It is almost 9:00AM in Jerusalem. I finishing eating a breakfast of oatmeal followed by pineapple flavored jello (ah... the single life).
I am on bein hazmanim בין הזמנים which is yeshiva language of vacation between semesters.
Today is day #6 of 23 days of my vacation from my Torah learning at Shapell's as well as my ulpan אולפן Hebrew studies at Machon Meir.
The big question is: What have I been doing with my time?
Day #1 was Friday, so much of the day was spent preparing for Shabbat.
I caught one of the last Egged Chareidi buses from Jerusalem to Haifa which was a great deal considering that it went directly to the neighborhood next to The Technion - Israel Institute of Technology, and it cost almost $4 (15 Shekels) less than the regular Egged bus.
After the just-over-2-hour ride, I arrived in Haifa, found a small grocer to pick up some needed items and found my way into the university and the dorm that I would stay in for the next 2 days.
The Technion campus and Haifa, in general, have a climate that seems to be hotter than Jerusalem's and most certainly is much more humid. I put out some of my sweat-soaked clothes to dry overnight and found that in the morning they were still wet, something that doesn't usually happen in Jerusalem. Also, the topography of Haifa, atleast around The Technion, is much more steep than in Jerusalem, this adds to more challenging travel by foot and bicycle than I am used to.
Since I have been accepted for the graduate program in Urban Planning at The Technion, I have made a point to visit my friend Mordy who is studying there in the English-speaking Medical program, for Shabbat.
Now, the time is 9:39AM on Wednesday, the 5th of August, and I must cut this blog short as I need to get my bachelors degree approved by the Ministry of Education and need to do it in-person.
So, I am off on my bicycle to 2 Deborah Our Mother Street followed by a return to my neighborhood to pick up some photos that I have ordered to be processed.
Kol Tuv - All Well!
Dan
Tuesday, August 4, 2009
Sunday, June 7, 2009
Friday, June 5, 2009
Our Goals and Desires
WARNING: Please print before local sunset time and do not access this between sunset Friday and nightfall Saturday night.
The portion read from the Torah this week is called בהעלתך Beha'alotcha (according to Sephardic pronunciation). Numerous concepts are discussed in this portion. A quick summary goes as follows:
While many of us know what Passover is, the idea of a second make-up Passover may seem unusual if not unheard-of. The word Passover, or פסח Pesach in Hebrew, is referred to in original Torah texts as meaning the actual קרבן Korban (sacrifice) that was a lamb that was slaughtered by a male Kohen on the alter in the Tabernacle (and later the Temple in Jerusalem) and then eaten by its owner. In order for this to take place, the people involved in the slaughtering and the eating had to be spiritually pure. Spiritual purity, in this context, meant that a person had to have not had contact with a human corpse within at least the past seven days.
Considering that the Passover sacrifice was done for seven days, as the holiday of Passover is currently celebrated for seven days in the land of Israel, any spiritually impure person during this period, was not able to participate and fulfill their obligation of this mitzvah during the required time.
For some, this may seem like a great way of getting out from an obligation. For others, this may seem extremely troublesome. So what occurred in this Torah portion was that during the time of Passover, spiritually impure men came to Moses and complained. They said something like, "Why should we get 'shafted' from not doing the Passover sacrifice?" (to quote Rabbi Yitzhak Lerner). Moses acknowledged this problem and went before Hashem to ask what could be done. Hashem's reply was that a second chance to do this mitzvah was to take place on the fourteenth day of the second month, which is the month of אייר Iyar.
The deeper concept within this story is of desire. Some of our ancient Jewish sages have explained that had this occurrence not happened and the spiritually impure men not come forward with their complaint to Moses, that this mitzvah would not have come into existence. Furthermore, according to Rabbi Yeruchom Lebovitz (ca. 1873-1936) of the Mirrer Yeshiva in Poland, the entire Torah was revealed to the Jewish people by Hashem due to our questions to Hashem. Note: not our questions of Hashem, but our questions to Hashem.
This episode of the second Passover is a mirror image of what transpired later in the Torah portion. During the Jews first complaint to Hashem through Moses, they wept and remised of how wonderful the fish, cucumbers, melons, leeks, onions, and garlic were in Egypt and how at the time, all they had to eat was Manna. To clarify, Manna was a grain-like food that came down onto the ground with the dropping of the dew and was ground up and made into cakes. For the righteous, the Manna had the additional magical ability to taste like whatever one desired. The Jews complained and wept at the entrances to their homes about this culinary problem. Hashem got anger (how that works in unknown to me) and Moses went to Hashem and furthered his complaint about this problem, to put it mildly. Hashem responded with spreading Moses' divine connection among the nation's seventy elders, gave the Jews quail until they were nauseated and killed a tremendous amount of Jews.
Now, how do these two stories in the portion mirror each other? And how are they related to desire?
In the first story, due to the desire of the spiritually impure men to connect with Hashem through the mitzvah of the Passover sacrifice, they complained and were given miraculous results. In the second story, the Jewish people were so focused on the physical aspect of their lives that they found a miracle that Hashem provided for them to be completely useless and lusted to return to Egyptian slavery where they had not yet been given the responsibilities by Hashem of the Torah. The Torah says that the Jews had been sustained with the Manna. It provided for all of their dietary needs. Clearly, the problem wasn't something like bad cafeteria food. The problem was the Jews and their desires. For the Jews that complained about the Manna, they focused, desired, and lusted for only the physical. The result of their lust was a severing of the connection between themselves and Hashem that meant death. The comparison between these Jews and those who desired for a connection with Hashem to do the Passover sacrifice is immense. One group received a negative response from Hashem and the other received a miraculously positive one.
What are we to learn from this week's Torah portion? What can we bring into our daily lives out of this holy and ancient text?
We need to be sure that our desires are for holiness and for an improved connection with Hashem.
We need to strive to make the paths that we take and the directions that we follow be toward spirituality. When we do these things, Hashem will help us fulfill these goals. Hashem desires that we connect with Him and follow His Torah. Our complaint needs to be that we are not able to connect with Hashem, just like our ancestors complained about the Passover sacrifice.
When one focuses on the physical all that can usually be seen is that we do not have enough or the best. Looking at the sizes of our houses, the number or price tag of our cars, clothes, and other belongings, we compare what we have to what other people have, we miss the point, and we disconnect ourselves from the eternal being that provides every creature in the universe with all of its need. We need to not look at what we own and say that it is not good enough. We need to fulfill the teaching from the Mishnah of Ethics of our Fathers that says, “Who is the one who is happy? The one who is happy with his lot”.
We need to sit down, take a breathe, and ask ourselves: What are our complaints in life about?
What are our desires, foci and goals?
As Shabbat approaches, I want to bless everyone that our desires and aspirations always be for a closer connection with Hashem and deeper understanding of Hashem’s world through the eternal and holy book of the Torah.
Sources: Various places in the Written and Oral Torahs and Rabbi Ari Goldwag
The portion read from the Torah this week is called בהעלתך Beha'alotcha (according to Sephardic pronunciation). Numerous concepts are discussed in this portion. A quick summary goes as follows:
- Hashem (God) commands Aaron, the Grand Kohen (priest) through Moses to prepare and light the Menorah
- The male Levites are purified and some of their qualification are mentioned for service in the Tabernacle (later to be replaced by the Temple in Jerusalem)
- The first ever Passover is celebrated
- The second make-up Passover is introduced
- The signs and directions used by Hashem for the Jewish people's journey are presented and explained
- The commandment to make two silver trumpets
- The Jewish people's first journey, first and second complaints and their respective rebukes and punishments
- Miriam's sin of speaking about Moses and her punishment
While many of us know what Passover is, the idea of a second make-up Passover may seem unusual if not unheard-of. The word Passover, or פסח Pesach in Hebrew, is referred to in original Torah texts as meaning the actual קרבן Korban (sacrifice) that was a lamb that was slaughtered by a male Kohen on the alter in the Tabernacle (and later the Temple in Jerusalem) and then eaten by its owner. In order for this to take place, the people involved in the slaughtering and the eating had to be spiritually pure. Spiritual purity, in this context, meant that a person had to have not had contact with a human corpse within at least the past seven days.
Considering that the Passover sacrifice was done for seven days, as the holiday of Passover is currently celebrated for seven days in the land of Israel, any spiritually impure person during this period, was not able to participate and fulfill their obligation of this mitzvah during the required time.
For some, this may seem like a great way of getting out from an obligation. For others, this may seem extremely troublesome. So what occurred in this Torah portion was that during the time of Passover, spiritually impure men came to Moses and complained. They said something like, "Why should we get 'shafted' from not doing the Passover sacrifice?" (to quote Rabbi Yitzhak Lerner). Moses acknowledged this problem and went before Hashem to ask what could be done. Hashem's reply was that a second chance to do this mitzvah was to take place on the fourteenth day of the second month, which is the month of אייר Iyar.
The deeper concept within this story is of desire. Some of our ancient Jewish sages have explained that had this occurrence not happened and the spiritually impure men not come forward with their complaint to Moses, that this mitzvah would not have come into existence. Furthermore, according to Rabbi Yeruchom Lebovitz (ca. 1873-1936) of the Mirrer Yeshiva in Poland, the entire Torah was revealed to the Jewish people by Hashem due to our questions to Hashem. Note: not our questions of Hashem, but our questions to Hashem.
This episode of the second Passover is a mirror image of what transpired later in the Torah portion. During the Jews first complaint to Hashem through Moses, they wept and remised of how wonderful the fish, cucumbers, melons, leeks, onions, and garlic were in Egypt and how at the time, all they had to eat was Manna. To clarify, Manna was a grain-like food that came down onto the ground with the dropping of the dew and was ground up and made into cakes. For the righteous, the Manna had the additional magical ability to taste like whatever one desired. The Jews complained and wept at the entrances to their homes about this culinary problem. Hashem got anger (how that works in unknown to me) and Moses went to Hashem and furthered his complaint about this problem, to put it mildly. Hashem responded with spreading Moses' divine connection among the nation's seventy elders, gave the Jews quail until they were nauseated and killed a tremendous amount of Jews.
Now, how do these two stories in the portion mirror each other? And how are they related to desire?
In the first story, due to the desire of the spiritually impure men to connect with Hashem through the mitzvah of the Passover sacrifice, they complained and were given miraculous results. In the second story, the Jewish people were so focused on the physical aspect of their lives that they found a miracle that Hashem provided for them to be completely useless and lusted to return to Egyptian slavery where they had not yet been given the responsibilities by Hashem of the Torah. The Torah says that the Jews had been sustained with the Manna. It provided for all of their dietary needs. Clearly, the problem wasn't something like bad cafeteria food. The problem was the Jews and their desires. For the Jews that complained about the Manna, they focused, desired, and lusted for only the physical. The result of their lust was a severing of the connection between themselves and Hashem that meant death. The comparison between these Jews and those who desired for a connection with Hashem to do the Passover sacrifice is immense. One group received a negative response from Hashem and the other received a miraculously positive one.
What are we to learn from this week's Torah portion? What can we bring into our daily lives out of this holy and ancient text?
We need to be sure that our desires are for holiness and for an improved connection with Hashem.
We need to strive to make the paths that we take and the directions that we follow be toward spirituality. When we do these things, Hashem will help us fulfill these goals. Hashem desires that we connect with Him and follow His Torah. Our complaint needs to be that we are not able to connect with Hashem, just like our ancestors complained about the Passover sacrifice.
When one focuses on the physical all that can usually be seen is that we do not have enough or the best. Looking at the sizes of our houses, the number or price tag of our cars, clothes, and other belongings, we compare what we have to what other people have, we miss the point, and we disconnect ourselves from the eternal being that provides every creature in the universe with all of its need. We need to not look at what we own and say that it is not good enough. We need to fulfill the teaching from the Mishnah of Ethics of our Fathers that says, “Who is the one who is happy? The one who is happy with his lot”.
We need to sit down, take a breathe, and ask ourselves: What are our complaints in life about?
What are our desires, foci and goals?
As Shabbat approaches, I want to bless everyone that our desires and aspirations always be for a closer connection with Hashem and deeper understanding of Hashem’s world through the eternal and holy book of the Torah.
Sources: Various places in the Written and Oral Torahs and Rabbi Ari Goldwag
Wednesday, June 3, 2009
Thanksgiving Day came early
I have much to be thankful to Hashem for in my life, particularly most recently.
My aliyah-related activities have gone by quite easily.
I have opened a bank account with Bank Leumi, met with an aliyah advisor at the Ministry of Immigrant Absorption, payed for processing and joined the health clinic Meuhedet (Unified), signed up and am attending an Ulpan (intensive Hebrew class) at a nearby Israeli yeshiva, sent my necessary information in order to get started with my drafting process to the Israel Defense Forces through a Nefesh B'Nefesh contact, spoken with the Jewish Agency's program Babayit Beyachad (At Home Together) to get paired with an Israeli volunteer to help me acclimate, and most recently was accepted into the Masters Degree program in Urban and Regional Planning at the Technion - Israel Institute of Technology.
I have done this all while simultaneously learning Gemara in the mornings at my yeshiva (Yeshivat Darche Noam/David Shapell College of Jewish Studies) and davening three times a day (of course).
I thank God for continually protecting me when I travel using my bicycle throughout the city of Jerusalem as well as when I travel by foot to and from my apartment and my yeshiva.
My apartment, the food I eat at my yeshiva, and the learning and rabbis at my yeshiva are all supported by alumni and other donors to my yeshiva and I very thankful for them. At an even deeper level, I thank God for helping these people support my yeshiva because with God's continuous compassion for them, they are able to work to get the money that they donate to my yeshiva.
Also at a deep level, I thank my parents for everything that I am able to do. But more practically, I thank them for their moral and practical support and advise.
Learning Torah in my yeshiva, there is continuous training to look above oneself and at the root of things in order to have a better understanding of the world. Gemara is the source of current Jewish laws (halacha). Unlike the US Constitution that is the source of American laws, the Gemara is a set of books that contain in them debates among Judaism's ancient sages. It is written in Hebrew text in both Hebrew and Aramaic languages. Studying Gemara most usually involves the use of two or three dictionaries that help translate Hebrew and Aramaic words and concepts into English.
As the current hour is only getting later (11:43pm Jerusalem Time), I am keeping this blog short.
Until my next blog,
Satisfied to have finally composed my third blog,
Dan
My aliyah-related activities have gone by quite easily.
I have opened a bank account with Bank Leumi, met with an aliyah advisor at the Ministry of Immigrant Absorption, payed for processing and joined the health clinic Meuhedet (Unified), signed up and am attending an Ulpan (intensive Hebrew class) at a nearby Israeli yeshiva, sent my necessary information in order to get started with my drafting process to the Israel Defense Forces through a Nefesh B'Nefesh contact, spoken with the Jewish Agency's program Babayit Beyachad (At Home Together) to get paired with an Israeli volunteer to help me acclimate, and most recently was accepted into the Masters Degree program in Urban and Regional Planning at the Technion - Israel Institute of Technology.
I have done this all while simultaneously learning Gemara in the mornings at my yeshiva (Yeshivat Darche Noam/David Shapell College of Jewish Studies) and davening three times a day (of course).
I thank God for continually protecting me when I travel using my bicycle throughout the city of Jerusalem as well as when I travel by foot to and from my apartment and my yeshiva.
My apartment, the food I eat at my yeshiva, and the learning and rabbis at my yeshiva are all supported by alumni and other donors to my yeshiva and I very thankful for them. At an even deeper level, I thank God for helping these people support my yeshiva because with God's continuous compassion for them, they are able to work to get the money that they donate to my yeshiva.
Also at a deep level, I thank my parents for everything that I am able to do. But more practically, I thank them for their moral and practical support and advise.
Learning Torah in my yeshiva, there is continuous training to look above oneself and at the root of things in order to have a better understanding of the world. Gemara is the source of current Jewish laws (halacha). Unlike the US Constitution that is the source of American laws, the Gemara is a set of books that contain in them debates among Judaism's ancient sages. It is written in Hebrew text in both Hebrew and Aramaic languages. Studying Gemara most usually involves the use of two or three dictionaries that help translate Hebrew and Aramaic words and concepts into English.
As the current hour is only getting later (11:43pm Jerusalem Time), I am keeping this blog short.
Until my next blog,
Satisfied to have finally composed my third blog,
Dan
Tuesday, May 26, 2009
A Recent Israeli Speaks His Mind
Much of life's daily activities require little retrospection or self-analysis.
I suppose that is why journals and diaries were created. I find that this is part of the purpose of this blog.
However, before I go ahead with that, I have the desire to procrastinate and review my activities since I last posted a blog.
I have since backed up my three duffel bag suitcases, filled them to the brim with all of my clothes, and filled something like eight relatively small boxes with all of my books, CDs, and other non-clothing items of my life in the United States. I have yet to have found a kind family planning to move to Israel and sending a container shipment, so that means that those eight boxes are what still remains of my belongings in the bedroom that my parents have given me in their home in Northbrook.
My parents and sister drove me to Ohare International Airport last Tuesday, the 19th of May at four o'clock in the morning in order that I make my 6:15AM flight to Newark International Airport and then onward to Ben Gurion International Airport. Although it was somewhat expected of them to do this for me, it was nonetheless very much apprecieted and kind of them to disrupt their sleeping schedule and day in order to help send me off and wish me farewell. After getting my bags checked with the assistance of my father's persuasive abilities, I made my way through security and onto my flight with the usual speedy quasi-frantic walk I do as I feared being late to my flight.
That flight was pretty uneventful as I successfully caught a sliver of time to take a short nap.
Upon arrive in Newark, I found my way to my checked luggage at baggage claim and met with a young woman that was also making aliyah from Chicago and we tiredly walked together through the airport to find the El Al ticketing counter and the Nefesh B'Nefesh desk. Since we had arrived at 9:20PM EDT and both of the counters didn't open until something like eleven o'clock, I found some time to daven shaharit in a side area of the hallway. Eventually people started to line up for the table that became the NBN desk and NBN personnel came around to check us off and give us our luggage things. When it came time to pick up our papers from the NBN desk, their personnel told me that they had not received my flight processing fee that I had sent overnight the previous Friday so that it would arrive at their office on time. But I managed to wave them away explaining that they may have misplaced the check because it had my father's name on it in addition to my own.
Looking up at what I have written, I think that it has been too much for one blog. So, I will go get some dinner and daven mincha and I'll be back to explain further.
I suppose that is why journals and diaries were created. I find that this is part of the purpose of this blog.
However, before I go ahead with that, I have the desire to procrastinate and review my activities since I last posted a blog.
I have since backed up my three duffel bag suitcases, filled them to the brim with all of my clothes, and filled something like eight relatively small boxes with all of my books, CDs, and other non-clothing items of my life in the United States. I have yet to have found a kind family planning to move to Israel and sending a container shipment, so that means that those eight boxes are what still remains of my belongings in the bedroom that my parents have given me in their home in Northbrook.
My parents and sister drove me to Ohare International Airport last Tuesday, the 19th of May at four o'clock in the morning in order that I make my 6:15AM flight to Newark International Airport and then onward to Ben Gurion International Airport. Although it was somewhat expected of them to do this for me, it was nonetheless very much apprecieted and kind of them to disrupt their sleeping schedule and day in order to help send me off and wish me farewell. After getting my bags checked with the assistance of my father's persuasive abilities, I made my way through security and onto my flight with the usual speedy quasi-frantic walk I do as I feared being late to my flight.
That flight was pretty uneventful as I successfully caught a sliver of time to take a short nap.
Upon arrive in Newark, I found my way to my checked luggage at baggage claim and met with a young woman that was also making aliyah from Chicago and we tiredly walked together through the airport to find the El Al ticketing counter and the Nefesh B'Nefesh desk. Since we had arrived at 9:20PM EDT and both of the counters didn't open until something like eleven o'clock, I found some time to daven shaharit in a side area of the hallway. Eventually people started to line up for the table that became the NBN desk and NBN personnel came around to check us off and give us our luggage things. When it came time to pick up our papers from the NBN desk, their personnel told me that they had not received my flight processing fee that I had sent overnight the previous Friday so that it would arrive at their office on time. But I managed to wave them away explaining that they may have misplaced the check because it had my father's name on it in addition to my own.
Looking up at what I have written, I think that it has been too much for one blog. So, I will go get some dinner and daven mincha and I'll be back to explain further.
Sunday, May 17, 2009
Welcome! ברוכים הבאים! Blessed be your coming!
This is my first blog entry and is being written 2 days before my aliyah.
I am sitting in my father's office in my parent's home in Northbrook waiting for my sister.
It is 10 minutes to 11am. I am looking forward to spending much of the day with my sister.
We are planning on going to the Chicago Cubs game. They are playing at 1:20pm against the Houston Astros.
Honestly, I don't care much for how they do or who they play. Rather, I am going because I enjoy the game of baseball and like being outside on a day with good weather with my sister. The weather forecast calls for clear skies, lots of sun and temperatures in the low 50s Fahrenheit or 10-13 Celsius.
With regards to my aliyah, I just had a nice goodbye party with friends last night at my parent's house.
We watched the unrated version and illegally produced DVD of "You Don't Mess with The Zohan". My sister unknowingly supported human trafficking in Thailand with the purchase of the DVD. I can't say that it was worth it, but we had a good time.
I am in the works of reaching Rabbi Zev Shandalov who teaches at Ida Crown Jewish Academy and therefore my friend Jeremy Perlow (from my synagogue here: Adas Yehudah V'Shoshana) to see if I can purchase some space on his family's lift/container shipment to Israel (they are making aliyah this summer).
After the game is over, my sister and I will meet with my parents to go to musical or play of the sort most likely in the theater district. Seeing as I will be quite tired by the end of the day, I hope to have an easy and quick time when I pack the rest of my belongings tomorrow.
It seems like my sister is ready to go.
Heading out!
Dan
I am sitting in my father's office in my parent's home in Northbrook waiting for my sister.
It is 10 minutes to 11am. I am looking forward to spending much of the day with my sister.
We are planning on going to the Chicago Cubs game. They are playing at 1:20pm against the Houston Astros.
Honestly, I don't care much for how they do or who they play. Rather, I am going because I enjoy the game of baseball and like being outside on a day with good weather with my sister. The weather forecast calls for clear skies, lots of sun and temperatures in the low 50s Fahrenheit or 10-13 Celsius.
With regards to my aliyah, I just had a nice goodbye party with friends last night at my parent's house.
We watched the unrated version and illegally produced DVD of "You Don't Mess with The Zohan". My sister unknowingly supported human trafficking in Thailand with the purchase of the DVD. I can't say that it was worth it, but we had a good time.
I am in the works of reaching Rabbi Zev Shandalov who teaches at Ida Crown Jewish Academy and therefore my friend Jeremy Perlow (from my synagogue here: Adas Yehudah V'Shoshana) to see if I can purchase some space on his family's lift/container shipment to Israel (they are making aliyah this summer).
After the game is over, my sister and I will meet with my parents to go to musical or play of the sort most likely in the theater district. Seeing as I will be quite tired by the end of the day, I hope to have an easy and quick time when I pack the rest of my belongings tomorrow.
It seems like my sister is ready to go.
Heading out!
Dan
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