Hello Everyone,
I found the title of today’s class, “Mincha Erev Shabbat” puzzling. I am not the most organized person but even on the earliest Shabbat in the winter my wife manages to get all of our preparations finished and she lights the Shabat candles when the calendar tells us to do so. And after my wife lights the candles we wish each other “Shabbat shalom” and I go to shul for Mincha.
But after Rabbi Amichai suggested this topic for a class, I gave he subject some thought and I realized that a class on this subject is actually important. I realized that even if I am at shul for Mincha, many people come to shul after Mincha is over and we are beginning to say Kabbalat Shabbbat. The question of how late may the Mincha prayer be said is actually a question which deserves serious consideration and I hope to address it today.