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...