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From: Russell Hendel <rhendel@saber.towson.edu>
Date: Sun, 2 Jan 2000 20:25:35 -0500 (EST)
Subject: 2 Suggestions for Recapturing the essense of Shabbath

Aviva Fee (v30n58) asks how to recapture the essence of Shabbath. She
complains that all the bar mitzvahs, kiddushes etc do not leave time for
introspection.

Ah..but the purpose of shabbos is not introspection but rather its
purpose is to be a model of the next world where we study torah and do
chesed and don't have to worry about material needs. So if we spend our
time sharing simchas we have captured the essence of Shabbath.

Nevertheless I have two suggestions that might help. I was at a bar
mitzvah this past shabbos (what else?). The bar mitzvah boy made a
siyyum mishnayoth on Kodoshim at night and another siyyum on makoth
Shabbos afternoon. So one way to 'redeem' all the eating is to introduce
more Torah into them.

A second suggestion is a personal practice of mind at Kiddushim is to
talk to people about difficult rashis or laining issues. So the
suggestion here is to create a circle of friends that you can introspect
with on whatever you like to introspect.

Hope this helps
Russell Hendel; Phd Asa; Math; Towson; RHendel@Towson.Edu
Moderator Rashi is Simple; http://www.shamash.org/rashi/