רבי טרפון אומר, היום קצר, והמלאכה מרובה, והפועלים עצלים, והשכר הרבה, ובעל הבית דוחק
Rabbi Tarfon said: The day is short, the task is great, the laborers are lazy, the wage is abundant and the master is urgent. 2:20
Over the past two days I have been learning intensively like crazy. Tuesday morning I had a very intensive Tanach class where we discussed on of the prophecies in the book of Amos. I am finally starting to understand how all the different prophecies happened and finally realize that it must have been a very difficult job to be a Prophet. Thank God I am not a Prophet. It would be to much stress and pressure. I am really enjoying my Tanach class because the teacher is incredibly brilliant as well as an absolute angle. I wish I would have had a Tanach teacher like her in school because I would have learnt so much more then I know today.
After Tanach, I had my weekly lunch date with Rabbi Paul and Nina at their favorite joint, Cafe Joe on King George. We had to cut this one short this week because I had to get back to the Yeshiva to listen to Chancellor Arnie Eisen of the Jewish Theological Seminary in New York. Dr. Eisen spoke to us about Conservative Judaism without talking about Conservative Judaism. I know it is complicated and it took me a little bit of time to fully comprehend his topic. He spoke about the continued need for Jewish Education as well as people needing to live Jewish lives. He was very fascinating, however he spoke for only 20 minutes which to some people would be plenty of time, but I would have liked to hear him speak for a little longer. I also got to meet the Chancellor after he spoke and got to exchange a few words with him so that was nice.
After the Chancellor spoke I had about an hour break before my next class. However, I decided not to go to my next class of Modern Jewish thought. As I have mentioned in the past, the class is a mess. The class discusses great topics and the teacher is brilliant, but he is all over the place and goes off on too many tangents and it is difficult for me to follow. It turns out it was a good thing that I didn't go to class. Turns out that the entire class was bombarded by Hebrew U students and Ulpan students who were off of class and had nothing to do. Turns out those extra kids would not stop talking and causing trouble to the teacher and he was unable to teach the way he normally did. So, had I been there originally chances are I would have walked out on the class. This was probably the first time in my entire educational career that I believe I skipped school/class. It was slightly odd, but I am glad I made that decision.
Tuesday night is Erev Nativ and for this weeks Erev Nativ we had a Beit Midrash session with some of the Rabbinical Students from JTS. I was in a session that dealt with Mishnah. It was a good session, however the teacher lacked a little in my opinion. But none the less it was a good session. The JTS Reb Students are going to be leading a Beit Midrash for us Nativers on a weekly basis, completely optional, that allows the Nativers to learn a little from potentially our futures Rabbis and Jewish Educators.
After Beit Midrash I went to shower and got a good nights sleep.
Wednesday was also full of learning. I started learning brand new Tractate of Talmud, Bava Kama. I am in a different class now and I have different Chevrutas so it will be interesting to see how it goes without Judah. It is a different teacher who has a different approach to teaching. He is more of a philosophical teacher and he is also British. I may or may not be switching back into my the other class that I was in before, but I am going to give this class a little bit of time to see what it is like.
It is funny that to learn what I am currently learning in Talmud class. During Junior year of high school I took a class with one of my favorite teachers in school, Rabbi Sosover, and he taught us the same material that I am currently learning now at the Yeshiva. The only bad part about this whole situation is that I didn't retain anything that I learned back in JR. year. I am excited to re-learn the material and then be able to go back to Rabbi Sosover one of these days and say it all back to him and thank him for giving me the fundamental building blocks for my skills in Talmud.
After Talmud I had lunch and a break before my last class of the day started, Poskim with the Rosh Yeshiva, Reb Shmuel. In class today we read an introduction to a Halachic work that was going against another Halachic work. It was interesting to see why people thought that one major work was not as good as a minor work and why they felt the need to have so many authoritative books about the same subject matters.
After Poskim we davened Maariv at the Yeshiva, which I got to lead, and then I went to dinner with a Reb Student from AJU, David, who I am in a lot of classes with. Now here I am writing this blog post and just relaxing in my room listening to music with our open door policy.
Two good days full of learning. Welcome to Israel, the 24/7 location for learning!!! And now for some pictures of what I look like in case you forgot.
David
border="0" alt=""id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5395129516500271074" />
No comments:
Post a Comment