(no subject)
It's another update! Dude! :)
Anyway... Life is good. At 4:30 this morning we went on a siyur slichot things in Jerusalem, and said slichot (more or less) in a really old-Jerusalem-esque shul. I'm sort of figuring out an alternate attitude to wandering around people's neighborhoods in the middle of the night to the usual going-to-see-exotic-animals-at-the-zoo thing. Something about there being something beautiful about these people's lives, and us wanting to be part of that, if only for a night...
I had a tachkir bitchoni thing this week, and it was nowhere near as traumatic as I thought it would be. Most importantly though, in my mind at least is that I didn't get lost on my way there. Let me repeat, I took two buses, to a place I've never been before, and did not make a single wrong turn. I'm very proud of myself, let me tell you.
Other than that, life in midrasha is life in midrasha. I'm figuring out my routine, and making new friends and all that good stuff. I have pretty much no free time during the week, until Fridays. Y'see, my only way to survive the day (sleep-deprivation-wise) is to sleep during our lunch break (which ain't all that long to begin with). But our classes are really interesting, and all the girls are amazing. We get a little (rather, a lot) of everything. So we're going to finish about two sdarim of Mishna (in Bkiyut Mishna), two masechtot of Gemara (in Daf Yomi), the entire Nach (in Bkiyut Tanach), plus there're all the rest of the classes... It's very exciting. :)
I talked to a bunch of people this week, which was very cool. I called Gracie and Yael Blau, and talked to Rose about three times, :). It's so fun that there's an outside world, lol.
That's about everything I have to say I'll leave you with just about the funniest sugiyah in Gemara that I've ever learned. In daf yomi we're doing Masechet Succah, so the gemarah was discussing different things you can use for the schach, the walls, etc. Then someone came up with the bright idea of using an elephant as one of the walls of your succah. But wait! The elephant might run away and there goes your succah! So, obviously, the gemara tells us to tie the elephant. But even so - it might just die and ruin everything (seeing as there's a minimum height a succah wall needs to reach). And even if it doesn't die, it could simply choose to sit down! Don't worry though, we're told - elephants are big enough that even when they're sitting, they're taller than the minimum height of a succah. But for other animals that may not be true. What should we do then? Why, hang them up off the ground of course, so that even if they die, they'll remain the correct height. Hold on though - when animals die, they shrink. So what if our elephant, or camel or whatever was exactly the minimum height, and then shrunk post-mortum? I forget what the gemara answered... Lol.
I also leave you with this link to a video of Terry Fator, a ventriloquist who made a frog named Winston do an impersonation of the world's most famous amphibian in the world. :) http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XLmlOm85EYA&mode=related&search=
Shabbat Shalom!
Me.
--To the borders of infinity and beyond...--
Anyway... Life is good. At 4:30 this morning we went on a siyur slichot things in Jerusalem, and said slichot (more or less) in a really old-Jerusalem-esque shul. I'm sort of figuring out an alternate attitude to wandering around people's neighborhoods in the middle of the night to the usual going-to-see-exotic-animals-at-the-zoo thing. Something about there being something beautiful about these people's lives, and us wanting to be part of that, if only for a night...
I had a tachkir bitchoni thing this week, and it was nowhere near as traumatic as I thought it would be. Most importantly though, in my mind at least is that I didn't get lost on my way there. Let me repeat, I took two buses, to a place I've never been before, and did not make a single wrong turn. I'm very proud of myself, let me tell you.
Other than that, life in midrasha is life in midrasha. I'm figuring out my routine, and making new friends and all that good stuff. I have pretty much no free time during the week, until Fridays. Y'see, my only way to survive the day (sleep-deprivation-wise) is to sleep during our lunch break (which ain't all that long to begin with). But our classes are really interesting, and all the girls are amazing. We get a little (rather, a lot) of everything. So we're going to finish about two sdarim of Mishna (in Bkiyut Mishna), two masechtot of Gemara (in Daf Yomi), the entire Nach (in Bkiyut Tanach), plus there're all the rest of the classes... It's very exciting. :)
I talked to a bunch of people this week, which was very cool. I called Gracie and Yael Blau, and talked to Rose about three times, :). It's so fun that there's an outside world, lol.
That's about everything I have to say I'll leave you with just about the funniest sugiyah in Gemara that I've ever learned. In daf yomi we're doing Masechet Succah, so the gemarah was discussing different things you can use for the schach, the walls, etc. Then someone came up with the bright idea of using an elephant as one of the walls of your succah. But wait! The elephant might run away and there goes your succah! So, obviously, the gemara tells us to tie the elephant. But even so - it might just die and ruin everything (seeing as there's a minimum height a succah wall needs to reach). And even if it doesn't die, it could simply choose to sit down! Don't worry though, we're told - elephants are big enough that even when they're sitting, they're taller than the minimum height of a succah. But for other animals that may not be true. What should we do then? Why, hang them up off the ground of course, so that even if they die, they'll remain the correct height. Hold on though - when animals die, they shrink. So what if our elephant, or camel or whatever was exactly the minimum height, and then shrunk post-mortum? I forget what the gemara answered... Lol.
I also leave you with this link to a video of Terry Fator, a ventriloquist who made a frog named Winston do an impersonation of the world's most famous amphibian in the world. :) http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XLmlOm85EYA&mode=related&search=
Shabbat Shalom!
Me.
--To the borders of infinity and beyond...--