Yeshiva Highlights - for two weeks ending Parshas Vayechi. The past two weeks have been filled with exciting trips, Chessed opportunities, and powerful Torah learning! All the students have been enjoying the buzzing atmosphere in the Beis Midrash due to the Lev Zion Kollel joining us for morning Seder learning (and the sponsorship of daily freshly brewed coffee doesn't hurt too much either!). On Asarah B'Teves, we had a special afternoon program to help us understand the Ch

בס"ד Parshat Vayechi In this week's Parsha, we find Yaakov sick on his deathbed as his family comes to say their final goodbyes and receive his saintly and powerful blessings one last time. Yosef had long ago become a top viceroy to the king of Egypt. He gently approaches his father Yaakov with his two prized children, Efrayim and Menashe, for what was to be their last time visiting their grandfather. Yaakov gives a very peculiar and intriguing bracha to his grandchildren bef

Parshas Vayechi This week is the Yarzeit of Reb Nosson of Nemerov, the prime disciple of Rabbi Nachman of Breslov. As such, I would like to share one of his teachings that greatly impacted my own life. He teaches that every single fall, or descent, in our lives, is for the ultimate purpose of an ascent. The same way that when a person takes a bicycle downhill, he will almost inevitably have greater strength to rise uphill. Chazal coined this as a "Yeridah l'tzorech Aliyah

It's Not Easy Being Right All the Time Pashas Vayechi There was once a wealthy businessman flying on his way to Israel. He takes a seat next to this elderly man, and they set out for a ten hour flight together. Right after taking off, the elderly man shuts his eyes to go to sleep. The young businessman frantically wakes him up. The young man says "We have a long 10 hour flight ahead of us and I need someone to talk to! You can't just go to sleep!" The elderly man smiles and s

The Chanukah 'Present' Parshas Mikeitz & Chanukah There is a famous question that is posed about Chanukah. Why do we celebrate 8 days when the miracle was really only 7 days? There are hundreds of answers as to why we are celebrating the first day. One of the basic ones is the miracle of actually finding the oil and that there was enough oil for the first day. I would like to share another answer, that may not seem so miraculous at first. We see in this week's Parsha that Yos

One of my fondest memories of being a student at Neveh, over 20 years ago, was Chanukah in Yeshiva. The parties at the Rebbi’s homes every night were always amazing and the spiritual feeling in the air was tangible for all eight days. But the real highLIGHT was getting to hear the Mash, Rabbi Blumenfeld, explain in his Sicha how Chanukah is the ultimate celebration of the “Soul of a Jew”. He told us how the two main miracles of Chanukah, the victory over Greek rule and the mi

Entering the World of Eight Chanukah can be viewed as a contraction of the words - חנו-כה, which means the inauguration of the 25th of Kislev. When you play around with the numbers a bit you find something amazing. כ"ה is 25, and the Mispar Katan* of 25 is 7. The number 7 corresponds to nature. We have 7 days in a week, 7 years in the shemitah cycle, 7 colors of the rainbow, 7 primary chords in a musical scale, and so on. נר as well has a gematriah (via Mispar Katan) of 7. (A

Freilichin Chanukah & Chag Sameach to everyone! Chanukah in Yeshiva has been amazing. Right before Chanukah we had the chance of going to meet CGI specialist Yariv Newman in the Old City. Yariv has done some incredible special effects work for a number of famous movies and tv shows, and he shared his take on his personal journey to Judaism and some insights into his artistic business. Everyone greatly appreciated hearing his inspiration words and getting a behind the scenes p