The LEArNing SHABBOS

I have dubbed this Shabbos Parashas Kedoshim the "Lean Shabbos", because there was a dearth of reading material.

Over Pesach break, I have perused the Mishpacha, Ami, Binah, Zman, Hamodiah (Inyan) and Yated. I don't know how these publications keep finding new material each week with which to tantalize their readers.

The Pesach editions typically sport expanded coverage, many with additional inserts to tide one over the long Yom Tov. Also, I presume that part of the reason for the extra pages is to make up for the week after the holiday, when many publications do not publish due to the restrictions of working and preparing the new edition on Chol HaMoed.

So whereas Yated, Ami and Binah were not on newsstands this week, I was pleasantly surprised to see that Mishpacha (must have prepared in advance) and Hamodiah did publish. I imagine that this might be an outgrowth of the new competition in the Jewish Magazine industry.

Some of the articles that impressed me: An article in Inyan magazine about the history of Jewish newspaper publishing, Zman had an interesting article on the Three Mile Island nuclear fiasco, Mishpacha wrote about the rise and fall of MK Deri, Binah had a write-up on a person who spent 6 years in prison, and Ami had a really nice essay by R. Kamenetzky about Bedikas Chametz and baseball cards.

All in all, it was hundreds of pages of reading material which kept me out of the Beis Hamedrash for too long. Thank goodness for this LEAN Shabbos, where there was plenty of time to catch up on my LEArNing.