[Avodah] An-im Zemiros

[Zev Sero]

Moshe Y. Gluck wrote:
> R' Zev Sero:
>> Al pi nigleh the reason not to look at the Cohanim, or at anything
>> else, is so as not to be distracted from hearing the bracha.  It has
>> long seemed to me that going under a talles with several people,
>> including screaming kids, is *less* conducive to focusing on the bracha
>> than forgoing the talles and just closing ones eyes.   Also, a talles
>> with several people under it gets hot and stuffy, especially if the
>> Cohanim sing at great length between words, and by the end one is
>> waiting impatiently for it to be over, which is not what it's about.
> 
> 
> R' Yaakov Emden agrees with you - he says (in his Siddur - he references
> "Chiburi" which I assume is Mor U'Ketziah, where I assume he explains his
> reasoning) that both the Kohanim and the rest of the people should not cover
> their faces with their talleisim.

Sorry, that's not what I'm saying.  The Shulchan Aruch says to cover
ones face with the talles; my point is that this doesn't mean crowding
a whole group under one talles, and that doing so misses the point.
If one is not wearing a talles, then IMHO it's better to just close
ones eyes than to go under a talles with more than 2 other people,
especially with young children who are not ones own.  (Ones own children
is another story; for one thing, one has to take care of them anyway.)


-- 
Zev Sero               Something has gone seriously awry with this Court's
zev at sero.name          interpretation of the Constitution.
                       	                          - Clarence Thomas