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<DIV><FONT style="BACKGROUND-COLOR: transparent" face=Arial color=#000000
size=2>> AFAIK the garlic and sugar are not put on the tray, but<BR>>
distributed to the guests at the seudah, for them to take<BR>> home and
eventually incorporate into a meal of their own,<BR>> so that everyone who
eats of that meal will also have a<BR>> part in the seudas mitzvah.
Essentially this is the same<BR>> minhag as that of taking home cake from a
bris, for those<BR>> who weren't able to make it.
[--RZS]</FONT></DIV><FONT style="BACKGROUND-COLOR: transparent" face=Arial
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<DIV><BR><A href="mailto:kennethgmiller@juno.com">kennethgmiller@juno.com</A>
wrote:<BR>>> I have heard of, and seen, people who bring home food from a
bris or from a kiddush. But I thought that it was simply a way of helping that
person snack, helping them to *feel* like they had attended.<BR><BR>But the way
you explain it, as being a real minhag, confuses me. If I would attend a bris
during the Nine Days, and bring some meat home for someone who was unable to
attend, surely they would not be allowed to eat it. Is there a real value in
bringing food home, beyond the social aspect? <<<BR><BR>Akiva
Miller</DIV>
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<DIV>>>>>><BR>You should not bring home meat during the Nine
Days. You should bring home cake, especially seven-layer cake and
strawberry shortcake. In serious answer to your question, yes, there is
real value in bringing home food from a se'udas mitzvah and that is a
long-standing Jewish minhag. As I was raised, the food you brought home
was preferably mezonos, not sure why -- I guess you can be kovea seudah on
mezonos but not on the celery sticks and radishes from the crudite'
platter. You didn't bring home a /lot/ of food, wouldn't want to make a
pig of yourself, but you brought home /something/ -- like maybe a cookie, a
piece of cake or a roll. Some aspect of bracha attaches to the food from a
bris or pidyon haben, something good that you wouldn't want your wife to be
deprived of just because she couldn't make it to the simcha. And also,
that cookie or whatnot that you brought home just for the blessing of it -- if
no other blessing, it would surely enhance the blessing of sholom bayis in
your home! Oh and also, it counts as zero points on Weight Watchers....you
didn't know that?</DIV><FONT color=#0000ff></FONT></FONT></FONT></DIV>
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<DIV><BR></FONT><B><FONT color=#0000ff>--Toby
Katz<BR>==========<BR><BR></FONT><FONT lang=0 face=Arial color=#000000 size=2
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