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?

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.

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.

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.

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."

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

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.

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.

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.

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.

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

Attention Stollel Members

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

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.

משה לורנזו