Pesach

Pesach in Israel is something else. Only here could you walk out onto the street and see a huge pot of boiling water and a blow torch to kasher all your kitchenware, and a few days later see small fires every 10 meters on the side of the street. After a break that’s been filled with both physically and spiritually preparations, tonight we have the Pesach seder.

A short dvar from a sicha of the Rebbe:

In the Haggada, we read, “G-d, our G-d, took us out from there [Egypt] with a strong hand and with an outstretched arm”. The Rebbe asks, why is a strong hand emphasized here? In order to understand how Hashem took us out, we need to ask why we were exiled in the first place. Shaloh explains that it was a way to rectify Adan’s sin- to become spiritually pure and cleaned from the contamination at the time of Adam and Chava. But then, how could it be said that  Hashem did not take us out of Egypt Himself, we would still be enslaved to Paroh- if Hashem promised Abraham we would only be enslaved for 400 years in Genesis? We learn from the Torah and also from those around us, that even when a slave is released from his servitude, it is possible for him to still have the slave mentality, and to miss the ‘perks’ of being a slave. So even if we were released before the 400 years anyway, it could have been possible to still have this type of mind set. This is seen even in our time. As in Mauritania, in western Africa, many years after slavery was outlawed in their country and the slaves were freed, slavery still had not left their psyche. As one of them told a New York Times reporter in 1997, eighteen years after slavery was abolished, “Just as G‑d created a camel to be a camel, He created me to be a slave.” If so it is likely that the Jewish people would have even returned to Egypt, especially with the difficulties in the desert. Even more so, it with too much suffereing the intention of rectifying the sin could have proven otherwise, making us numb and passionless. But since Hashem took us out with a strong hand, and took us out actively, we received enough revelation that we wanted to cleave to Him! To serve him and dance and sing at the end of the Sea. True the exile would have ended by 400 years anyway, as Hashem promised, but by coming down into this world of action and physicality Himself, without sending an angel or a messenger, we were able to rid ourselves of the slave mentality so that we would chose to remain free and not return to Egypt. Even in the desert there were times when we wanted to go back! If we hadn’t seen such revelation with the miracles of the plagues that happened, they most likely would have actually returned.

Even now, while we are not in Egypt or in slavery, we each have our own limitations and things we fight to become free of. We can all work on getting out of our personal Egypt, by stepping out of our comfort zones or boundries and doing something good that can bring about ahvas yisrael (loving your fellow Jew) by helping other people and serving G-d with joy.

May we all merit to have a pesach free from all chametz (leavened bread) which will bring about a new year of no sins, and this redemption that we are constantly leaving Egypt everyday, should bring about the final and complete and true redemption with moshiach now

Have a kosher and freilichen pesach!! 

cleaning away with Sara

kashering pots on the side of the street

searching for chametz

burning the chametz

Chanukah in Israel

Chanukah at Mayanot has been incredible so far and every night seems to be adding and adding in light not just with the candles

Before the 25 of Kislev, we started preparing for Chanukah in class. In Gamara and Halacha 200 we learned the Gamara, Mishna, Shulchan Aruch, Shulchan Aruch haRav, and commentaries like Tosfos and Rashi to understand where we derive our halachas of chanukah from. We continue to ask, Mai Chanukah...whats chanukah? Is it about the miracle of defeating the Syrian-Greeks when the odds were against us? Is it about finding the oil? or is it about the oil lasting 8 days.

We also learn the practical halachas of lighting the candles, where to light them if youre outside of Israel, in Israel, or Chabad. Women even have an extra minhag to not do work while the candles are burning which is really fun to because we get to sit around the candles for 50 minutes and sing and play games.

I also learned a maimer by the Rebbe about the different orders that appear in al hanism (the prayer added to benching and in Shmoneh Esrei) which changes the order of teshua, nflaos, and nism within the prayer, representing the order that they happened then, and the order that we see them occur now- with regard to how revealed we see Hashem's miracles. It makes the holiday really meaningful when you prepare for it ahead of time- so you can go into it knowing both the revealed and deeper aspects for it. 

Every night so far of Chanukah we light the huge menorah on the roof (as shown below) so everyone can see it on the streets. Then we all go back to our respective floors and light our own menorahs near the door- a tefach next to it and on the left side so we can be surrounded by mitzvos since the mezuzah is on the right.  Then we sing haneiros hallelu to the Chabad niggun- which is a really long song so its really fun and beautiful. We sit by the candles for a half hour, or 50 minutes as the Fredicher Rebbe says in yesterday's hayom yom, and sing other Chanukah songs, or listen to music or play dreidel. 

The past three days different apartments held Chanukah parties for the rest of the seminary. Today was our apartment (the 90's) turn and we had a make your own sufganyot and then watched a chanukah movie. Tonght a lot of us went to Mamilla mall and watched the chabad house's public lighting. Then a boys choir sang a bunch of chanukah songs and were really good and fun! 

On a side note, we just moved into our new rooms. We have to switch rooms twice a year in order to meet new girls and get different rooms. Now I live in the 80's which is awesome because both the showers work (which is an upgrade from the 90's) and theres internet! So start expecting more blog entries =)

Have a Happy Chanukah and we should all celebrate the rest of the days in Jerusalem =)

Menorah on the roof

old roomies

Chanukah party hosted by the 90's apartments 

Hadas and me

menorah lighting in Mamilla 

help my sister help her students!

http://www.donorschoose.org/we-teach/1169805

History of the Frum Language

Every culture or society has their own dialect and way of speaking. Over the years I've analyzed and studied the 'frum' language. Friends and I have come to discover that most of them are based on hebrew or yiddish being loosely translated into english.

Here is a break-down of common phrases and their probable origins

What’s doing? (vos machst du)

I don’t have what to do (ein li ma laasote)

staying by them for shabbos (atzel )

I don’t have where to go (ein l’an lalechet)

mother -instead of saying 'my mom' (simply, Ima)

I have also water and also soda (gam v’gam)

I won you (nitzachti otach)

do you want a coffee?

I want this blog to be more interactive- so here is your time to write down more phrases and if you can think of their origins!

SUCCOS BREAK

Succos Break

Fist day of Chag :(yes keeping one day of yom tov was awesome in eretz Israel), my roommate Hadas and I went to the yeshuv Neve Tzuf. It was really beautiful there and the family was awesome. They only spoke hebrew so it was good practice for me to speak it and good practice for Hadas to be a translator =) It was really cool how everyone in the yeshuv knew eachother. All the kids even go succa to succa and tell a dvar torah and get candy. It was adorable. 

Thursday Night: Simchas Beis hashuava- Chaya took us all around Gaula and Measharim to see all the dancing

photo credit: Yossi Levinger

Shabbos: Hadassa S and I went to Ma'ale Adumim and stayed by Ze'ev- our teacher for David Project. Thank you so much for hosting us! Ma'ale Adumim is a  big yeshuv (settlement) that is more like a city than a yeshuv. It was beautiful and the people there are really friendly and nice. We davened at the carlebach shul and had dinner by Tehilla. She only let us speak hebrew there (since she's our ulpan teacher), but by the end of the meal her parents were talking to us in english =)

Sunday: Birkas Kohanim- 3 times a year everyone would come to Jerusalem to offer sacrificing in the Beis Hamikdash (aliyah haregel), and one of those times was for Succos

stunning succa in the old city

Succa Party at Pearl Bloch's (talmud teacher) in Har Nof

Monday: Hevron- kevarim tzedikim

The room of Yitzhak's kever was opened!

My roommate and me

Moshav Festival in Moshav Modi'in. Such a cool concert and hippie atmosphere. 

Nora and me

Tuesday: Had chasidus with Rabbi Levinger in the morning. At night we had "Pizza in the Hut" at their succa and listened to one of the girls play guitar. Then a friend and I went to the Moshav Band concert on Emec. Soul Farm opened for them, but Moshav was really awesome live.

Wednesday: Erev Yom Tov so we all prepared and had a longer davening and we did Hoshanas with the 5 willow leaves that you strike on the floor. When you hit them on the floor you get rid of all your bitterness for the rest of the year so you can have a sweet year.

At night I went to the Mayanot Shul and danced so much! It was super crowded so it had a rave-like vibe but only with kedusha. We did hakafos for a few hours and it ended at 9 which was pretty early. Then we tried to go to the old city to dance and went to the Tzamech Tzedek shul.

Simchas Torah: 

Had a relaxing morning and learned Chisidus before we went back to Mayanot Shul. At Mayanot the dancing started right after the beginning of Shachris (I think) because by the time I got there they already started! It was a lot of fun to dance and be b'simcha (happy) and sing niggunim and the day wasnt as crowded as the night before. It went really late- we left the shul at 4 to get to our meal at Shlomit's. The meal was beautiful and her family is awesome- she's one of 11 siblings all with red hair. 

Tonight (Friday) is shabbos Bereshis were we start reading the first parsha of the Torah. Succos is over and we are going back to our regular routine, but we should continue to feel the excitement and happiness of succos over the whole year.

22nd Birthday

13 of Tishrei/ the 12 of October I turned 22! There are a lot of customs on your Jewish birthday such as giving extra tzedakah to charity, making a farbrengen, davening with more intention, saying tehillim, learning/giving over a maimer or dvar Torah and giving brachos.

My birthday falls on the yartzeit of the 4th Lubavitcher Rebbe- the Rebbe Maharash (Shmuel Schneerson) which is really special so I learned more about him on my birthday.  I also continued with the maimer Ive been learning "mi chamocha" by him that I started with Hindi and am now trying to review/finish it.

The Rebbe Maharash was known for delivering his ideas clearly and vocally, even if they were against what most people were doing or thought in Russia. At only 21 he attended a conference with the Russian government to fight for German translations of Jewish texts for the education of children. He spoke to the government and lobbied to try to stop the progroms and also dedicated his life to the spread of Torah knowledge to all Jews. Whether it was to government officials, or others who wanted to secularize the Jews, he spoke with dignity, clarity, and forcefully. The same characteristics are ascribed to Noa and her four sisters of Zelophchad in Chumash. Their father father passed away with no close male family, so she and her sisters wanted to inherit his land. They expressed their ideas clearly and deliberately to Moshe, who in turn asked Hashem what to do in this situation. Hashem told Moshe that in this case, the women can inherit the land, and that became the law. Because of the way they asked, they reached their goal. Both the Rebbe Maharash and Noa spoke their concerns and thoughts clearly and made a huge difference in their generation and afterwards. I try to learn from both of them and do the same when I'm passionate about my goals.   

I also had a farbrengen at night at Mayanot with all the girls since we are on vacation now and have free time. It was beautiful and really special and thanks everyone at mayanot for coming =) We learned two niggunim too, Litchathiler Ariber, which is by the Rebbe Maharash, and my favourite niggun- niggun hishtatchus by the Tzamech Tzedek. 

The next day we went to Tel Aviv to the art shook that is going on I think just in Tishrei. The art was incredible they had everything from hand made rings, to koleidiscopes, to a glass blower who was making earrings on the spot. Tel Aviv was fun but it was way more humid and hot than Jerusalem so it was a fun trip but I definitely prefer this city.

Here are some pics from the farbrengen =)

Cake that Batsheva and Adina 'surprised' me with =)

healthy food at a farbrengen

'Enclothed'

Lessons in Tanya coined a new word