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<DIV><FONT style="BACKGROUND-COLOR: transparent" color=#000000 size=2
face=Arial>From: "Heather Luntz" <A
href="mailto:Heather@kolsassoon.org.uk">Heather@kolsassoon.org.uk</A><BR></FONT></DIV>
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<DIV><FONT style="BACKGROUND-COLOR: transparent" color=#000000 size=2
face=Arial>>> No 1 is of course important. It is obvious that there needs
to be caution in<BR>taking on a mitzvah that places heavy demands upon one's
time. </FONT></DIV>
<DIV><FONT style="BACKGROUND-COLOR: transparent" color=#000000 size=2
face=Arial>...Tephillin is certainly in that category </FONT></DIV><FONT
style="BACKGROUND-COLOR: transparent" color=#000000 size=2 face=Arial>
<DIV><BR>...I would note, however, that going to shul is far worse in this
regard. The<BR>amount of time spent by my husband in shul, compared with myself,
is huge,<BR>...So were the time argument to be a valid one, then according to
this Aruch HaShulchan<BR>we should protest every time a woman goes to shul
</DIV>
<DIV>...Certainly those women - many of them elderly or single - who go
every single<BR>day and often more than once - must need be heavily censured, as
this is<BR>something that mothers with children do not have the luxury of doing
</DIV>
<DIV><BR><BR> <BR><BR>>This is why (the AhS continues) the Rama says
there is more concern for<BR>>meichzei keyhara for a woman to wear them.
...</DIV>
<DIV> </DIV>
<DIV><BR>Now if, as I suspect, the Aruch HaShulchan was never faced with
the<BR>phenomenon of women going to shul regularly on weekdays - should not he
also<BR>argue that this is not the minhag? This gets into the whole question of
lo<BR>raynu yesh raya by minhag ...<<<BR></DIV>
<DIV> </DIV>
<DIV>Good Shabbas<BR><BR>Chana<BR><BR></DIV></FONT></FONT>
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<DIV> </DIV>
<DIV>>>>></DIV>
<DIV> </DIV>
<DIV>a. The Vilna Gaon famously wrote a letter to his wife and daughters asking
them /never/ to go to shul.</DIV>
<DIV> </DIV>
<DIV>b. In the recent biography of R'n Kanievsky a'h I read (to my
surprise) that she went to shul every day for Shacharis, Mincha AND
Maariv.</DIV>
<DIV> </DIV>
<DIV>c. I myself regret that I got out of the habit of going to shul on Shabbos
when my kids were little, and as a result my daughters (now grown) almost
never go to shul. I now go for Rosh Chodesh bentshing and rarely any other
time. Shabbos morning at home by myself reading the parsha with a cup of
coffee is the most heavenly peaceful time of the week for me but I confess that
my davening is minimalist.</DIV>
<DIV> </DIV>
<DIV>These data points add up to I don't know what, but I must add that a mother
taking care of her small children is a tremendous mitzva and fulfillment of a
woman's main mission in life. Yet it is also something that applies only
for a limited time in a woman's life. The idea that elderly women
shouldn't go to shul because young women have to take care of small children
seems a non sequitur to me.</DIV>
<DIV> </DIV>
<DIV> </DIV>
<DIV><FONT color=#0000ff></FONT><BR><FONT color=#0000ff><STRONG>--Toby
Katz</STRONG></FONT><FONT lang=0 color=#ffffff size=2 face=Arial
FAMILY="SANSSERIF" PTSIZE="10"><BR><STRONG>..</STRONG></FONT><FONT lang=0
color=#0000ff size=2 face=Arial FAMILY="SANSSERIF"
PTSIZE="10"><BR><STRONG>=============</STRONG><BR><BR><BR>-------------------------------------------------------------------</FONT></DIV>
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