Sunday, December 27, 2009

My Goodness


I just had a really funny encounter.

I bumped into one of the guys from the main beis medrash here at YU. he asked me what I was going to be doing for break and I told him that I am gonna be in Teaneck.

He responded: "Bein Hasemestarim," implying that I should stay in YU and partake of the between semesters learning program.

I said: "I am doing Frollel."

"What's Frollel?"

"The kollel in Dr. Friedman's basement."

He was confused. "Who's Dr. Friedman?"

"The gevir of the Stollel."

"Okay I'm confused."

I then went to the restroom, where I was headed in the first place. I thought that the encounter was really funny.

Wednesday, December 23, 2009

You Slopsink!

Slopsink, happy birthday.





Enjoy 22. It's a great age.

Fibals

Finals, more like fibals.
Who cares?
Guys, I am trying a new theory this semester for finals. I am trying to laugh at them. That may be the best way to deal with them.
I have supplied you with this video for your entertainment.

Sunday, December 20, 2009

(Snow Day)

Snow day.
I am at my cousins.
I am on a mac. I don't really know how to use macs so I cannot like put in a picture because I don't know how to do the steps on a mac.

Wednesday, December 9, 2009

Lipa

In Yiddish class today we were fortunate to view this video of Lipa Shmeltzer singing chanukah chanukah...
Ari Ackerman, My yiddish right-hand man, suggested that I put it on my blog. This here is the result of that suggestion.
It would be impossible not to notice Lipa's malchus-dika get up: a fur bekeshe and a HEADY streimel.

Tuesday, December 8, 2009

neo-Chassidic Takeover


As I was walking back from the minyan where I prayed on Shabbat morning, I passed on the street the guy who asked me if I went to Shaalvim. As I passed him I wished he and his wife a good Shabbos and i sensed the feeling of him noticing my neo-Chassidic ways. Then I wondered: with me and the Weinbergs and Slopsink and other neo-Chassidim hanging out in Teaneck, I think the people may be beginning to realize

that the neo-Chassidim are taking over.

Sunday, December 6, 2009

Pencilitis

Today in shiur, Weinberg and I noticed that there kept on being a pencil in the back of Slopsink's laptop computer. Even when it was removed it continued to return there.
We just hope that his computer does not get
Pencilitis.

Saturday, December 5, 2009

Guys


Cheq this out:

Cool stick figure animation. Funny.

Thursday, December 3, 2009

Earn Money As You Write!


It seams that there is an essay contest in YU. You can win up to $1500.

maybe it is worth a sh*t.

Tuesday, December 1, 2009

Nice Gloves Dude!!!


This morning, Tuesday morning, i was walking to the Rubin Shul for the 8:30 minyan as I do every day, when alas I ran into the Cheese Choker. We exchanged greetings and when we went in for the hand shake we both realized

that we were wearing the same gloves: WeatherProof black gloves.

A good start to a good day.

Monday, November 30, 2009

36 Under 36


In the Jewish Week there is a certain yearly article called "36 Under 36". In it they feature all of the hot shots of the Jewish community who fit nicely into their agenda.

I wonder, when will I be in that article? What will it take?

Sunday, November 29, 2009

In This Week's Parsha...

In this week's parsha, in the first aliyah we find the lyrics to R Yitzchack's song "hatzileini".


This video was originally found on the blog of the Water Shlepper of Jawbone Valley.

Wednesday, November 25, 2009

neo-Chassidus

Brothers, what are we called?
We are not your traditional type of chassidim. But we are chassidim. I think, therefore, that we are neo-chassidim- the new age of chassidus.
Last Friday I was in Borough park (בארו פארק) dropping something off at my chassidishe cousin. I am pretty sure that her einikel was looking at me like I must be nuts. I was wearing traditional MO "school clothing" but rocking wild peyos, and a big green kippah.
Now what is the deal?
The deal is that i am a neo-chassid
and so are you (and you).
We are the neo-chassidim.

Tuesday, November 24, 2009

Not To Be Deep Or Anything

This morning I was washing my hands and it occured to me that I was using soap in order to kill invisible germs that could make me sick. Now in my opinion that sounds pretty nutty.
In fact, last year in my epidemiology class we watched a film called Bloody Mary about this lady who refused to accept the fact that she was the source of a malaria outbreak. Back then it was simply to difficult to accept the notion of mysterious invisible germs causing disease.
Now, of course, everyone knows that germs are real and that we must guard ourselves from them. If someone were to deny such a fact at this day in age we would certainly think that he is being foolish.
It then occured to me that this may be one of the revelations of the days of Mashiach.
You know, sometimes people could be very tough and cold when it comes to the issue of Hashem, and even within the orthodox fringe people could be skeptical of spiritual things, and abstract things like gematrias.
However, in the days of Moshiach we will realize that these things are real. ומלאה הארץ דעה את השם.
It will be foolish to think otherwise.

Monday, November 23, 2009

די עפל פאלט נישט וייט פון בוים


This is a very interesting incident with, what I think are, very true and real implications sent to me by my חבר ShiaZ. This is an incident which happened to David Schlusselberg (the bus):
"One day, when he was playing piano in a classroom in the Schottenstein building in YU, he was rudely interrupted by a man who works in the music department. Now, rightfully so, Schluss was kicked out of the classroom he was playing in, since it was during the day, with other classes going on, & he should have played in one of the sound-proof piano rooms. However, when Schluss came in to the second floor of Schottenstein, all those rooms were occupied, so he went into the classroom instead. When this man kicked out Schluss, he had been under the impression that one sound-proof room was open. Therefore, in kicking him out, certainly in his mind, he had every right to do this. However, Schluss informed me that this was done in an incredibly rude fashion. The man did not yell, however he was patronizing in his tone & he was downright not nice, to the extent that Schluss felt the need to tell me this story. That is part one. Next, after Schluss told me of this event, perhaps a few days later we went to lunch in a local eatery, Grandma's Pizza. Myself, Schluss, Josh Weinberg, and Michael Hoenig were sitting at a table having a nice Rosh Chodesh seudah, when our good friend, Ari Ashkenas walked in and wanted to join us. Since no more chairs remained at our table, Ari looked next to him and tried to pull over a chair from a neighboring table in order to situate himself at the head of our table and join us for lunch. This neighboring table happened to have had an elderly woman standing near it. When Ari reached for the chair, he was abruptly stalled in his grasp, as the elder woman grabbed the chair back from him, and rather rudely told him to, "Ask first." This was the chair she was going to sit down in, and so perhaps Ari should have asked if she was using it before taking it for himself. However, the way in which this woman carried herself and responded to Ari was very uncalled for, and just plain mean. This woman had every right to get her chair back, but the manner in which she went about doing this was just wrong, grabbing it out of his hand and thrusting it down in front of her, marking her territory and making an obnoxious comment to top it all off. Then, all of a sudden, the man who just the other day kicked out Schluss from his piano playing entered into Grandma's Pizza, and sat down at the table next to us to have lunch with his mother."

Thursday, November 19, 2009

A Great Idea

I think that there should be a new תקנה made in Washington Heights:
If you are willing to clean the area of the street where your car is parked, then you are exempt from alternate side parking.
What do you think?

A Very Deep Idea


Brothers, last evening Hashem granted me, His Hebrew major (Jewish Studies major focusing in Hebrew), a very great idea. The Hebrew word מתנגד, which colloquially refers to somebody who is against the ways of chassidus, is in the tense of התפעל.

Now, just a quick lesson in Hebrew grammar. This is a lesson that is fairly simple, i think, and one which will allow you to understand a number of the teachings of רש"י on the Chumash.

The tense of התפעל, ex.: התהלך לפני והיה תמים, means that you do the thing to yourself, such as in the example of התהלך it means that you cause yourself to walk.

Now, for the punch line: a מתנגד, therefore, is someone who brings himself to be against Chassidus. Nobody is born as someone who is naturally anti-Chassidus. The way for that to happen is only if one brings himself to be that way.

Good Shabbos

שבת שלום

I'm Back!

Hi everyone, I'm back. Do not worry, I have not forgotten about my blog, the issue simply was that I had put up a promotional post promoting R' Ozer Bergman's visit to our yeshiva and I did not wish to cover that over with another message. Now that R' Ozer has given over to us his teachings and has departed I shall resume regular posting.
Thank you,
Your friend,
Sruli

Monday, November 16, 2009

My Holy Brothers


To my very holy brethren, there will be a very special opportunity this Wednesday evening. Rav Ozer Bergman from the Breslov Research Institute will be speaking at our institution, at YU. He is a great and holy teacher, teaching at Yeshivat Simchat Shlomo and other places. I am sure that several of the people who will be viewing this post have actually read some of the things that he has written, even if they may not have known it at the time.
So, please join us in the annex after Maariv, at approximately 10:30. It will be a very great and inspirational time.

Sunday, November 15, 2009

Maybe Not Such a Good Idea


Today in Shiur I was sitting next to J-Wein and across from J-Wein was sitting ShiaZ. I realized at some point in the middle of the shiur that our seating arrangement was probably not well thought out. If חס ושלום something were to happen we could have lost the entire Tzavei at one time. What would that poor couple in West Hempstead do next week without a band to play their engagement party?

Just a thought.

For the Record


Just for the record, organic peanut butter is not as good as regular.

Thursday, November 12, 2009

Shabbos Plans


Yesterday I was priveledged to recieve a phone call from our very own Josh Liggitt asking me if I would like to join him in Crown Heights this Shabbos fof the annual Chabad Kinus Hashluchim. So, there I will be with God's help.
My roomate Aryeh Graber, however, pointed out something interesting: What do all the communities worldwide do this weekend without their Rabbis? Interesting.
Also, it should be pointed out that there will, God willing, be another Kinus hashluchim in YU on the 19th of Kislev. A gathering of all the Jews who find themselves now on shlichus in America until their return to the land of the Jews. More details to follow.

Wednesday, November 11, 2009

There You Have It


Some may remember from earlier in the semester that I am in a certain class (for a definition of the word class, see Lee I. Levine's The Rabbinic Class of Roman Palestine in Late Antiquity p.14) that forces me to do a lot of scholarly reading, which I really do not like. What I have found interesting, however, is that scholars themselves recognize that many people do not really get along with them. Here is an excerpt from page 120 of Lee I. Levine's The Rabbinic Class of Roman Palestine in Late Antiquity (sounds boring, right?)
"Intellectual achievement might often lead to the disparagement of others not endowed with the same motivation, capabilities or accomplishments."
I am sure that many of us have felt this way in some of the classes that we have sat in in college.

Tuesday, November 10, 2009

Tonight


Tonight, Tuesday night, Rav Ozer Bergman will be giving a class on the Upper West Side at 8:15 P.M. I believe that I will God willing be in attendence, as will my roomate Aryeh Graber. I do not really know any details. Call me as it gets closer if you want to know more.
For more Rav Bergman, you can look at this

Sunday, November 8, 2009

Thursday, November 5, 2009

Mazel Yov

Mazel Yov to Tuli and Ruthie
PARTY!!
When? Tonight at 8:00
Where? In Monsey at his house
Why? Because he got engaged
Will I be there? Yes

Wednesday, November 4, 2009

You See

"Add to this the universal human tendency to resent intellectuals."

We see here a scholar himself admitting that there are many who are not into this whole thing.

High Blood Pulse

I went yesterday to donate blood, and for the second time in the past two months I was unable to give due to my high pulse. Oy vey, I have got to figure out what the deal is going to be with that.

Monday, November 2, 2009

Thursday, October 29, 2009

Oh, Justin


In looking for something on KollelTamid, I found this post which racked in 31 comments. Man, the commentors on that post have the nuttiest names.
Here

תמונת היום


Who's the one standing?

Sunday, October 25, 2009

My Academic Life



In my Friday Rabbis in Late Antiquities class my professor mentioned that he received a call from an encyclopedia that they are trying to get people to write entries. My teacher asked if he could have his students write them and they said okay. So, it looks like I might have an entry in a pretty serious encyclopedia. now that is hilarious. I would tell you the name of the encyclopedia but I do not know it.

Thursday, October 22, 2009

Wednesday, October 21, 2009

Tuesday, October 20, 2009

Thursday, October 15, 2009

Everyone


Everyone, we are now putting together a minyan for this coming Monday, the second day of ראש חודש מרחשון. Please, if you are interested, let us know over here. Don't be bashful. Commenting is a praiseworthy thing. Also, if you will be so kind as to let us know if you can only do an early service or if a later one will be fine, that would be excellent.

Thank you,

Sruli
P.S. instruments welcome

Wednesday, October 14, 2009

My Holy Brethren


Do not forget, tomorrow night is Casino Night at the Lincoln Sq Synagogue. Support Israel and gamble all at the same time. Also, the music seems very promising as the band is David Kaufman, Shmuli Ash, Josh Koperwas and myself.

I look forward to seeing you there!

Yup

Tuesday, October 13, 2009

Tonight... Farbrengen!!


Tonight, there will be a gathering in the basement of the MTA building to commemorate the yahrtzeit or ר לוי יצחק מברדיטשב. At this gathering will be Rabbi Herschel Reichman, as well as other people. It will take place after מעריב. We look forward to seeing everybody there.

Monday, October 12, 2009

Here Now

Okay, now that Succos is over, posting shall resume.
In this post I will present a link from my teacher's blog, JBV.
The first time I saw this video, it was the end of my first Succos back in America, and to say the least, it was ruff.
It could be that it was my first time on JBV when I saw this post and I watched it many times after. I was very connected to it.
Here it is.

Tuesday, October 6, 2009

Funny

Some really funny stuff on the project recharge blog, including this video of the cheesechoker.



It totally remeinds me of a video that was taken in room 205 four years ago when Raffi Leicht jumped over the wooden cabinet separating his bed from Ash's.

Thursday, October 1, 2009

ZP

It is about time that we get Zack Pomerantz on this blog. Zack is the youger brother of our friend Adam, and he is the third and youngest of the Pomerantz brothers.
Below you will find a Zack Pomerantz production, produced and filmed by him, although he does not make an appearance until later. For anyone familiar with the Pomerantz residence, it is filmed there. And even the Pomerantz Subaru makes an appearence at the very beginning.
I hope that you will all enjoy.



I'm not sure why this video only recieved 2 stars, I think that it should have recieved 5.

Please Check


Please check out Stollel. Important information to be found.

Tuesday, September 29, 2009

Monday, September 28, 2009

It's a Funny Thing



You know, if ever you are in a situation where you are seeing chasidim, look again. It may be a former Reishit student.
On erev Rosh Hashanah I was going with my family to the five towns and on central avenue we passed a chasid. My parents said: wow, sruli, he looks like you. I told them, actually he went to reishit. I know who he is.
More recently, I was by Emunas Yisrael in Borough Park for Yom Kippur and two of the chasidim over there, I know to be former reishit students. If not for the fact that I knew this information, there would be no way of differentiating them from any of the other chasidim.
Be aware, there are others.

Saturday, September 26, 2009

Interesting


I am over here with an envelope that I need to mail to Avidan Bienenfeld. Now, Avidan lives about eight houses away from me on the same block. It is funny to think that I could walk the envelope over to his house which would take about five minutes. Instead, I am going to mail it in which case it will go to some mail sorting facility where they will sort it and put it on a mailing route and he won't get it until wednesday. A lot of extra steps to go a short way.

Thursday, September 24, 2009

Feel Free



כשאדם נופל ורואה שרחוק מאד מכבודו יתברך ושואל ומבקש איה מקום כבודו מאחר שרואה בעצמו שרחוק מכבודו יתברךמאחר שנפל למקומות כאלו רחמנא לצלן וזה עיקר תיקונו


When a peron feels very far away from God and he asks: where is the place of God's honor, because he recognizes that it cannot be found in the place where he is, that is the most crucial part of his ultimate fixing.

Woo, Tsss (Deep...)



I just noticed that the acronym תרי"ג, generally pronounced taryag can be pronounced differently. It can be pronounced treig, like a וואסער תרייגער, a vasser treiger, a water carrier. I think the teaching may be that in order to be מקיים תרי"ג מצוות התורה you may have to be a simple yid, a simple Jew.


(It is worthy of noting that when I found this picture of the levite shlepper on google images, it took my to a place בין צורעה ובין אשתאול.)


(Also, if anyone is wondering why I have been using much Hebrew font recently, it is because I just figured out how.)

Wednesday, September 23, 2009

Probably Not


Last night we had slichos, and during slichos I noticed something. On the blackboard in room 101 there is a sign with a telephone on it. It seems that YU is looking for enthusiastic volunteers to be calling YU alumni and updating them as to what is happening at YU and to ask for financial assistance.

My only question is: Will I be recieving a call after I graduate?

Anonymous


Since the inception of this blog, I have not wanted for there to be any anonymous commentors. Now you understand that I have the ability to make that happen. However, the down side is that by disabling anonymous commentors, that also disables the name/url link which I think that some people may use.

Originally on this blog the anonymous commentors were not granted the right to comment. However, upon hearing from "ramchal" that he was unable to comment because he could not find the name/url option I realized that i would have to allow the anonymous chevra the right of commenting as well.

For the record, anyone who has gmail has the ability to comment by selecting the google account option.

So if there is anyone to whom disabling anonymous commenting would disallow them to comment, please let me know be either commenting on this blog or getting in contact with me in person. Then, I can make a decision.

Thank you for your cooperation.

your friend,

Sruli

Partee'


Listen brothers, I have been asked by Ari Ashkenas, שר האופים, to announce:

Casino Night!
On Thursday night, October 15, there will be a casino night to benefit the charity of the One Family Fund. It is sure to be a fun night out at the tables.
Also, don't miss the all star band, featuring: Shmulli Ash, David Kaufman, Josh Koperwas, and of course, Me!
So don't miss this very special night. Plan that exam for another day. We'll see you there!
P.S. There is a rumor that Ash Cohn was once involved in this project, early on.
For more information, click here.

An Explanation


I recognize that one of the posts from yesterday was not so good.
You see, the reason why I posted it goes back to two posts that I posted last week. The first one was labeled "Honest Blogging". In that post I argued that I shall post only if I have something worthy of saying.
However, in a subsequent post, named "A Sequal", I mentioned the argument mentioned by Rebbecca Leicht that it is a מעלה, mailah, to be able to blog even when lacking a great idea, and creating one nonetheless.
So, it was in the post labeled "A Shot in the Dark" that I attempted that strategy. I see that it will take a little time until I can successfully be מקים מעפר and raise a clever idea from nothing.
Enjoy
Sruli

Tuesday, September 22, 2009

Be"H

This is a video of Shivi Keller from last year at Rav Judah's parents previous home in Teaneck with Yoni Stokar and myself. Be'H we should be זוכה בחיינו לקרבנו לימות המשיח ממש. Mamash I hope that we can all be in ארץ ישראל for סוכות with משיח.
בעזרת השם

A Shot in the Dark


Today I had gym. Now, when I have gym I wear contact lenses so that I do not break my glasses. The issue arose after gym. I was in my room in my apt removing my contact lenses. I did not take into account, however, that I would not be able to find my glasses once I had removed my lenses, being that my vision has gotten poorer over the years. So searched for a minute. Shoin.
P.S. This post stinks

An Update


Some may remember a recent post on srulii.blogspot.com concerning a Hebrew class that I am trying to start. Here is the latest on my efforts. It is a [ystud], a YU student email, sent out to the entire student body of yeshiva university. Now, I don't exactly know who reads them, being that I do not, but I sent it out anyhow upon the request of Professor S. Schneider. Here it is:


Subject:
[ystud] Hebrew Class
From: "Seth M. Rapps"
Date: Tue, September 22, 2009 12:32 pm
To: ystud@yu.edu
Priority: Normal

Professor Shmuel Schneider is looking for at least one more student to join a Hebrew grammar class. For more information contact ProfessorSchneider.

P.S. Thank you to Aaron Malitzky for the idea for tis post.
P.P.S. You can still join. There is room.

Monday, September 21, 2009

Math

+



+



+



+



=

My Break fast

 
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