Jeff and Rachel's Engagement Party

Last night was Jeff and Rachel's engagement party. There were many people from both the yeshiva and from the Pathways trip. Everyone had a wonderful time dancing and singing together. Here are some pictures of Jeff.


The Happy Couple















Jeff and Rabbi Fully from the University of Michigan















Jeff and Rabbi Lerner, one of the Rabbi's at Shapels
















Jeff and the Rosh Yeshiva of Shapels, Rabbi Hirshfeld
















Jeff and I at the end of the party

Pictures

Me at the Big Crater
















Me on top of a mountain
















Some yeshiva students and me on the top of the mountain















breakfast















Rabbi Farber dancing at a sheva brachot















Ping pong in Yerucham

Some Thoughts For Hanukah

There is a rule that women are not obligated in positive commandments that are bound by time. For example, since tefillin are only worn during the day, women are not obligated in the commandment of tefillin. Lighting Hanukah candles is also a time-bound commandment. They are only lit 8 days a year at night. Therefore, women should be exempt from lighting Hanukah candles. However, lighting Hanukah candles is an exception to the rule because of a woman named Yehudit.
During the time period that the events of Hanukah took place, the Greeks placed an evil decree on the Jewish people. The Greek governor of the province raped every Jewish woman on her wedding night before she could be with her husband. On Yehudit’s wedding night she was supposed to be raped by the General of the Greek army. She got him drunk, took his sword, decapitated him, placed his head on a stick, and took his head outside so everyone could see what she did. This inspired the Jewish people who then joined with the Maccabees in their war with the Greek army. Yehudit’s actions are the reason that women are obligated to light Hanukah candles.
However, a question still remains. Once Yehudit got the general drunk she could have killed him any way she wanted to. I think the more feminine way would be to poison him, or at least something less bloody. Instead she decided to chop off his head and run outside with it on a stick. Obviously the story is written down with this method of killing because that’s how the events took place, but the question is why would she choose to kill the general this way?
To answer this question I am going to ask another one. The Greeks were extremely smart people. Even the Rambam admits that the Greeks were more intelligent than the Jewish Sages in such areas as math, science, and astronomy. If the Greeks were so smart, how could they have such a simple idea of religion? If you look into the story of their gods, it is basically a super-human soap opera!
There is a Gemara in tractate Yoma that relates a meeting between Rabbi Shimon the Righteous and Aristotle. Rabbi Shimon the Righteous was amazed by the intellectual capabilities of Aristotle so much so that he said he knew everything under the sun. However, he also commented that Aristotle knew nothing in matters over the sun. How could he be so smart in matters under the sun, but so foolish in matters over the sun?
To answer that question, we need to know more about the Greeks. The Greeks were very arrogant. They were the cradle of culture so to speak, and they therefore felt that they knew everything. This feeling that they knew everything is the reason Rabbi Shimon the Righteous said that the Aristotle knew nothing over the sun. It is the reason their understanding of religion was basically a super-human soap opera.
When a person feels that he is the smartest, most intelligent person in the world, it will lead to him thinking he can understand everything. Therefore the Jewish concept of a God that is infinite, and therefore incomprehensible, was not an option for the Greeks. Their understanding of religion was based on an assumption of, “since we are so smart, we must be able to understand it.” On the other hand, the Jewish concept that God is infinite and by definition incomprehensible was not hindered by the same lack of arrogance.
This concept is what Yehudit was showing us through decapitating the General of the Greek army. What she was really saying was, “look at the Greek’s head.” They are so smart and intelligent, but when that head is attached to the body, specifically the heart, which is the seat of emotions, it is of no use. If the Greeks only had their intellect they would not have been corrupted by their arrogance. But since, they also had their feeling of arrogance, they knew nothing when it came to matters over the sun.
The Jew is supposed to be humble. He is supposed to look out at the wonderful creation of this world with awe. He is supposed to realize that he does not know everything because there is so much to know. May this Hanukah be a time of reflection for each one of us. May we all merit to realize how complex and amazing this world is and be inspired to learn more about it.

Happy Hanukah

The Lavan (translate it into English) House

This week flew by. I am having a wonderful time here in Israel and am learning a lot. This Shabbat was the first in-Shabbat since I came back to the Yeshiva. All the students stayed in the dorms and we all spent Shabbat learning, eating, and singing together. We got to hear two interesting speeches over this Shabbat that I want to share with you so you can get a taste of the things we are learning about. The first was by Rabbi Shuster and the second was by another Rabbi in the Yeshiva.

Rabbi Shuster posed a question. He asked, "Why do we keep Shabbat? One of the answer's I always here is that God rested on Shabbat, so we also rest. But did God really rest on Shabbat?! We say that every second God is sustaining creation, so how can he rest on Shabbat?! The Vilna Gaon answered this question by saying that God created everything for Shabbat on the sixth day. But this statement needs explanation. Am I supposed to think that God lets every Shabbat run by itself?!"
He said that on Shabbat there is a difference between things that are primary and secondary. He used an example from the laws of carrying. He said that if a person walks out of his house into a public domain with a huge pot with just a drop of food in it, he has not transgressed the law of carrying on a Biblical level. This is because there was not enough food in the pot. So, the obvious question is, What about the pot?! Wasn't that big enough! The answer is that even though the pot is big, you didn't transgress the law of carrying because the pot is secondary to the food. The only reason you were carrying the pot was for the food inside it.
Rabbi Shuster said that another thing used to bother him. It was the concept that every Jew should enter Shabbat feeling like he completed all of his work. He painted the following picture for us. You are working on a huge project. It's Friday and you have to leave work early. As you are about to leave your boss comes over to you and says, "Where are you going? We need you to do your part on this project! If we don't finish it will cost us millions! And you are behind, we need you to stay. If you don't finish by Monday you will be fired!" You answer back, "You know boss, it's Friday and I have to go because Shabbat is coming." You rush out the door, drive home as fast as possible, jump in the shower with 10 minutes left. You run out the door to try to make it to shul on time and you say to yourself, "Thank God Shabbat is here, my project is finished. I still have my job. Everything is wonderful!" This obviously sounds ridiculous.
He then proceeded to paint another picture. Same scenario. You need to work extra hard to get this project done so you can keep your job. You get a phone call on Tuesday. It's about your son. He was in a terrible accident and they are rushing him to the hospital. They don't know if he will survive. You start to head for the door and your boss says the same thing, "Where are you going? We need you to do your part on this project! If we don't finish it will cost us millions! And you are behind, we need you to stay. If you don't finish by Monday you will be fired!" But this time you answer back, "You are going to fire me! My son just got into an accident and he is in the hospital! I'm going to see him! You want to fire me! I'll fire myself! And I'll fire you too!" With that you rush out to see your son not worrying about the project at all. This story is believable because the only reason you work is to support your family. Your son is primary and your work is secondary. Obviously you are going to see your son.
This is the answer to the original question of isn't God also working on Shabbat? A wedding is hard to plan. You have to get the right hall, the band, the food, and everything else. Even though all of those things are very important parts of the wedding, if the future father-in-law gets up and says, "Um... sorry but the groom got cold feet and ran away. But I don't want to waste all of this planning so please stay. Eat all the food, dance, have a wonderful time." Most people would leave because even though the hall is perfect and the food looks great you are there for the bride and groom. If they don't show up, all of the planning is unnecessary. When the Vilna Gaon said that God created everything for Shabbat on the sixth day it means that on the sixth day God created human beings. The whole purpose for the world is so humans can keep God's commandments. If we don't show up for Shabbat, the whole world is unnecessary. Therefore, we are primary and the world is secondary. So even though God is sustaining the world on Shabbat, it's not considered like He is working, because it's only secondary to us.
This also explains the statement, "Every Jew should enter Shabbat feeling like he completed all of his work." It doesn't mean that your job miraculously disappears, but rather it is a day where you get to focus on the primary. There is a famous story where a Queen marries a common man. Every day he tries to please her. He brings her fresh milk in the morning, just squeezed from the cow, but she finds it repulsive. He brings her fresh eggs, just hatched, but she doesn't appreciate it. This is because she lives in a different world. Common things cannot please her.
This is a metaphor for each one of us. We all have a body and a soul. When you try to please your soul with bodily pleasures, it doesn't work. This is because our soul is in a different world. If you are always looking for the next best physical pleasure you will never be satisfied, because physical pleasures are incapable of satisfying your soul. On Shabbat we get a chance to focus on spiritual pleasures.

The second speech was about last week's Torah portion, which was Vayeitzei. This is the portion where Jacob goes to his uncle Lavan to look for a wife. On the surface it seems like a very happy portion with two weddings, (Jacob marries Lavan's two daghters, Leah and Rachel) and many births, (Jacob has 12 children, who are destined to be the 12 tribes of Israel).
Every year on Passover we say in the Haggadah, "Go and learn what Lavan the Aramean attempted to do to our father Jacob! For Pharaoh decreed only against the males, Lavan attempted to uproot everything." Over Shabbat one of the Rabbis here posed a question. First of all, what did Lavan do to the Jews to be worse than Pharoah! Pharoah killed us, threw our children into the Nile, and used our bodies to build the pyramids! Secondly, there is a Gemara that says when you are looking for a wife, you should look at her brothers to see what her characterictics will be like. If Lavan was so evil, why would Abraham send Isaac to marry Rebecca, Lavan's sister! And why would Rebecca herself send her son Jacob to marry Lavan's daughters!
He answered the question by asking another. He asked, "Why does it say in Isaiah that "in the future both the lost and the pushed aside of the Jewish people will return?" (not exact quote) Who are the lost and who are the pushed aside?"
The answer is Pharoah tried to destroy us through genocide in Egypt and Lavan tried to destroy us by being nice. The Jews in Egypt got pushed aside while Lavan was trying to make Jacob a lost Jew. A lost jew is much worse than a pushed aside Jew. The pushed aside Jew might be in dire straits, but he still knows he is Jewish and sees the value in it. The lost Jew doesn't know who he is or where he comes from.
The Jews living in Nazi Germany were pushed aside. There is no reason to go into detail about the horrible atrocity that was the Holocaust. Suffice it to say that Nazi Germany was just like Egypt. We were being killed for being Jewish. But In America, we are becoming lost.
Rabbi Kaniyevski was once asked a question about Shabbat. The question was, can one play basketball on Shabbat? He asked, "What is basketball?" The Jew explained to him, "Well, it's this game. There are five people on a team. There are two teams. One team tries to get the ball into the basket while the other team tries to stop them." The Rabbi answered back, "Just tell them to put the ball into the basket before Shabbat starts." The Rabbi giving the speech over Shabbat said, "Rabbi Kaniyevski didn't understand what basketball was because he grew up in a small town in Europe. I grew up in Memphis, I know what basketball is. It's not just a game. It's beautiful. I used to love watching someone dribble the ball behind his back, going from hand-to-hand."
He said that America is more dangerous than Nazi Germany because in America people are nice. They love us Jews in America, and a Jew is a sucker for someone who loves them. We have been through so much hardship in our history that when someone says, "You are welcome here, we love you," we love them back. Basketball might be an amazing sport which takes skill and beauty, but when a Jew watches a great move and gets a tingling feeling throughout his body because he cannot believe what he just saw, he is becoming lost. We are losing more Jews through assimilation in Amerca than we did in Nazi Germany!
I just heard an interesting story about the Reform movement. When they hit their 200-year anniversary they decided they were going to have a huge celebration and honor the children of the movement's founders. The celebration never took place because when they went to contact the children of the movement's founders there was NOT ONE JEW LEFT!!!
I am not trying to say that America is evil. America has done wonderful things for the Jewish people and continues to do so. There is a reason that Abraham wanted Isaac to marry Lavan's sister and Rebecca wanted Jacob to marry Lavan's daughters. He had good character traits. He was nice to the Jews. America is the same way. Extremely nice to the Jewish people. However, we need to be on guard for ourselves and our children, knowing that even though America is nice to us, they are killing our people with that kindness. Ironically, they didn't even bother to change the name!!! Lavan's house just moved. It is now in Washington D.C.

My Intended Result

I remember learning about a psychology experiment at U of M. The subjects were instructed to listen to a comedian with a pen in their mouth. Half of the subjects held the pen with their lips while the other half held the pen with their teeth. The subjects who held the pen with their teeth laughed more. This is because when you hold something with your teeth you are already somewhat smiling, and when you hold something with your lips you are somewhat frowning. Your emotions are somewhat controlled by the way you control your body. This was a life-lesson I will never forget.

Happiness is 100% expectations.

A person who works hard every day because money is his goal can succeed. However, the difficulty in succeeding if your goal is to make money is that your goal changes. If you want to make $100,000 a year and you succeed, it is natural to want more. Then when you make $250,000 a year, you will want more. It takes discipline to be content with the amount you are making if your goal is to make money.

A person whose goal is to be happy can be succcessful persuing that goal. However, it is hard to succeed if you are always looking for the next best thing because your old hobbies that made you happy get boring.

Judaism takes the opposite approach to happiness. I think it's because it knows that happiness is about expectations. That's why we pray the exact same prayer, 3 times a day, 6 days a week, for our whole lives. That's why every day we put on the same tefillin. That's why every week we celebrate Shabbat. That's why every year we celebrate the same holidays. I find that the easiest way to be happy is to be happy with what you have. Instead of always looking for the next best thing, the higher paying job, or whatever it may be, I am learning how to be happy with what I have.

This obviously doesn't mean I do not want or appreciate "the finer things in life." But it does mean that if I don't have them, I will still be happy. I will be happy living in a mansion and I will be happy living in a shack. I will be happy with a BMW and I will be happy with a car that I have to pray makes it to work. I will be happy if I choose to go to social work school in the Fall and I will be happy if I choose to stay in yeshiva. I will be happy with anything and everything Hashem chooses to give me.

The Encarta definition of the word "Successful" is "having the intended result."

I think everyone lives with the same goal in mind; to be successful. Achieving success is a subjective goal. Each person has their own intended result and therefore each person is successful in different ways. A suicide bomber who murders innocent civilians can be just as successful as someone who fights for civil rights.

Just for clarification purposes, to both myself and everyone else, this is my intended result.

First and foremost, to realize that I am not in control of my destiny. God is the Creator of this world and can do with it whatever He pleases. My job in this world is to somehow try to payback everything He gave me and continues to give me. Just a few of the favors God gave me are my soul, the air I breath that keeps me alive, the water and food I need to keep my body functioning, direction, purpose, this world which is too beautiful and complex for me to begin to praise, and my family and all my friends who care about me. Hopefully later in my life I will reach a point where I am doing this for the sole purpose of His praise, but for now I will have to settle with doing it for my own selfish purposes.
Secondly, to come as close to God as I can through learning His Torah and keeping His mitzvos, which include honoring my parents and making sure our family doesn't fall apart, but is instead strengethened.
Third, to build a family that cares about each other second only to God.
Fourth, to make enough money to support my family.
Fifth, to have a means to make the money, preferably a job where I know I will be making enough. However, if I ever have to choose between family and an increase in pay, I will choose my family.

Every person has different goals. It is hard to say whose are better or worse since each person has his own dreams and desires. I am a 22-year-old college graduate who thinks about the actions I take before taking them. I know that I am mature enough to make my own decisions in life. Even though I know that nobody is immune from mistakes and therefore I will be wrong in certain decisions. I am ready to do my best.

Modeh Ani

Before Shabbat I was talking to my sister about the Zionist event she went to where our grandfather got a standing ovation by hundreds of people for the part he played in the creation of the state of Israel. She expressed to me how it felt to witness such an event. It is an amazing realization when you comprehend that your ancestors did something special. That they are written in the history books, so to speak.
It's amazing to think about how each person who is alive today came from so many people before them, especially us Jews whose ancestors fought through so much to keep our people alive and strong. We owe a huge debt of gratitude to all who came before us. I am alive today because my ancestors survived the horrible conditions in Egypt, the destruction of two Temples, all the pogroms, and even the Holocaust. I am a link in a never-ending chain that spans thousands of years. When one stops to think about where they come from, no matter who they are, they should feel so lucky.
I used to wake up in the morning complaining that I didn't get enough sleep and saying, "Why!!! I want more sleep!!!" Now I wake up knowing that every day is a gift. Not just from God who returns my soul to me every morning, but to every person who fought to pass Judaism to their children until it reached me. When I say "Modeh Ani" in the morning I don't only think about God, I think about my parents and grandparents and their grandparents.

Yerucham

The yeshiva is a different place then I last remembered it. So many new faces and a few sad goodbyes. It doesn't feel the same as it did last time. I feel more out of place here than I thought I would. The people here are not as serious as I hoped they would be. However, there are enough guys here that I get along with, and are here for the right reasons, that I will be just fine.
Joey, the student I learned with in the mornings last time I was here has moved on to a new yeshiva in Matisdorf. I am now learning with Baruch in the mornings and my old roomate Marc in the afternoons. We are learning the Gemara Kiddushin and are currently learning about mitzvos that parents are obligated on their children and mitzvos that children are obligated on their parents.
This last weekend the whole yeshiva went to a small settlement called Yerucham in the south. We spent time bonding together as a group so everyone could get to know all the new faces. Then on sunday we went on a tiyul to the big crater. It's basically a big hole in the ground but it was fun because we got to climb up to the top. Then we went to a privately owned farm and got to hear all about what it is like to be a farmer during shmittah. We even got to milk goats and make cheese. This year is the shmittah year which means that land in Israel is not allowed (by the Torah, not the government) to be farmed. Every seven years more and more farmers keep the laws of shmittah. Seven years ago over 4000 farmers in Israel kept Shmittah!
Pictures hopefully coming soon.

Im Back in Israel

I am back in Israel, which means I get to start my blog again.

The trip over here was relatively easy. I slept most of the way and had a scrumptious chicken dinner. I got to see so many of my friends from Yeshiva that I haven't seen since July. Now I am starving though, so I am going to get some pizza. That's all for now.

My Last Post............. WITH PICTURES!!!

I cannot believe I am coming back to America in 9 days! Time surely does fly! I wanted to end off with a lot of pictures for everyone who wants to see people from the Yeshiva.

This is me and my havrusa Joey Wise.

















Everyone's favorite Chilean... Yoram.





















Jeremy, my ex-roomate Marc (he just got married), and Noah













This is another Jeremy and Zadok















This is the most cynical and sarcastic person I know, but we still love him! He is also my afternoon havrusa.















Jon, the nicest man in the world





















This is my new roomate Yehuda, he is Hungarian.
















Yisroel and Marc















My roomate Ben and my fellow U of M graduate Brian





















Me, Zadok, and Yisroel























Everyone learning in the Beit Midrash

Such Is Life

As the zman comes to a close people start to leave. It's a weird feeling to practically live with people for 6 months and then see them disappear from your life. After my roomate got married last week he moved out and the room didn't feel the same. Today one of my friends left the yeshiva to start medical school in NY and the yeshiva doesn't feel the same. It was so sad to see him leave a place that he loved, especially since he didn't want to go. He was planning on spending another year here but he would have needed to re-apply to medical school if he stayed. Talking with people after he left, we all realized that this yeshiva would never be the same.
I guess that people come in and out of your life and you just need to deal with it. I have had the pleasure of being friends with the same group of people all of my life, one since I was less than a day old. I guess I have never truly realized until now that I will never see my close friends like I used to. People move throughout life on different paths and in different ways, they have different hobbies and live in different places. It's a big world out there with many exciting things to do, so people end up in different places.
I guess what I am trying to say is that I wish I could live with all my family and friends in one place forever. But life doesn't work out that way. I have friends who are moving to California to start careers in the movie industry or to go to broadcasting school. I have friends who are moving to Baltimore to learn. I have more friends who are moving to New York to either work, go to grad school, or yeshiva. I even have some friends who will stay or move to Israel. I hope we can always keep in touch. So many people have impacted my life these last 21.5 years and it would be a shame to see them dissapear from my life. Whether I have known them since the day I was born or just met them these last 6 months, it is my hope that somehow, someway, we will always have each other.

My Roomate Gets Married

This weekend was amazing! (that was for Uncle Robin). My roomate for the past 6 months got married on Sunday evening and we had a huge party for him over Shabbat. Many people came from England, including a Dayan, for the wedding. A religious wedding is something everyone should experience. When you see 80-year-old men dancing like they are 18 for the sole purpose of making the groom and bride happy, you truly see the beauty. When you see the escort that the groom and bride get from the huppah, about a hundred singing and dancing yeshiva students, you begin to understand the joy. When you see one of the most knowlegable Torah scholars in all of Britain balancing a glass bottle of wine on his head while dancing... well I hope you get the point.
For the entire week following the wedding the newlyweds have one special meal each day. One of the reasons for these meals is to make sure the new couple is happy and surrounded with friends. Tonight we had a barbecue for them. There is a custom to have someone who was not at the wedding at each of these special meals. Since all of the Jewish people in the world are considered a single entity, when two Jews get married they do not only affect them and their family but they have an effect on the entire Jewish nation. When Jews marry each other they are choosing to continue the Jewish nation for at least one more generation. The reason that a person who was not invited to the wedding attends each of these meals is to remind the people there that in addition to the groom and bride being happy, the entire Jewish nation is strengethened by the marriage.

This Week

Today is the beginning of the new zman (semester). There are many new students here who will add to the diversity. It is pretty neat to realize that I live with Americans, Canadians, Chileans, Brits, Aussies, and students from other countries as well. It's always interesting to learn about other people's cultures. But the most amazing thing is that all of these different people from such different backgrounds have come together to do the same thing. We are all working for the same goal despite our tremendous differences in upbringing. It is truly wonderful to hear people's stories and experiences.
In other news, this week promises to be one filled with electricity. From today's massive protest of the "Gay Parade" in Jerusalem to Thursday's possible Parade, Jerusalem is filled with uncertainty about what exactly could happen. Not only that, but we are also waiting to see what Israel will do with the new "Hamastan" and the "moderate" Fatah controlled West Bank. I guess the West has to pressure us into a 3-state solution now instead of just letting us be in our God-given home. You really have to stop for a minute to realize that the "moderate" Muslims living by us are ones who deny the Holocaust. This world is a crazy place.

Eretz Yisroel

In the afternoon we learn a sefer called Derech HaShem. Part of the sefer talks about how a Jew can make it into the next world. There is a Gemora in Niddah that says that all the Jewish souls that make it are all part of one big "body" of souls. Each Jewish soul could be the head of the body, or the foot, or anywhere inbetween. The part about this concept that I like the most is that all of the Jewish people are part of one "body." We are all one.
There is a concept in Psychology called Theory of Mind. When a child reaches a certain age he learns to have a Theory of Mind. If you put a piggy bank and a paper bag in front of a child, empty out the money from the piggy bank and put the money into the paper bag, and then ask the child where the money is, he will correctly say the money is in the paper bag. Then if someone else comes into the room and you ask the child where the other person thinks the money is, he will incorrectly say the paper bag. This means he has not developed Theory of Mind. If he correctly realizes that the other person will think the money is in the piggy bank he has. The reason the child thinks that the other person thinks the money is in the bag is because he thinks everyone knows what he knows. Acquiring Theory of Mind is looked at as a positive stage in a child's development. It is looked at as if he is now more intelligent. While I am not arguing that it is very useful for life to have Theory of Mind, I think that truthfully a child is more in touch with reality when he thinks all of our minds are one. We do only use 4% of our brains. What would the world look like if we could use all of it? Could we read each other's minds? So much about this world we don't understand. Could it be that we really are all one?
I heard an amazing story today. During the Holocaust a Nazi came up to a Jew and told him to kiss a cross. He refused. He told him that he would give him food if he would kiss the cross. Again he refused. Then the Nazi threatened that he would kill him if he didn't kiss the cross. Again he refused. Since the Jew didn't listen the Nazi shot both of his kneecaps. The Nazi gave him one last chance telling him to kiss the cross or die. Again he refused. The Nazi shot the Jew in the head and he died. This story was written down by Rabbi Yossi Jacobson who heard it from the Jew's son. The son knew the story because he was standing next to his father when he was murdered. Rabbi Jacobson asked the son one question. He asked, "Why did your father give up his life instead of kissing the cross?!" The son answered, "I have no idea, he was an atheist." There are so many amazing things about this world that we just don't understand. What would drive this man to sacrifice his life for something he never believed in his whole life?
I truly believe that children and people facing death are living in a different world. They are understanding things that us adults just don't understand. We question everything and therefore don't accept much. Their minds are simpler. The question "Do I do this or not?" is a simple Yes or No answer, it doesn't have pros and cons.
In Israel you feel somewhat of the same connection to your Judaism like the murdered Jew did. Whether you are religious or not you have this overwhelming feeling of love for the Jewish people. In Israel a Jew connects to something that some people only get to connect to before they pass on to the next world. Even though there are so many branches of Judaism, here you feel like the Jewish nation is one.
I just realized that I am coming back to America in 6.5 weeks. It's so soon. These last 6 months flew by. I have learned so much here. I have met so many amazing people. I have seen so many amazing things. You gotta love Eretz Yisroel. But even though I am sad to be leaving next month, I am so excited to get to spend some time with everyone in America.

I think this is the best thing I have ever written

The people in this Yeshiva are amazing. Some have given up so much to sit and learn Torah. There are people here who have turned down jobs that would pay them very decent money and instead are sitting and learning. The people here are so dedicated to what they are doing that not much will stop them from their learning.
Something amazing happened on Friday. Well, Friday for us, Thursday for people in America. Lebron James scored 29 of the last 30 points for the Cavs as they upset the Pistons in Game 5 of the Eastern Conference Finals. This could be the beginning of a long Cavs dynasty! This might have been the best game in NBA history! When I walked downstairs nobody here mentioned it. It was not even brought up in conversation by the people who were sitting and learning on Friday. I have a feeling that if I were still in Ann Arbor conversation on Friday would have been dominated by the Lebron-show.
Something else amazing happened on Friday. I said before that not much will stop people here from their learning, but sometimes you just cannot help but stop to marvel at HaShem's world. Baruch walked into the Beit Midrash on Friday afternoon with his beautiful one-year old child and everyone stopped learning. Everyone. Every man in the room had a huge smile on his face as they saw one of the many miracles HaShem chooses to show openly every day, the gift of life. Children are amazing. I remember being at my grandparent's home when my little cousin came to America. I remember the smile on my grandfather's face as he picked up his grandson and time stopped. It was one of those experiences you never forget. It is so amazing to see a grandfather interact with his grandson. To see his time-worn face jump back 60 years and realize he would have lived his whole life just for this moment. I remember my grandmother always telling me the story of my birth. She says that when my mother gave birth to me the whole family was in the room. I didn't cry. I just slowly looked at everyone in the room as if I already knew them and was just saying hello to long-lost friends. I still don't believe it. I just think it was one of those moments for her when she saw HaShem smile at her and realized how blessed she was. My mother always tells me about how much my father cared for me as a child. When I was just born my father couldn't sleep because he was so nervous that something would happen to his precious son. He would check if I was breathing in the middle of the night just to reassure himself that everything was all right. I think he was reminding himself of how lucky he was to be a father. I guess being a father is one of those life-altering experiences that I do not understand, yet. The love humankind has for a child is something that I feel is deep within each individual, in the core of who they are. I remember going to the JRC for Shabbat dinners and seeing 20 girls wait in lines to hold the small children who were there. The guys too, but girls have a much deeper connection. It amazed me.
People ask me why in Judaism there are laws not to do X, because it will lead to Y. When in reality X will only lead to Y if you let it. They ask, "Why can't you just be a strong enough person and say no to Y?" Another amazing thing happened on Friday. I was talking with one of my fellow students here who I found out really liked Shel Silverstein poems. He could quote many of them by heart. When I was younger I also read 3 of his books but I didn't memorize the poems, I can't even tell you the names of all 3 books. He started quoting some of the poems and for some reason before he finished each poem I was transported 10 years into the past and I knew how the poem ended before he finished. I truly think that the human mind is an amazing machine. It's not that we cannot remember information, we just don't know how to retrieve all of the information that is stored in the endless depths of our brains. When this fellow student started quoting poems it triggered something in my brain and I was flooded with memories from 10 years ago. In Ann Arbor there are many crazy activities that college kids do. There are so many kids at U of M that go out many nights a week and get wasted, end up doing things they regret, but go out again and again and again. It is not so simple to say, "I am not going to be like everyone else." I believe that any person can conquer the things they choose to conquer, but they can only conquer things that they know need to be conquered. In Ann Arbor you are surrounded by people who do things that I feel they shouldn't. I also think that the things occurring around you get stored in your brain in places where you cannot easily retrieve the information and will affect you on a subconscious level. Peer pressure doesn't trick someone into doing something they vehemently oppose, but rather it tricks people into forgetting why they didn't want to do those things in the first place. Their souls are screaming at them not to go out again and get wasted, but they cannot retrieve the information that tells them why they shouldn't. I think this is the answer to why Judaism says not to do X, because it could lead to Y. Just like people know that they shouldn't input smoke into their bodies to keep their lungs healthy, and shouldn't input unhealthy food into their mouths to keep their bodies healthy, I think that in order to keep your brain healthy you should only input healthy thoughts. That is one of the reasons I am so happy to be in Yeshiva. Instead of inputting unhealthy thoughts and images into my brain from Ann Arbor I am inputting HaShem's wisdom. Instead of taking a break to think about life after spending all day going to school or work, talking about Lebron's out-of-this-world performance, and watching 2 hours of television, I would rather take a break from thinking about life.
The way people are tricked into living in Ann Arbor pains me. It is so sad to see innocent girls become corrupted by frat parties and stupid boys, instead of enjoying things that matter. I remember going to the Bahamas for spring break in 12th grade. I remember people getting wasted in order to enjoy their evenings. Thinking back it pains me that people choose to do things where they first need to alter their chemical structure to enjoy it, instead of doing things that give them pleasure that they feel in their core. It pains me that people choose to cheat on women and get drunk instead of choosing to build a family and raise children. Do they not realize that if they wait until they are 30 to have children they might not be alive to see their great-grandson come into this world? Do they really think that it is worth it to spend 5-10 years partying and "not growing up" at the expense of the infinite joy of witnessing that? It pains me that when I talk to people in America and ask them how they are doing or what they did that day, they respond by saying they went to work, came home, watched TV, saw some friends... I would much rather hear them say, "I had a great day! I discovered something amazing about the world! I understand X so much better than I used to! I spent time working on myself and growing as a person!"
I think that one of the reasons why religious Jews get married young is because they spend all day thinking about how they can best live life instead of just enjoying the moment. They realize that although it might be fun to spend 3 hours talking about Lebron and getting wasted, since they take so much time to think about where their lives are headed they understand why getting married and starting a family is so much more worthwhile. I am not saying that basketball is evil, but I am saying there are so many things I would rather be doing than watching sports. I understand that by choosing to live this way I am causing people, especially my family, hardship. But this is the life I choose. I could never go back to "Ann Arbor" when I have experienced how HaShem wants me to live. This doesn't mean that I am severing my ties with my "past life." This doesn't mean I don't care for all the people who I grew up with. This doesn't mean I don't care for my family.
I wish my parents could understand how much I love them and how lucky we are to have each other. I wish they would stop running through life and worrying all the time about everything. I wish they realized that everything was going to be fine. I wish they realized that they have a son who loves them more than anything in this world. Who is having the time of his life discovering what is important to him in order that he can live his life to the best of his abilities. I wish they realized that they have a daughter who works so hard in school and will become an amazing woman. I wish they understood that they have another son that even though he doesn't always listen will grow up and understand how lucky he is to have the parents he does. I wish they understood how lucky they are to have a healthy family with all of their parents alive and well. I wish they stopped looking at the negative things in their lives like the fact that I am on the other side of the world and Zack is leaving to go to college in Indiana, and Emily is also leaving home. I wish they recognized like I do how lucky we are to have each other even though we are all leading our own lives in our own ways down our own paths. Because even though we are going to end up in different places in life we all came from the same place and me and my brother and my sister will never forget where we came from. We came from the same home, and that place will never leave our hearts. You will never leave our hearts.

Shavuot

These past two days are ones I will never forget.
Shavuot in Yerushalyaim is amazing!
We started learning around 10:45PM Tuesday night and kept learning until around 3:30AM. We heard amazing shiurim on the Gemora we are learning and such topics as why did HaShem actually feel it was necessary to hold Mt. Sinai over our heads when he asked us to accept the Torah even though we already said, "Na'asei v'nishma."
When there was a beit hamikdash in Yerushalayim every male Jew came to the Temple each Pesach, Sukkot, and Shavuot. Even though we unfortuantely do not have the third beit hamikdash yet, many people still go to the Kotel on Shavuot night. On Tuesday night, well really Wednesday morning, me and some friends from Yeshiva decided to walk to the Kotel for morning prayers at 4:40AM. We left the Yeshiva at 3:30AM and started the usually 45 minute or so walk to the Kotel. When we started getting close we met up with thousands of people all coming towards the Kotel. We walked with a huge crowd of people through the Arab shuk at around 4:30AM singing Jewish songs about Torah and the rebuilding of the Temple. I guess the Arabs of Yerushalayim also have a custom to stay up all night on Shavuot... It was absolutely amazing. When we got to the Kotel we realized how many people were actually there. It could have been close to 100,000! You could not walk from the Kotel all the way back to not only the ramp that leads to the Kotel, but all the way back to the buildings behind. It was a breathtaking sight to see so many Jews in the same place, doing the same thing, at the same time, together.
After we got back we had a quick kiddush and then a long nap. On Wednesday we had great meals, conversation, and learning and went to sleep ready for another day. Thursday was very long which I welcomed because I had a lot of thinking to do. I had a very good day spending the majority of my time thinking about life and where I am headed in it. I also got to spend some quality time with friends who when they leave I will not get to see again for a long time. Then something amazing happened. As the holiday was leaving us on Thursday night we were all together listening to words of Torah from our Rabbeim and singing zemiros. Those people who know me know that I am not such an "artsy" person. I never have had the ability to really feel to my core something from music. Tonight was the first time. We were all singing one of my favorite songs and I closed my eyes and all the music coming from every person in the room just joined together into one entity. I have experienced this before with niggunim but never with words. After I truly felt like we were all praising Hashem with one voice I started getting chills that ran through my entire body. There were no more individuals in that room, it was one voice coming from one source.

Maimonides Shabbaton

This past Shabbat I spent with the Maimonides trip in the Old CIty. It was amazing! I got to spend time with so many people that I haven't seen in a while. I spent friday walking around the shook with my cousin Jacob Newman and Zack Goodwin. Then we spent the friday night Shabbat meal with the whole group. I slept at my friend Danny Lewkowicz's yeshiva and got to spend all friday night catching up with everything he has been up to. On Saturday we spent most of the day at the hotel where the group stayed. The MSU birthright trip was also staying at the hotel so I got to see sooooo many people I haven't seen in years. Eli Eiseman, Kyle Zweren, Jason Rudy, Rachel Inwald, Jenna Krinsky, Stephanie Potach and many other people were all at the same hotel. Saturday night we all went bowling and stayed up very late having wonderful conversations. On Sunday we went to Ir David and to the kotel. I have to say the highlight of the whole weekend was when Eli (almost 3-year old son of Rabbi and Rebbetsin Eisenberger) asked me to kiss him good night. That kid is awesome!
Since I didn't sleep so much last night as a consequence of staying up all night talking to people I am going to try to catch up on my sleep. I will post pictures from this weekend as soon as I get them on my computer.



This is Rabbi Fully and his son Eli




















The whole group went bowling on Saturday night.


















This is me and my cousin Jacob at the shuk.

New Pictures

This week has been very fun so far. We had a guest lecturer on monday afternoon who was none other than Rabbi J. It was wonderful for the 9 or so guys learning here who know him to see him. We also had a wedding of one of the students on Sunday night and this whole week there are sheva berachot meals for him and his wife. Today we are having a special lunch for their sheva berachot.
This Shabbat I am going to the Old City to spend the weekend with the Maimonides group. I get to see friends from Michigan including my cousin. It should be a wonderful Shabbat in the Holy City.

I finally got some pictures from recent months.

This is a picture from Purim... Yes one of the legs is fake.





















This is a picture of my roomate Marc and my afternoon Rabbi, Rabbi Reuven Kamenetsky.




















This is me at a barbeque, the camera guy likes taking close-ups.















This is me and 3 other guys from Ann Arbor who are learning at Shapels. (Brian, Baruch, Me, Jon)

Back Again

Hello everyone,
I know I have not posted in over a month. I am sorry and have no excuse. I am just lazy.
Since I last posted a lot has happened. My parents and my brother and sister were here from April 5th to the 15th. That was a big change of schedule for me. I stayed in Tel Aviv with them for most of the time. We had a wonderful time traveling to places like Cesaria and going on tours of the Old City. It was just great to spend some time with my family after not seeing them for a few months.
After they left school started again. Baruch, Ariella, and Yosef came back after possibly not returning which was wonderful. Also my friend Brian from Michigan has arrived and made this place feel more like home (Don't worry I am coming back). Speaking of coming back my plane is scheduled to arrive July 25th in Michigan. I am staying until around August 13th. I cannot wait to see everyone from America again!
I am now learning with Rav Dovid and Rav Reuven Kamenetsky. It's amazing! In case anyone was wondering we are learing Makkos this zman (semester). This masechta (section of the Talmud) basically focuses on cases of witnesses giving false testimony, cases of accidental deaths, and cases where people do something that is punished with lashes. Both Baruch and Brian are in my shiur (class) so we get to see each other every day. The shiur focuses on understanding Tosofos so we do all the Rashis and Tosofos on the daf (page) and also some Rishonim (early commentators).
This weekend is lag b'omer and also a student here is getting married. It should be a great time, I can't wait.
In other exciting news the Maimonides trip from Michigan is arriving in Israel soon and I will get to see friends from college and also my cousin who is coming on the trip.
In case you are wondering what I do with my time other than read books... tonight I had an interesting debate with, in my opinion, one of the most intelligent people here about whether the world actually physically exists or whether we are just "existing" in God's mind. It stems from the idea that since before the world existed there was only God, God must have created this world with himself, because that is all there was, and that's all there still is. It's confusing but exciting and intellectually stimulating.
Most of you probably want to know what I am going to do in my future so the plan is as follows...
1 - come home July 25th
2 - leave for either New York or Israel August 13th or 14th to learn for another year in Yeshiva.
3 - Go to YU in September of 2008 for both smicha (not "happy," but rather "Rabbinical degree"), and either a Masters in Social Work or Law School.
Interesting thought about miracles - We view a miracle as an unnatural occurence. The funny thing is that we can get used to unnatural occurences. Take walking through a wall for example. Almost everyone would view walking through a wall as a miracle. I view it the opposite way, I think that every time we lean against a wall and do not fall through it is a miracle. If you take the atoms which make up any physical object and clump them all together it will comprise about 1 millionth of the total space. Yet somehow everytime you touch a physical object you cannot go through it. The world is an amazing place...

A Different Perspective

This past week has been a very different week for me. I am usually learning all day long but since we are on vacation for Passover I am helping people get ready for the holiday by cleaning their homes. This has made this week a very tiring and strenuous week, which consequently made this past Shabbat wonderful. I forgot what looking forward to Shabbot was like since every day here is usually like Shabbat.
This Shabbat I ate lunch at one of the Rabbis who walked with us back to the Yeshiva. On our walk back we spoke about the subtle beauty of Shabbat and Israel. Since our Yeshiva is opening a summer program for kids on trips from America and other countries, birthright trips have been talked about here lately. This is because the amazing success of birthright has had the unintended, but wonderful, effect of making kids on the trip rethink why they are Jewish and lead some of them on the path to frumkite. This was not the intended effect at all, but since people visiting Israel get drawn to the country they need to explain to themselves why. We spoke about how Israel does not have the most massive waterfall, or the highest mountain, or any other significant landmark that a person could rationalize to themselves saying, "The landscape is what drew me to Israel." Instead they have to say, "Judaism drew me to Israel," or better yet "Hashem drew me to Israel." Shabbat also has the same ability to subtly draw people closer to frumkite. Many people reading this will know what I am speaking about when I say, "Keeping Shabbat makes you feel like you are doing the right thing."
While we were walking back to Yeshiva we walked through a beautiful green area that you would see anywhere else in the world and it struck me for the first time that kids coming to Israel don't view the green living things in Israel as an open miracle. They come here and don't even notice that there are trees and plants because they expected to find them. Their picture of what Israel would look like is a picture with green in it. I could not believe it! It is amazing how Hashem can hide in plain sight! Israel only has green living plants because our Sages said, "The land will remain desolate until the Jews move back to the land of Israel." Mark Twain described his 1867 journey to the land of Israel in his book "The Innocents Abroad," "We traversed some miles of desolate country whose soil is rich enough but is given wholly to weeds - a silent, mournful expanse... A desolation is here that not even imagination can grace with the pomp of life and action. We reached Tabor safely... We never saw a human being on the whole route. We pressed on toward the goal of our crusade, renowned Jerusalem. The further we went the hotter the sun got and the more rocky and bare, repulsive and dreary the landscape became... There was hardly a tree or a shrub anywhere. Even the olive and the cactus, those fast friends of a worthless soil, had almost deserted the country. No landscape exists that is more tiresome to the eye than that which bounds the approaches to Jerusalem... Jerusalem is mournful, dreary and lifeless. I would not desire to live here. It is a hopeless, dreary, heartbroken land... Palestine sits in sackcloth and ashes." (pgs. 361-362). Before the Jews came back home this land was a desert with nothing alive. When we came back plants just started growing and now Israel is the ONLY country in the entire world with more greenery than the year before. As I have re-experienced this week, It is truly amazing what one can see and experience when they step out of their normal way of living and look at the world from a different perspective.

Women

This Yeshiva tries to instill in every student that the secular misconception of Orthodox Jews being sexist is just that, a misconception. Just recently this point was illustrated very clearly and I thought some of you would be interested in hearing about it.
Me and another student here were learning about the laws of Shabbat and we came across something we did not understand. There is a law that if on Shabbat there is a fire you should tell a woman to deal with it. Since you are not allowed to put out a fire on Shabbat unless it will save a life, we did not understand why a woman should potentially break Shabbat as opposed to a man. We asked one of the Rabbis here what exactly was the reasoning for this law. He explained that a man has to learn Torah because he does not inherently understand it. If there is a fire in front of a man on Shabbat he will start thinking about how he could make sure that nobody would be harmed by the fire without putting it out and the end result could be that the fire harm someone. A woman on the other hand inherently understands what she is supposed to do. She will be more likely to make a quick decision, and it be the correct one, than a man.
Just this shabbat at lunch we were discussing this idea with the family that was hosting us. The father of the family made a comment that I thought was very interesting. He said that we see a hint to this idea that a woman is inherently smarter than a man in the account of Creation. The Torah describes how the plants came into existence before the water creatures, which came before birds, which came before land creatures. Each life-form is more intelligent than the last. We see that each new form that Hashem brings into the world is more intelligent. This pattern continues from mammals to the creation of Adam, and then the creation of Eve. Not only does the Torah say that Eve was created after Adam, but when describing the forming of Eve, the Torah uses the verb "to build" which, in hebrew, shares the same root as the word for "understanding."

Today

Today was the best day of my life.

This past weekend I realized that I was singing out loud for no particular reason other than that I was happy. I do not remember the last time I was singing out loud in public, which is a good thing since I cannot sing. It hit me that I was so happy to be learning Torah that I didn’t care how bad I sounded because I was too happy to hold it in.

Over the past 3 months we have been learning Gemara and there was one part that just did not make any sense. We asked the Rabbi’s here and the question was such a good question that we tabled it in order to answer other questions. Three other Yeshiva guys and me were struggling all morning with this question and right before lunch we figured out pashot (the simple understanding) in the Gemara. If anyone wants to look inside the question is in Bava Kama, daf 20, amud 1. Basically the Gemara explains that a Rabbi was asked a good question, which was, “If someone lives in an apartment without the owner knowing, should he have to pay rent.” Obviously this question needs clarification, so the Gemara offers some suggestions for what the scenario is.

1 – The owner of the apartment normally does not rent his apartment and the person squatting normally does not rent. This scenario is shot down because the answer is too obviously that since the owner of the apartment does not lose anything and the squatter does not benefit he does not have to pay.
2 - The owner of the apartment normally does rent his apartment and the person squatting normally does rent. This scenario is shot down because the answer is too obviously that since the owner of the apartment is losing potential rent and the squatter benefits from living in the apartment he has to pay.
3 - The owner of the apartment normally does not rent his apartment and the person squatting normally rents. This scenario is accepted as a good question because the owner of the apartment does not lose anything, but the squatter benefits from living in the apartment. The Gemara continues with trying to figure out what the answer is to this question.

The Gemara never gives answers that will be obviously shot down so there must be some reason that both the first and second scenario was not obvious. There is also a concept in Jewish law that when a person doesn’t lack anything from someone else’s benefit they cannot charge for the benefit because that is what the inhabitants of Sodom did, and their city was destroyed by Hashem.

The question is two-fold. What is the reason that both the first and second scenario is not obvious, and also why is the scenario of the owner lacking but the squatter not benefiting not mentioned?

I would love to tell you the answer but you get credit from Hashem for learning Torah not for knowing answers, but rather for struggling to understand the answer for yourself.

When something is in the back of your head for three months and you just do not understand what is going on and then you finally figure it out, and you did it yourself, it is an amazing feeling.

These are some pictures from two of the simchas we have had recently. I could not find any pictures with me in them and I know people, well at least my family, want to see me. I asked the camera guy to take a picture of me last night so I could post a recent picture of me but that one is not off his camera yet. As soon as I get it on my computer I will post it.



This is a picture of one of the students signing his ketuva.













This is a picture of the newly married couples escort from the bimah.
















This is another picture of us dancing around the couple.















These next two pictures are of a vort. One of the former students here is getting married in June and he had a party here before he left. It is a mitzvah to make the groom and bride happy so these pictures are of Rabbis and students trying to make the groom happy. The first is our holy Rabbi Farber dancing and the second is a bunch of crazy students making a human pyramid.

I do not know what to title this...

The weeks are flying by here in Israel. I feel like I just arrived and it is already March! Today and tomorrow we have off because of Purim so I am getting some random chores done like laundry and attempting to reattach 2 buttons from my suit jacket. Tonight is the annual Purim schpiel where some of the students here put on a performance where they do random skits or do different Rabbi impersonations. We are also having sheva brachot for Yaakov Moshe Klarin. The wedding on thursday night was a blast and I even got to see two of Rabbi J's kids who are learning/living in Israel.
There are so many people coming to Israel soon! My family is coming to visit in April and some friends from school are also coming later in April to learn for a year. Then I will get to see more people I know on the JAAM trips in May and June and then some more friends are coming to visit in July.
I hope everyone has a great Purim!
I plan to post some more pictures next week, most likely of the wedding.

Purim

This week was yet another amazing week at Yeshiva in Israel. This past Shabbat both Neil Silverman and David Beitner stayed at Shapel’s and we had a great time catching up on everything that has happened in our lives since we last spoke. Additionally, David Morley showed up on Shabbat afternoon to see how everyone was doing. It was quite the pleasant surprise. It seems like I just arrived but the zman (semester) is already almost over. We are spending two more weeks on new information and then the last two weeks reviewing everything we have learned so far. The last day of class is March 26th. I will most likely stay here over the semester break and learn with some of the other students who are also staying.
Since Purim is coming up very soon I think it would be appropriate to say some words about the coming holiday. The Torah says in Exodus 19:17 “the Jews stood under the mountain,” referring to when the Jewish people were at Mt. Sinai. Most English translations translate the word as meaning close to, but literally it means under. There is a Gemara in Shabbos on daf (page) 88 that explains the reason the Torah wrote “under” instead of “next to.” It says that after the Jewish people responded, “We will do, and we will listen,” Hashem placed them under Mt. Sinai and gave them a choice, accept the Torah or be buried under the mountain. Obviously they accepted. However, this is a problem because whoever does not follow the Torah can claim they only accepted under distress. However, the Gemara goes on to say that in Megillat Ester 9:27 it says that the Jews “confirmed and accepted” after the Rabbis decreed that every year the holiday of Purim was to be celebrated. The Gemara asks, “Why does the verse say ‘confirmed and accepted,’ it should just say ‘accepted’!” The answer is the Jews did not confirm that they would celebrate Purim every year. That does not make sense. The definition of the word confirm is, “to verify the truth or validity of something thought to be true or valid.” Celebrating Purim cannot be true or valid, it is either accepted or not accepted. There is no truth involved. Rather at that time the Jewish people confirmed the truth and validity of the Torah and additionally accepted to celebrate Purim every year. This means that Purim is the day where the Jewish nation accepted to follow the Torah without being forced to accept it.
There is an additional question which is “Why would Hashem force the Jews into accepting the Torah?” There are many answers to this question, however I will only talk about the one that strikes me the most. The Alter Rebbe of Chabad asked what does the Torah mean when it says, “We will do, and we will listen?” Logically you would think that before deciding to do something, you should first listen to what you will be agreeing to do. His answer is built around the psychology of the human being. I think it is human nature to assume that you are right and not question your way of life. To just do what everyone else is doing. When I was at the University of Michigan I noticed how some people were against attending religious events because they assumed they would be boring. Those same people would only agree that religious events could be fun after going to one. The reason Hashem forced us to accept the Torah under Mt. Sinai and the reason the Jewish people said “We will do, and we will listen” is because deeds lead to listening, not the other way around. The way to understand the beauty of Judaism is to experience a Jewish event. Purim is next Sunday, I hope that everyone will have the opportunity to experience Purim the way it is meant to be experienced. Have a great week and an even better Purim.

shabbat

I am extremely pressed for time as the Yeshiva is expecting 60 guests for the wedding on Sunday. We are all pitching in to get the place ready for that many people. I will write my blog after Shabbat.
This Shabbat was amazing. It was very hectic, but very fun. I did not get much sleep since I had one of those converasations where you don't want to stop talking. I made it to bed by 4 and woke up around 8, but it was worth it. These next few weeks are also very hectic. Sunday night was a wedding of one of the students so we were all out very late. It was a blast!!! Since this particular student became very close to many of the gadolim (leading Rabbis) of our time, there were many amazing people there including Rabbi Moshe Shapiro, one of the greatest Torah leaders of our generation. For those of you reading this who do not know, there is a mitzvah to make a groom and bride happy on their wedding day. When they walk from the chuppah all the guys at the wedding, especially the guys in Yeshiva, dance in front of them. They are completely enclosed in this huge crowd of people who are singing and dancing as loud as possible. It is hard to describe so I will look for some pictures of it and post them later if I find good ones.
Today the Rosh Yeshiva of Shor Yashuv, a Yeshiva in New York, spoke here. Tomorrow is "Tuesday Night at the Rabbis" where we all go in groups of 4-6 to a Rabbi's home to get to know them and their family a little better. Since one of the students here is moving to Baltimore and leaving on Saturday night, on thursday we are having a mishmar for him. Basically this means we are all going to be staying up late into the night eating good food and sharing words of Torah with each other. Then next Shabbat is another party, this one for the wedding on next Thursday night. There will not be as many people this Shabbat since the groom is from America and it is much more expensive to come to Israel from America than it is to come from England.
Then Purim is coming up right after the wedding. I have the amazing opportunity to eat the Purim meal at Rabbi Reuven Kamenetsky's home. This man is an amazingly learned person. He knows Talmud so well that he can quote Tosofot in different masechtas to answer a question asked in our sugya. I do not know how to explain how wise this man is.
From now on I will be posting on Sunday because so much happens on Shabbat that I feel it would be beneficial to write my weekly blog after Shabbat.

The Depth Of The Gemara

A friend from back in Michigan got me thinking about how people do not understand how much information there is to learn in the Gemara, so I figured it would be educational to post about this.
It is incomprehensible to someone who has not learned Gemara how much information there is. I will try to give you an analogy but anything I come up with will fall far short of the true extent of the amount of information. Me sitting in a class given by the head of the Yeshiva is like a 5-year old sitting in a class taught by Einstein. The only reason I can comprehend anything is because since all the students are comparable to 5-year olds the teacher brings the Gemara down to our level.
In addition the way we think is opposite to how we should think. The first day of class the head of the Yeshiva told us that his goal was to erase the damage that public school did to our brains and return us to our 4-year old inquisitive selves, with the ability to think for ourselves. For instance we are not alowed to guess the answer. In public school the answer to a question is what the teacher wants to hear, here any answer must be backed with reasoning. Even if we give the right answer the Rabbi will question us as if it is wrong. The Rabbi says that he would rather us give the wrong answer with a valid explanation than a correct guess.
We also have to stop thinking like Americans. He gives the example that all Americans think any problem can be solved. Today he said that Americans cannot understand why Israeli's and Palestinian's cannot live in peace, all you have to do to solve the problem is stick them in a room so they can talk it out!!! We have to understand that not all problems are solvable and continue learning even if something does not make sense. It is hard to stop thinking like a public school kid who is trying to please the teacher and start thinking like a person who is trying to work with the teacher in order to find the answer even if it is against what the Rabbi is arguing.
I do not mean to say that I did not learn anything at public school or that there were no classes where I did actually get to think, however for the most part the education a public school in America gives you is how to tell the teacher what he wants to hear. I do not think that is a controversial statement it is a fact of the way we were raised. I remember in 11th grade I got a C on a math test even though I got all the answers right. I was marked wrong because the steps I used to get to the answer were different than what my teacher would have done. I had a way of solving the problem, but it was wrong because my teacher thought her way was better.

Another Great Week

Hello everyone,
This week has been very fun and exciting. I have switched Talmud classes again, this time I moved down to level 6. The other head of the Yeshiva came back from America and is now teaching this level. Instead of learning what the Gemara says relatively quickly and then learning some of the many commentators' opinions, we are just focusing on the Gemara and Rashi. We not only need to understand what each word says, but why each word is neccessary, and why the Gemara is trying to teach what it does. This level is perfect for me at this stage in my learning because it will improve my reading tremendously.
I have been asked to use the word study instead of the word learn, so I would like to clarify why religious Jews use learn. Maimonides writes in his laws of "Learning Torah" that every Jewish father has a mitzvah to teach his sons and his grandsons Torah. If a son or grandson was never taught Torah he has the mitzvah to teach himself in order that he will be able to teach his sons and grandsons. If you pay close attention to the words Maimonides uses he does not say that a person must study Torah, he says a person must TEACH HIMSELF Torah. When I think of the word studying I think of learning something by myself with no teacher. When I think of the word learning I think of gaining knowledge as a result of being taught. Since a person is not studying by himself, but rather teaching himself, he has a teacher and is therefore learning not studying.
This Shabbat I am staying at the Yeshiva and going to eat at different families with some guys from the Yeshiva. This Shabbat is going to be a relatively calm Shabbat since two of the older students here are getting married in the next two weeks. Next Shabbat the groom is from Great Britain and since Britain is close to Israel there will be 60 guests here for the wedding. The Shabbat after that a guy from Michigan, who I met two years ago when I was just starting my journey, is getting married. We are going to try to get all the guys from Michigan who are learning somewhere in Israel to stay at Shapel's for his wedding.
I hope everyone is doing well in America.
Please post... or e-mail me...

The Ability To Have Free Choice

This week has been a blast. I learned a lot and am now going to spend Shabbat with some friends in Har Nof. The Yeshiva sets students up with different families to eat Shabbat meals and I was set up with two families in Har Nof. It is only a 30 minute walk from where I live but it is supposed to rain here this Shabbat. Since I do not feel like walking in the rain I asked a friend if he could find me a place to sleep. I will be staying at the Machon Yaakov Yeshiva and seeing two friends from Ann Arbor who are currently learning in Har Nof.
Something interesting I learned this week has to do with the apparent defects in nature, especially to the evils found in nature, which are not in accordance to HaShem's perfection. The RAMCHAL writes in "The Knowing Heart" that HaShem wanted to show humankind His oneness. He makes the argument that if HaShem made the world perfectly then man would have nothing to do. He would have nothing to improve in the world. By "pulling back" so-to-speak, HaShem allowed apparent "lack" into the world so humankind could become partners in creation with Him.
The reason HaShem wanted to show humankind His oneness is because it is the only attribute that is seen through its opposite. If HaShem wanted to show us His kindness we would not need to understand what evil was. If everything was given to us in this world and we would not need to work for anything, we would understand HaShem's kindness. If HaShem wanted to show us His wisdom He would not have needed to show us what foolishness is. If I came to you and showed you a fool or an evil person, you would in no way be able to understand what "intelligence" or "righteousness" is. However, the only way to understand oneness is through it's opposite, plurality. If I put five marbles on a table you would be able to understand what one marble would look like. And it is impossible to understand one if there is only one. If you were the only thing existing you would not be able to comprehend more than you, and therefore you would not be able to comprehend "only." However, if there is more than you, you are able to understand what it would be like if you and only you existed. By creating the world as a place that seemingly has many forces that are in opposition to one another (fire and water, good and evil, etc.), each person has the ability to come to their own conclusion that even though the world looks plural, it is all one. The more plural the world is the more amazing it is when one comprehends that everything is all one.
The RAMCHAL then goes on to say that although HaShem could obviously have created the world in a way that humankind could understand His oneness without living through the plurality (negative), if He did so we would not have free will. It would be so obvious that HaShem is God that we would not be able to do an act against His will. By creating the world with negative qualities we have the ability to choose for ourselves whether we will be good or bad.