Free Style.

Today I teach periods 1,2,3,5,6. School lets out today after 6. Then Jewish Studies staff will be meeting about our Purim spiel. I put on some light instrumental music after third period and stepped out to the facilities and when I returned I discovered that a new class has been placed in my room for fourth period (Monday? Every day?) which I was only told about by the teacher of that class who was wondering if anyone told me she'd be moving in during my free period.

I'm in a new/old Bat Cave processing and breathing in my pause along the line of 6 periods in a row. Kids are talking outside of Teacher Room C, unaware that you can hear everything through the door...

Classes were filled with moments. Thank G-d for moments. We discussed some of the headlines and myths from the previous posts. I cited the Kitzur Shulchan Aruch's statement that if you fast but spend the day like any other day, doing mundane activities, then you've embraced the tafeil and rejected the ikar. Sarah asked, sincerely, "If you fast and will veg out all day, but if you ate a bit would be more able to do teshuva, what should you do?" That was a moment.

Another moment: Adam knew that the 3 day fast that Esther set up was actually in Nissan and went into Pesach. And another: Elisheva said that she honestly felt that if people didn't fast, they would not treat the day as a day of teshuva. That's the first time I've heard a student say that. Some students told me they were tired of hearing about NOT drinking on Purim, they had a class on the subject that they felt was over the top. We discussed the issue.

We offer our flesh

as a sacrifice to G-d

We try to answer

Teshuva means an answer

May we be blessed with answers