Please Join Us at the Annual YUHS Dinner on May 12th!
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Lag BaOmer Kumzits With Rav Moshe Tzvi Weinberg
This past Thursday, several Junior and Senior classes were privileged to spend some time with Rav Moshe Tzvi Weinberg, BMP Mashgiach Ruchani at Yeshiva University. The talmidim sang songs and heard some beautiful divrei torah delivered by Rav Weinberg in honor of Lag BaOmer. Many people view Lag BaOmer simply as "the day the beard comes off" or just a day to commemorate the yahrtzeit of Rebbe Shimon Bar Yochai. Rav Weinberg, however, wished to share some additional perspectives and a deeper meaning into Lag BaOmer.
Rav Weinberg explained that Rebbe Shimon Bar Yochai, known as the Rashbi, revolutionized the world in terms of talmud torah and the personal connection to Hashem. He provided a way for us to use other people in order to connect to Hashem and to use our physical beings to connect to our spiritual souls. This is an essential message of Kabbalah and the mystical Zohar, which tradition ascribes to him.
Rav Weinberg further explained the personality of the Rashbi. All in all, the Rashbi was "a man of Shabbos." He honored, yearned, and adorned Shabbos. In a Kabbalistic sense, the Rashbi described what the purpose of Shabbos is, as recorded in the gemara Maseches Shabbos on daf 33. The Rashbi explained how Shabbos is the central point of our week that we work up to reach. Shabbos is the aspect of our lives that gives us strength to work during the week. Shabbos is one of the methods that we use to express our emunah in Hashem. The Rashbi couldn't comprehend what "chol" meant - how can one think of a life without Shabbos?!
Finally, Rav Weinberg explained the uniqueness of the Rashbi. If one goes to his gravesite in Meron on Lag BaOmer, one will see and meet all different shades, types, and forms of Jews. The Rashbi connected to every type of Jew. The Rashbi harnessed the main aspect of Judaism that is rooted in every Jew - no matter which background - the neshamah. Since every Jew has a neshamah, by fueling the neshamah with songs, spirituality, and meaning, one is able to connect to fellow Jews, to Hashem, and especially to one's inner self on a much deeper level then ever anticipated.
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Mr. Dobrick's Class Visits NYC Sites
by Josh Blumenthal ('15)
On Wednesday, April 29, Mr. Dobrick's third period American History class had the privilege to visit some of New York's most significant and historic sites. Their journey began at Battery Park where they visited the Clinton Castle, which was the first immigration station in the United States, even preceding the famous Ellis Island, which they viewed from there along with beautiful sites of the Statue of Liberty. Mr. Dobrick remarked on the myriad contributions of Jewish people to American Life that could be appreciated in just that one great symbol of American life, from Joseph Pulitzer to Emma Lazarus.
We then went to the South Street Sea Port and learned about New York's role as the center of world trade, at the foot of two great 19th century merchant vessels. We looked across the Hudson River and examined the shipyards in Elizabeth and Jersey City as we learned about the revolutionary impact of containerization and its role in once again transforming the role of New York City in world commerce.
After a quick Starbuck's run, the class visited Federal Hall, touring the building where we saw the First Treasury, where the First Congress met, and where George Washington was inaugurated, celebrating New York's place in history as first capital of the United State of America.
Next on our journey we visited Wall Street, the New York Stock Exchnage, the incredible J.P Morgan building, built in the age of skyscrapers as a two story building on an entire city block like an unassuming private club. After taking some pictures with the famous Wall Street Bull, we went and had some great kosher food for lunch.
We then ended our trip with a visit to the new One World Trade building and the World Trade Center Memorial. We learned about some of the incredible detailed aspects of the memorial and paid our respect to the great heroes of our city.
Within just a few blocks, Mr. Dobrick showed us the great past and present of New York City, which represented such an important part of the history of the modern world. We then headed back to our own historic MTA building and davened Minchah, concluding a fantastic trip.
Our thanks to Mr. Dobrick for planning such a great trip and for being our knowledgeable tour guide.
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Building Community, Literally.
Last Sunday, a number of juniors and seniors answered the chesed call of Bonim Builders, a division of the Jewish Federation of Northern New Jersey that helps to "renovate and perform critical repairs for low income families, seniors, and the physically disabled." The groups of students, accompanied by YUHS Executive Director Shuey Jacoby, worked to take apart the kitchen of a low-income, older woman whose kitchen was in desperate need of repair. The boys spent hours ripping, tearing down the ceiling, removing sheetrock, and cleaning up. Upon ripping out the wall and ceiling of the pantry, the team was shocked to discover a massive [fortunately non-active] beehive that was still dripping honey!
The homeowner and the team at Bonim Builders were extremely grateful for the help. Stacey Orden, the Project Coordinator, wrote to Rabbi Schenker who helped coordinate the trip, the following:
Hi Rabbi Schenker,
Thank you so much for lending your students to our project yesterday. They were terrific! They all worked very hard, and were eager to learn new skills and pitch in to get the job done. It was a pleasure having them on the job site... Your boys uncovered a huge beehive that looked like a piece of art! Thank you again for participating in this project.
Best regards,
Stacey
All the participants were glad to be able to help out!
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Debate at Ma'ayanot
by Avraham Novick ('15)
Last Thursday, April 30, the MTA debate team visited the Ma'ayanot Yeshiva High School for Girls for an inter-school debate against teams from various area yeshiva high schools, hoping to bring home some awards. The topic for the debate was: Resolved: New York State should adopt a large school voucher program, allowing parents to transfer their children's share of state public school funding to pay private school tuition. Many of the arguments were centered on whether such a voucher program violates the first amendment (freedom of religion and the separation of church and state) and whether vouchers are an effective way for lower income children to gain access to superior education.
MTA had a lot of success in the first round, winning three of their four debates, including victories over top schools such as JEC and Kushner. That success was short-lived, however, as our debaters lost three of four second round debates. On the bright side, MTA negative B (Ezra Epstein '16 and Avraham Novick'15), who went 2-0, nabbed the 3rd place team award. Furthermore, Ezra Epstein took home the 3rd place individual award as well.
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Shiurim Enjoy Lag BaOmer Weather
With the Yeshiva's official Lag BaOmer outing (to Camp Monroe) still a week away, Rabbi Eli Cohn's ninth grade shiur took advantage of the beautiful weather to explore one of Washington's Heights hidden gems. The talmidim walked with their Rebbe across the Heights to beneath the George Washington Bridge to visit the "Little Red Lighthouse". Once there, everybody enjoyed a morning of skipping rocks on the river, football on a nearby field, and spending time together as a shiur.
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| | Rabbi Pearl's shiur celebrated Lag BaOmer 1000 feet above the Hudson River on Breakneck Ridge. |
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Rabbi Richter's Shiur Shabbaton in New Hempstead
by David Tanner ('18)
This past Shabbos, May 1-2 , Rabbi Richter's 9th grade shiur had their "Shiur Shabbaton" in the New Hempstead section of Monsey. A bus made several pick-ups on Friday afternoon and dropped us off at Rabbi Richter's house, where we were given the schedule and sent to our hosts to prepare for Shabbos.
After meeting our hosts and dressing for Shabbos, we headed to Shul for early Shabbos and after a meaningful davening, we went back to Rabbi Richter's home for seudah rishonah. We got to meet Rabbi Richter's family, who made us all feel at home, and had a delicious meal with divrei Torah and games from members of the shiur. We then had some free time, after which we participated in an oneg led by Rabbi Richter's son Yaacov, who told us inspirational stories connected to each niggun and song. We then went back to our hosts for a good night's sleep.
In the morning, we headed back to Shul, after which we went to the Richter's home again to enjoy kiddush, a shiur with Avi Rosalinsky, one of the YU students who leads an MTA chaburah every week during Mishmar, and a skit directed by Zeve Kornwasser. At lunch, there were more divrei Torah and games came and we then had time for some Shabbos menuchah.
Later in the afternoon, we joined together again for two special guest speakers: Rabbi Kohl, a Ba'al Teshuvah who works for NCSY, and Mr. Joe Hoch, of the New York Police Department, who shared their interesting life experiences and taught about what they've gained along the way. In between speakers we had a collation (which means more food!) and afterwards we davened Minchah and then came to the climax of our Shabbos: Shalosh Seudos. There was, of course, more delicious food, games, and divrei Torah, hitting the highest note with beautiful singing and a dvar Torah from Rabbi Richter himself. It was all over too soon, and we had to end Shabbos with Maariv and an inspiring Havdalah full of singing and dancing. After packing up our things and thanking our hosts, we bade everyone Shavua Tov and got on the bus to go home.
Our Shiur Shabbaton was a unifying, uplifting experience that changed us a shiur. Thank you to Avi Rosalinsky, to all our guest speakers, and of course to Rabbi Richter and family.
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Please share with us your significant family milestones so we may appropriately acknowledge events and losses and properly communicate information. Please contact Mr. Nachum Cooper at ncooper@yuhsb.org
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The Arista Honors Society, in conjunction with the MTA Library Squad, is kicking-off the first annual MTA book drive to restock our library with contemporary books and literature. We seek books that are of the fiction genre, and suitable for high-school age young adults. To participate in the book drive, please either: (1) Bring in any books you don't want or need. Just drop off the book(s) with Ms. Lewis in the Library or (2) Visit the Joseph Alexander Library Amazon Wishlist and purchase a print book or e-book for the library.
If you have any questions, feel free to contact Ms. Lewis at dlewis@yuhsb.org
Thank you!
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Support YUHSB at these stores!
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A Lion's Life Executive Staff
Editors-in-Chief: Aryeh Burg ('15), Rafael Anapolle ('15)
Sports Editors: Jeremy Borgen ('15), Zev Markowitz ('15)
Associate Editor: Shimmy Mandelbaum ('16)
Photography Editor: Shimmy Socol ('16)
Faculty Advisor: Mr. Nachum Cooper ('09)
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