The Shabbaton

By Yair HaKohen

The Machon Shilo shabbaton which took place recently in Beth Shemesh underscores trends and directions in the spread of “Torah for those who dare to think.” The Shabbaton was not planned far in advance and yet there was an impressive turnout both to communal meals, shiurim, and perhaps most impressively of all the large nusach eretz yisrael minyan which took place Shabbath morning. For those of us who have had our hands on the pulse of Machon Shilo, something was quite evident. Beyond the issue of participation was the sense that our ideas have begun the process of breaking out among mainstream frum Jews. There was a feeling that whereas perhaps in the past HaRav Bar-Hayim’s ideas held an appeal for only certain types of truth-seekers, now a greater openness has developed among other types of Jews as well who are searching for something which standard Orthodox Judaism is not giving them. This could be seen most prominently at the minyan and at the shiurim of Rav Bar-Hayim and Yoel Keren.Certainly, some of those who attended were already devotees of Machon Shilo, but others were clearly not, yet were curious about a different approach which held an appeal which was not to be seen a decade ago.
Momentum is building at Machon Shilo. Statistics demonstrate that year by year there has been a substantial upswing in the number of visitors to our wonderful website. As more Jews find out about Machon Shilo, more Jews keep on coming back for more intellectually honest, fascinating Torah.
As I see it the Shabbaton is a harbinger of grand developments in the near future.