

The Chalat Lechem (§4:6) writes:

“Windows fixed into the wall do not combine [doughs], since we require a kli, and something attached to the ground is not a kli.”

He explains that for combination to occur, the baked goods must be placed in a vessel that is portable and not attached to the ground. This is why, for example, an oven does not combine baked goods—it is considered part of the ground and not a kli.

Based on this, the Chekkar Halachah (entry “challah” §4) quotes:

I heard in the name of the righteous Rav Avraham z”l of Dobromyl... that one should not place matzot in a large box that holds over 40 se’ah, since for combination we require a kli, and just as a container of that size is not considered a kli for ritual impurity, so too it is not a kli for challah purposes.

This view equates the definition of a kli for challah with its definition for other halachic domains like impurity. However, some argue that we cannot derive the nature of a kli for challah from other areas of halachah, such as impurity or Shabbat, where the criteria for a kli are different.

The distinction may stem from one of the sources for combination in challah: “one gold ladle of ten shekels, filled with incense” (Num. 7:14) —this made "everything inside of the lade become one entity" (Machzor Vitri, Laws of Passover §36). This source suggests that the essential quality of the kli is that the doughs or baked goods are gathered in one place and thereby treated as one, rather than the technical definitions of a kli required by other laws.

In light of the above, when baked goods from the five grains (each batch with an insufficient amount for challah obligation) are covered with a disposable plastic covering, it may create a situation of unification, according to the opinions that view the criteria for kli vis-à-vis challah as different from the criteria in other areas of halachah, such as impurity and Shabbat. Thus, covering baked goods with a disposable plastic tablecloth may be enough to combine them for challah obligation, according to certain views.

D. The Manner of Covering

Assuming a plastic covering can combine baked goods, we must determine whether it is sufficient to cover only the top, or whether the baked goods must also be covered underneath, as with a proper kli.

The Shach (YD 325:5), quoting the Mahari”l, writes:

“If one does not have a container that holds all the dough, he should place them in a cloth and cover them as well—this is called a proper combination.”

This suggests the items must be covered both above and below. However, the Shulchan Aruch based the law of covering on a case where the baked goods are placed on a flat board with no sides and only covered on top. So it appears that a top covering alone is sufficient to combine them and obligate them in challah, even if the baked goods rest directly on a table or surface.

E. Intention to Combine

Now that we’ve established that covering baked goods with a plastic cloth may combine them for challah purposes, we must probe a fundamental question: Is intent required for this combination to be valid? Or does that fact that they are together in one place combine them for this purpose?

The Rosh (Beitzah 1:13) writes:

The custom on Passover is to place all the matzot into one container at the time of separating challah—not because proximity is needed, but because we bake small amounts at a time to avoid leavening. If challah were separated before combining them, they would not be exempt. Later combination would obligate them and one might consume tevel.

This implies that physical combination in a basket is effective even without specific intention to combine them. Thus, even if he separated challah earlier, and afterwards placed them in a container, they combine, even though the intention is not to combine them in order to create an obligation of challah – since the person believes he already separated challah properly from the batch. However, it is possible that the Rosh's intent is to negate the need for an explicit intent to combine the matzot for challah, yet he nevertheless believes that a minimal intent to gather them in one place is necessary for there to be a combination. However, it can not be proven from the words of the Rosh which type of intent is necessary for this combination to be valid. Indeed, Rabbeinu Yechiel requires explicit intent for the combination to count. He is quoted in Tosafot Rabbeinu Peretz (Pesachim 48b):

In any case, this is difficult, as the statement ‘the basket combines’ is a situation that arises everyday, that we bake one item without an amount requiring challah on erev Shabbat and right afterward bake another item and place them all in one container, and often together there is an amount collectively requiring challah, and we do not separate challah. But why? We said that the container combines them!  Rabbi Yechiel states "we do not say that the container combines them unless one intends to combine them, but it one does not intent to combine them, the container does not combine them.”

From the words of Rabbi Yechiel, we learn that for combination to take place in a container or through a table cover, a high level of intent is necessary—that the person actively desires the combination for challah obligation. In contrast, a low-level intent, that all of the baked goods are kept together to protect them in one place, is insufficient to combine them for the challah obligation. The situation Rabbeinu Yechiel relates to is the situation where all the baked goods are kept together, yet this is insufficient for the goods be combined for the challah obligation.

However, Rabbi Yechiel's view is not accepted as halachah. Neither the Rambam, the Tur, nor the Shulchan Aruch mention such intent as a requirement. They rule that a basket or cover combines items based on their physical presence in one place, and intent is not essential beyond the normal act of gathering the goods or doughs in one place.

Returning to our case: if the purpose of the plastic covering at a kiddush with a plastic tablecloth is purely preventive—to keep insects or children away—then this is less than even minimal combining intent. It is not done to unite the baked goods or to present them as one.

Conclusion

Homemade baked goods placed on a table at public events and covered with a disposable plastic tablecloth—even if they are of the same type and collectively contain over 1,666 grams of flour—do not require hafrashat challah.