It is perhaps somewhat fitting, from the perspective of at least some students, to be reading in the Torah during these weeks from the first part of Sefer Shemos, which describes the transition of the Jewish people from slavery to freedom, even as these students themselves look forward to a period of freedom from school following an intense exam week at the conclusion of a busy term. And while we do not, of course, compare school responsibilities to actual bondage, hard working students can indeed be forgiven if they view their upcoming winter break as a freedom of sorts.

The semester now coming to an end has been exciting, if also a little unusual. Never before in our yeshiva's illustrious history did we have to miss a week of classes due to a hurricane. But never before was such devastation wrought on the greater community, and we are proud that our MTA students came through so beautifully, with several bus loads of them traveling weekly for many weeks to hard hit areas in order to assist in clean-up efforts. We commend our students who have taken advantage of the unique opportunity we provide to learn weekly with Yeshiva University Roshei Yeshiva and other extra-curricular Torah learning programs. We are thrilled at the success of our first Yeshiva-wide Shabbaton in many years which was enjoyed by many and which attested to our strong sense of ruach. We are delighted that so many students have applied to join our new entrepreneurial program in partnership with YU's Sy Syms School of Business.  We are excited by the success of many of our sports teams, now looking ahead to post-season play. And we are of course gratified to see the relationships which have developed between students and their peers, between students and their YU mentors, and between students and their Rebbeim and teachers.

It is my pleasure to wish each and every student much success on all of his exams and a relaxing and productive vacation, as we look forward to reaching even greater heights during the second term.

Last Friday, the Americans and our madrich Uri went to see a video about the history of Gush Etzion. We saw the difficulties the people faced in the early days of this settlement, and tried to imagine their hardships. The settlers' dedication to this land, despite the countless times they were forced to abandon it, was very inspirational.

On Shabbat, the Makor Chaim alumni returned for a Shabbat yeshiva. Although these young men graduated years ago, they sang and danced like the "Makorchniks" of today. The Makor Chaim spirit never leaves you! On Motzei Shabbat, we watched Fiddler on the Roof. It was my first time seeing it, and I really enjoyed reading the Hebrew subtitles.

On Sunday, we went to Yeshivat Har Etzion (Gush) in the morning. We saw all of their 500 year old sefarim from Amsterdam, as well as the faces and sefarim of the fallen soldiers who had learned in Gush. That night, we went to Yeshivat Tkoa to participate in a fabringen and heard Rav Steinsaltz speak. I can't say I understood what he said, as it was in Hebrew, but he did address us afterwards in English and his remarks were meaningful. 

On Monday, we went to Migdal David in Jerusalem. This was my second time there, as I had gone there with my family when I was eleven years old. The museum describes the conquering and reconquering of Jerusalem over the past few thousand years. We later davened at the Kotel, and took a tour of the tunnels. We then went to Yeshivat Netiv Aryeh, where we ate good food, and had a great time.

On Tuesday, we had regular class, which we all loved. That night we went to our Av v'Em bayit, Yedidya's and Esther's house. This is one of my favorite places to be in Makor Chaim, and I think most of our group would agree with me. We drew pictures of what we think of when we think of Israel and our experiences here; we were given the drawings from last year's group to return to them when we get back, and we will receive ours back when next year's cohort returns.

Over the course of these past few days, it had been raining terribly, but of course, Makorchniks, being Makorchniks,  formed a circle in the lunch room, and the song, "והריקותי לכם ברכה עד בלי די עד שיבלו שפתותיכם מלומר די" was sung over and over again. This was fun, but on Wednesday things got much more exciting. Snow began to fall and classes were immediately cancelled for the next two days. Snowmen were built, snow forts put up, and the hours long snowball fights began. Snow is very exciting here because it comes so rarely. (This was the worst snow storm since 1992-so we are part of history!!)