Be Hippy

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.

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.

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.)

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

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.

Math

+

+

+

+

=

My Break fast

You Won't Believe This

My goodness. The grin is still on my face. I was just on twitter and I figured, hey, I may as well check out the @Srulii function and see if anyone has directed anything toward me. So I did.

I saw that some dude named Doc_Brown sent me: "Roads? Where we're going we don't need roads" I was trying to think of when I even wrote roads in a tweet that would prompt him to respond in such a way. I remembered that I had written last week: "all roads lead to the Young Israel, in Staten Island."

Anyhow, I went to this guys page to check out what his deal is. It is nuts. It seems that he just seeks out people who have written roads in their tweets and then responds: "Roads? Where we're going we don't need roads"

P.S. What is additionally funny is that he is not following anyone, yet 995 people are following him. Very peculiar.

A Relative?

Searching for a picture of Breslov led me to a certain blog, where I found that beautiful Jew with the Shofar two posts previous. I was awefully curious what the deal with that guy was so I looked at his profile. Looking at that profile almost made me jump out of my seat. it was an instant "Oh my goodness!". Could he be a relative of the Levite Shlepper?
Here goes...

P.S. It is even the same blog template.

This is Shayach

A Pushiter Yid

I had the opportunity on Rosh Hashana to spend time studying Torah in the beis medrash at Yeshivas Sh'or Yoshuv. On the second day of Rosh Hashana I was studying the 12th teaching of Rebbe Nachman in the second volume of Likutei Moharan. There he writes something which caught my attention. I tried to get it onto the blog in Hebrew but I don't really know how to do that. Here is my translation:
"The most important thing in Judaism is to walk with completeness and simplicity, without any chochmos, and to look at everything that one does and make sure that Hashem is found there, and not to be concerned at all with ones own honor."

That's pretty great.

A Sequal

As fate would have it, I was by my friend Raffi Leicht the other day and I mentioned my post about honest blogging. As I was discussing this idea, Rebbecca Leicht entered the room and mentioned that actually the higher level of creativity is when an author is able to write even when he has nothing specific to write about. I thought that that was an interesting perspective...

Honest Blogging

Over here at srulii.blogspot.com, I try to practice something called honest blogging. What that means is that I would like to only post things on this blog that I feel are worth blogging. Meaning, that if on a certain day I have nothing to blog about, then I will simply not post anything. No forced blogging. But at the same time I would like to keep up the assertion on the header of this blog, which is to try to update it frequently enough to keep people entertained (and coming back). So, we'll see.

An Excellent Opportunity

Listen guys, are you a YU student? Have you already taken Hebrew 1205 and 1206? Are you looking to grab three extra credits for the semester?

If you, like me, answered yes to all of those questions then speak to me.

This is the scoop: I spoke on Monday with Professor Shmuel Schneider, head of the Hebrew department, about studying with him this semester. He said that if I can find one more person who is interested then he will do it.

The great benefits are, firstly, that it is already a month into the semester. By the time we actually start the class it will be after Succot. Also, I can help you out. I have a specific liking to Hebrew grammar, and since there will only be three people in this class, I can help you out. It is a good source of three credits.

For information either get in contact with me, or simply leave a comment at srulii.blogspot.com.

Pizza for Lunch

Today there was a shiur luncheon with rabbi Simon. There I had pizza. Now I do not feel right. That would really be great if I have reached the point that, because of my healthier eating ways, my body does not feel comfortable with those things less healthy. That would be great.

It Gets Better

As fate would have it, on the very same day that I made the post about being left out, I recieved an email from my mother which I will post right here:

"BIZ: Tzavei, simcha music for all occasions Posted by: "azlotnic" azlotnick@randomhouse.com azlotnic Mon Sep 14, 2009 10:55 am (PDT)
We are a 3 man band from Teaneck. We have played at YU, TABC, Reishit, and numerous engagement, Sheva Brochos and other parties. We charge the same price as a one man band, but with a lot more ruach! Contact Josh at 201-321-5145 or 201-280-7789 or email:Tzaveimusic@gmail.com"

I guess they don't even tell me before they make advertisements on teaneck shuls email list.

What about sruli at 551-795-0508?

Something is Not Right Here

This here post is a collection of images which I have been noticing. See if you can notice what seems to be missing.
It all begins with this. The Tzavei business card:

It may be difficult to view, but if you will notice, the only two phone numbers on the bottom right corner of the card are those of my colleagues, Josh Weinberg and Josh Zlotnick. The logic is that they are nervous that if people would call me they would get a free gig. It happens to be that they are probably correct. Whatever. But, you can never be too sure because after all they are both named Josh and they are both the singers and not me.

Here is our next photograph:

This is a picture of the poster of the shiur assistants 5-770. Take a look at the zoom view:

If you look next to where it says Rabbi Simon, the teacher of Josh Weinberg, Josh Zlotnick as well as myself, once again you will find that the only names there are Weinberg and Zlotnick. Not mine.
I do not know really what to make of this. OK.
Until next time,
Sruli

P.S. Thank you very much Avidan Bienenfeld for taking these excellent photographs and emailing them to me. Yosher Koach.

Chevreh

Chevreh, is there interest in having selichos every night this week until Yom Kippur? We won't have it as long and with as much singing as last night, but we can do it slowly and intensely like last night. We can scream out every word of selichos to Hashem. Now with the opening of the new main beis medrash, the morg bais is totally empty. We could totally hit up a heady selichos minyan over there.
If people could be so kind as to comment back so I can see if we have a quorum, that would be amazing. (amaaaaaaazing)
enjoy,
sruli

Stollel: An Entity of it's Own

Tonight, for the first night of Selichos, I was not sure where to go. I basically had three options to choose from: Carlebach, Rav Weinberger and Stollel.

Up until today I was fairly certain that I would be by the Carlebach shul for Selichos, being that I was never there and it sounded like something I would like.

Then, I thought that I would go to Rav Weinberger.

You see, my theory with Stollel, until tonight, was that we are not a new independent mehalech. Rather, we are a group who gets together and does it the way that we like it when the other options are not appealing to us.

So as the idea to have Stollel selichos was developing, my feeling was: why should we have 20 guys praying in someone's basement when there are two other very good options with hundreds of people? There is no chiyuv for us to always remove ourselves from the klall.

However, tonight I changed my mind. I went to Stollel and I am certain that I made the correct decision. I got to Stollel about 15 minutes late, and by then the street was packed with cars. Inside, Rav Moshe Tzvi Weinberg was giving over a shiur and it was amazing to see how may young, Eretz Yisrael-dig Jews were there.Tefillos were led by Chaim Feigenbaum and the energy was unbelievable throughout. Praying there last night reminded me of praying in the Breslov Beis Medrash in Tzfat. Each word was said individually, on its own, with kavana.

And during the selichos I came to the realization that I do not believe that I would have enjoyed any other option as much as I enjoyed the Stollel selichos. And I realized, that what may have begun as the response of a minyan of Jews to the realities of America, has become an entity of its own of mivakshei HaShem.

Interesting

Interestingly, when I enter Na Nach into google images, this comes up with the caption: Na Nach Nachma Nachman Meuman:

Uman in Spirit

An interesting idea has been thought of by our very own Moshe Chaim Lustig. He understands that there are two types of yidden who are unable to make their way over to Uman for Rosh HaShana.
The first category consists of people who are able to afford the trip, but cannot go for political reasons, such as the unwillingness of their parents to acquiesce.
The second type of Jew in this pedicament is one who would love to go and would go, but cannot for financial reasons.
To deal with this issue, some people have thought of the idea that even if you are not physically in Uman, if you sponsor someone's trip it is like you are there. "Uman in Spirit", as the group is called, is looking for sponsors for this cause.
If anyone is interested, you can contact Moshe Chaim Lustig at 347 451 5541
Good Night.

5:00 A.M.

Oy. Nothing like waking up at five in the morning to read forty pages of scholarship, IN HEBREW! I'll tell ya, it's now 6:15 A.m, I have done less than 10 pages, I am holding in Teaneck, and I need to be at class in Y.U. by 9;30 A.M.
You see, the reason why I am having such mesirut nefesh for this is because my professor, Dr. Fine, told us that if we do the readings there will be no midterm or final. Not bad, huh?
Now, I am sure that some people are thinking: come on, that is rediculous, there is no chance that everyone in the class will do all the readings. However, those people do not realize that there are only five people in the classs, and some of them are very intelligent. So, there really is a chance.
Anyhow, the clock is working against me. I must go.
-Sruli

Update: It is now 7:38 A.M. and I am proud to report that due to the fact that thank God there were lots of footnotes, the last several pages went very quickly. I will now go to shul.

I've Got Nothing

Alright, as you may well be able to tell from the title of this post as well as the accompanying picture, I've got nothing to post. As the heading on this blog notes, my goal is to update as much as I can in order to give people something to be entertained with. However, right now I happen not to have anything funny to post.
The truth is, that actually I have two funny ideas, one of which I just need Adam Pomerantz's phone for, and the other I am just not yet ready to post.
So, just bear with me.
Thank you,
Your friend,
Sruli

Don't Forget

Don't forget to click on "older posts". There are some funny ones.

Welcome to All New Visitors

This site has officially been made public. For the last week, this site has been kept a secret, known to only me and four others. Josh Weinberg knew that I was up to something but did not know what.

Well, this is what it is: a blog.

This is probably going to be the funniest site on the net.

Red Shoes

For those who may have noticed, I was wearing red sneakers today. Perhaps I shall wear them for even more than just today.

This is because this semester I am taking a class called "gym". This class requires that I have a pear of sneakers to play in. So, last night, while my brother Ariel was flying in a plane back to America, I sneaked into his closet, where he has stored three pairs of very nice sneakers. As I cleared up with him this morning when I saw him, these three pairs are not to be confused with the three that he had with him on the airplane.

So I went in to his room in secrecy and I took one pair of black, white, but mainly red, sneakers. When I put them on, I liked the way that they looked and i quickly designated them as everyday shoes.

Today I have gotten comments, such as: nice Kicks Sruli.

The other night, in Apt 41, chilling with the chevra over there (dorton), Adam Friedman commented that he likes the sneakers more and more as my pants lifted to reveal more of them.

So that is the story with my shoes. Feel free to say something to me. If you think that I may not know who you are, please introduce yourself. Positive reinforcement only please.

Meeting With Professor Tawil

This afternoon at 2:00 P.M., I was fortunate to have a meeting with Professor Hayim Tawil about a possible independent study this current semester. I would love to get this thing going already because it is two weeks into the semester and I have to start moving on it, and I need to make sure that it is not too late.

Anyhow, we spoke for a few minutes, and now I just have to email some other teachers to find out some info about how this stuff works.

As an asside, David Moster was there in his office as well .

P.S. The next day, Wednesday, I recieved a call from the Professor at about a quarter to eleven A.M. requesting that I meet him on the fifth floor of the library A.S.A.P. I met him there and he asked me if I would be able to write the glossary for one of his new books, The Crown of Allepo. I agreed, and so I must try to be done with it by tomorrow.

The cool part is that my name will be put into the credits of the book. My name will be noted in a scholarly work. You see, the funny thing is that there will soon be some scholar reading the glossary of that book, and little does he know that it was written by some shnook with a beard and peyos. Okay.

Great Story

Two or three weeks ago I went to Dr. Weinberg's office in Brooklyn to get my eyes checked out and get a prescription so that I could get new glasses. This is important for today because I have an aunt who lives in Brooklyn who sells glasses, and since today I was in Brooklyn playing guitar at Mishkon, today was a perfect day to stop by her house to get some new glasses.

Anyhow, this morning I was searching all over my room in the hope of finding the prescription that Dr. Weinberg wrote me up the other week.

You see, this summer I had lots of important things left on my bed until I needed them. This includes doctors' prescriptions and other documents that I would need to show to people.

And I was looking all over my room for about a half an hour for this prescription. It was not on my bed nor in any of the stacks of random papers I have in my room nor on any of my shelves. I really did not want to have to ask Dr. Weinberg for a new one because who knows what that would entail. Maybe I would have to go to Brooklyn again. Whatever.

Then, as I was searching I came across one of those Breslov stickers which say: "Dabeir Iti- Avicha SheBaShamayim," wich means "speak with Me- your Father in Heaven." I figured, alright that sounds like a good idea.

And so I said: "Hashem, where is this prescription?"

And as I said that, I noticed that at that very moment I was holding the prescription in my hand.

Not bad, huh?

Mishkon

Today, Labor Day, I will be leaving my house in Teaneck, N.J. to drive over to Mishkon in Brooklyn. There I play guitar for two hours, and I have been doing that throughout the summer with my friends Jeremy Litton and Yoni Stokar.

I admit, this post stinks.

I Have a Question

I was just in the park for some time with my parents. We were there for a bit and it was very nice. I got dressed in shorts, a polo, and sandals, with socks.

Now, my question is this:

Is blogging similar to Twitter, in that I can simply make a comment? Or, must I have some sort of an angle on the situation that I can publicize to the greater world?

Alright...

(I tend to think like the latter)

Dror Yikra

This is a really beautiful Dror Yikra. I think that this one may be able to be sung at Shabbat meals. It is very beautiful.
People sometimes, myself included, comment that the zemiros for Shabbat day are not as exciting as Leil Shabbes. I think that this niggun has the power to rectify some of that thought.


This is a pretty amazing video. At the beginning he seems a bit taken aback from the fact that everyone knew all of the words. But I may be incorrect about that.

I Was Laughing Uncontrollably

Yesterday I went over to Tuli's apt, 6E, and I brought with me my cutting board, my knife and some fruit. Tuli, Ruthie and myself were eating peaches and avacodos. Shoin. Then, afterwards, I went to the kitchen to wash off the cutting board and knife.
In the kitchen, Moshe Lorenzo saw me and commented: "Wow, that looks like a nice knife."

"Naa, actually it stinks."

"Oh. Well I bet it was really good when you bought it."

"Actually, I just bought it a week ago."

"Why don't you get one of those rocks to sharpen it with?"

"I have one, it didn't do anything."

By then, I was laughing uncontrollably, and Moshe Lorenzo admitted that he could not help me.

[Btw, the Rapps' own the knife in the above picture. That one happens to be an excellent knife.]

testing

this is a test
hello

11:37

so, it is still the first day and this is my third post. Let me explain to you what is going on right now. I am trying to fill up this blog with posts so that when i reveal this blog to the world, it is already containing many posts, maybe even with comments, and is a full running blog. Also, perhaps it may allow me an out if I see that it is not going anywhere and I may not be able to keep it up. So, until then, enjoy!

P.S. I do recognize that I am basically writing this blog to nobody because I have not yet revealed it (except to two of my roomates).

putting youtube on this blog

This is very exciting.
Because this project is starting as a secret mission without anybody knowing of it, I am trying to figure out how to blog on my own. This is taking me a bit of time. By using the help icon on the top right of my screen I have managed to figure out how to post a video. I believe that this is the first time that I have ever been successful using a "help" icon.
Here is the trial video. a video that was uploaded to Youtube by Adam Pomerantz before the summer.

can you imagine?

can you imagine, that sruli.blogspot.com was already take? This Jew has not even posted anything on it. Anyhow, that is why my blog will have to be srulii.blogspot.com, following my twitter alias, srulii.
And not only that, but his url now precedes my own on my list of recently browsed sights.
Hmm... maybe he is the same person that took sruli on twitter. I wonder...