Showing posts with label yesha bachurim. Show all posts
Showing posts with label yesha bachurim. Show all posts

Feb 3, 2022

opposed to cholent

This feels disrespectful., though I dont mean it to be. 

I find this funny - funny that this is a big issue important enough for an important rabbi's attention.

A class of 8th grade students went to pay a visit to Rav Shimon Baadani, to talk with him and get his blesing.

During their meeting, Rav Baadani commented on the phenomenon of yeshiva bochurim going out to eat cholent on Thursday nights. Rav Baadani thinks this is a bad thing and it pains him to hear about this. Rav Baadani explained that this time should be used to learn Torah. Thursday nights was always dedicated to learning Torah, reviewing and learning late into the night. Back int he day Rav Shach woud make sure the talmidim had what to eat Thursday nights late while learning, in addition to making sure there was milk for the coffee so they would learn better - but to eat cholent late into the night and burn the night away is painful.
source: Actualic

He might be technically right. Doing anything at any time other than learning Torah is bittul torah. 

But.

But, kids need an outlet or to get a break every now and then. Eating cholent is better than sitting around and smoking weed and getting drunk or doing drugs. Waste of time? maybe but kids need to waste some time sometimes. Eating cholent doesnt need to be an all night event - maybe encourage them to spend an hour or two out with the guys eating cholent and shmoozing and then getting back to the beis medrash for a night of learning. Maybe encourage the yeshiva to serve cholent Thursday nights so the boys wont have to go elsewhere but can take a break, which will almost definitely naturally be shorter, in the yeshiva and shmooze a bit and then get back to learning.

And some would say OK, Boomer to this. Back in the day we spent Thursday nights drinking coffee and were extra happy if we got milk, and these kids today need cholent????

Aren't there worse things to oppose than cholent?





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Posted by at 2:59 PM 2 comments
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Nov 11, 2020

Osher Ad and Chevron

The boys of Chevron Yeshiva made the news yesterday. And so did Osher Ad.

The yeshiva bochurim learning in Chevron Yeshiva have been locked up in yeshiva leaning in "capsules". After an initial period of time, all the boys took Corona tests - anyone positive was separated, and everyone else who tested negative were then allowed to mix and function as a regular yeshiva, with no capsules and no masks. Many yeshivas opened with this process in place, and so far it looks to be fairly successful in keeping the yeshivas open with little to no spread of the virus. Additionally, many of these young men likely already had CoronaVirus.

After being locked up and out of touch with the outside world for a few weeks, the yeshiva administration organized with Osher Ad a special time that Osher Ad would open up one of its branches in Jerusalem just for these young men to do some shopping and stock up on nosh - the other night at 12:30am, when it is normally closed and nobody else is there.

The yeshiva arranged for a bus to take them door to door - straight form the yeshiva to Osher Ad, and back after the allocated time. And the boys went crazy during their night out on the town in Osher Ad, restocking their yoghurts and potato chips and Coca Cola.

The news reported on this seemingly boring and mundane event, because the boys went from the yeshiva to Osher Ad with no masks. Gevalt!

Here is the news report.



Obviously this upset many - Haredim, yeshiva boys, touting the rules, ignoring the need for masking and distancing. Again. Very upsetting. There was a bit of an outcry and the expected anger.

What the report did not explain was that this was arranged for a time when nobody else was there, the trip was arranged to avoid any and all contact with other people, the boys have been together the entire time with negative Corona tests. 

Maybe it could have been done better. Maybe it should have been organized better in coordination with the Health Ministry. Maybe they should have worn masks out in public even though they were alone with just the same boys they've been with for the past month with no masks, even if just for appearances. I hope Osher Ad disinfected after the boys finished their adventure to make sure it would be safe for shoppers the next day (I didn't hear anything about this in the various reports I saw, but it was the first thing I thought of).

but it is not really worthy of getting angry about. This was done taking all necessary precautions to keep everyone safe.

The most disturbing part of the story is that the yeshiva wanted to give the boys a break and let them get out for a bit so they sent them to a supermarket. I think I would prefer going for a night out for pizza and a bowling alley, maybe hamburgers and the batting cages, go karts, a night hike on a trail, maybe a swimming pool and/or a night barbecue... the boys needed to get out so the yeshiva sent them to a supermarket. Kind of sad, if you ask me.


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Posted by at 2:04 PM 4 comments
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Aug 3, 2020

Confusing Complicated CoronaVirus Calculations

I don't think the government makes any necessarily bad decisions about dealing with the CoronaVirus. Confusing decisions, perhaps. Unenforced decisions, perhaps, Contradictory decisions, perhaps. But I would not blame them for bad decisions. There are still, after several months of dealing with it, so many unknowns about the virus and how to beat it. As I have said before, I don't envy anyone responsible for making these decisions. They all trying their best and trying to find the best way to beat the virus and keep it at bay as much as possible - sometimes a decision made isn't as effective as expected, sometimes it is, sometimes the public refuses to cooperate regarding a specific restriction, and sometimes the public cooperates more. And at the same time the government has, and has to have, other considerations to keep in mind as well, such as not destroying the economy any further, allowing people to make a living, etc.

That being said, and perhaps these will go more into the confusing decisions, while the government is trying to get things under control here, they have just approved allowing 17,000 or so foreign yeshiva and seminary students back in to Israel for the upcoming yeshiva year. I am not opposed, but I am confused. Yes, they will be under tight restrictions, and I am sure some yeshivas and seminaries will keep to the rules strictly while others will be more lax about it. Still - the government is having a hard time keeping the virus under control, and now a sudden influx of 17000 foreign students will be added to the mix.

And what happens if, God forbid, some of the foreign students get sick with the virus? Do they have the necessary insurance to get treated here? They likely won't be able to fly home, and their parents won't be able to come here to take care of them - is a process set in how to deal with that? YWN [by now famously] wrote about how difficult this will be because the yeshiva boys need their falafel (yes, taken out of context), though in my day shawarma was more popular than falafel - whether they need their falafel or not, yeshiva boys and girls can always be seen all over Jerusalem (in addition to other cities) - how is that going to change? Will the seminaries provide their students with Shabbos meals now, or will they still send them out to hosts all around the country?

It might very well work, and maybe a proper system is being put in place and the schools will play along. I hope so. And I hope everybody remains or gets healthy.

The other situation that is somewhat confounding is Uman and the Breslavers. I know it is very important to them from a religious perspective. I know it is very important to Ukraine to have the flow of money coming in with the religious tourism. But is it really smart? Ukraine, according to the graphs I saw, have the Covid spread numbers on the rise, though deaths are relatively low and steady right now. First Ukraine said no, and now they are considering allowing several thousand in with some tight restrictions. And then those several thousand people will want to return home, largely to Israel, but to other places as well. So, if Israel also agrees to this, we'll get several thousand more cross contaminated people coming back and mingling...

What will happen if this or that happens? I don't know but I hope someone is planning for different eventualities.

Again, I hope everyone remains healthy, and I understand the need and desire to return to some level of regular behavior and freedoms, yet it still remains complicates and confusing.







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Posted by at 3:48 PM 9 comments
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