Wednesday, December 10, 2008


אתמול הייתי בכנס השנתי לבריאות הנפש

היה ממש מרגש לראות שיש תקווה גדולה בתחום. נכון שאני חדש בתחום בריאות הנפש, אבל אני מרוצה ובאמת קצת מופתע שאני מאוד מתאים למחשבה קדימה כפי שהוצגה בשטח


וואו, לדבר על החלמה, על ה"מטופלים" כאנשים רגילים עם התמודדות מסויימת. כל כך התאים לי. אצלנו זה כמובן מובן מאיליו שהחברה' הם לא "מטופלים" אלא תלמידים, שאנחנו לא פה לתפאורה - וכמובן שהם לא, שכולנו עם הפנים קדימה

אי יכול להמשיך כך עוד ועוד אבל מספיק לי פשוט לשמוח

יש תקוה - הרבה תקוה!!! יש

Friday, November 28, 2008

ערב מדהים


תודות לצוות של בית המדרש ובמיוחד לבני הורביץ ותומר קורינאלדי, הערב חוויתי אחד הערבים היפים בחיי
בערב החברה שערכנו לכבוד ראש חודש כסלו הופיעו שלושה שחקנים מקבוצת "פליי בק" עם ליווי מוזיקאלי מרשים. הם לקחו סיפורים שאנשים בקהל סיפרו ושיחקו על פיהם. היה ממש מדהים, החברה נהנו כל כך, הרב אוריאל כמעט איבד הכרה מרוב צחוק. הערב היה מושלם. אחרי ההצגות, בני ניגן לנו בגיטרה ונשארנו לשיר עד שכבר כלו כוחותינו.
בקרוב תמונות באתר
let me translate...

Thanks to the wonderfull Beit Midrash staff and especially Beni Horowitz and Tomer Korinaldi, tonight I experienced one of the most beautiful evenings in my life. In tonight's Rosh Hodesh party, we had three preformers from the "playback" group, accompanied with a wonderfull organist. They took the audience's stories and acted them out in a witty way. It was amazing, we almost busted our guts laughing out loud.
The evening was perfect and after the acting, Beni, who was one of the preformers, stayed on and played the guitar with us until we dropped off our feet.
soon, pictures on the website




Thursday, November 27, 2008

גמרא

אתמול הסברתי למישהו למה אני כל כך שמח ללמוד גמרא ולמה אני כל כך קשור לדף היומי. חשבתי על הנושא לא מעט ולמסקנה, יש כמה דברים עיקריים שמושכים אותי תמיד
הדבר הראשון הוא האינטראקציה עם האנשים. מדהים אותי ומדליק אותי מחדש כל פעם שאנשים מביאים דוגמאות מחייהם כדי להסביר את הגמרא. זה מחייה את הגמרא ומחייה את האנשים (אותי גם כן, אני לא מוציא את עצמי מהכלל - להיפך) כשאדם מתחבר ללימוד בצורה כזאת הגמרא היא כאילו חדשה, ולא בת אלפי שנים, והאדם הוא כבן אלפי שנה ולא מוגבל לשנות חייו
הדבר השני הוא שהגמרא מחייבת אותך להיות גמיש בדעתך ולא להתחפר יותר מדי עמוק בעמדות מוצא. למשל, אם הגמרא מסבירה את שיטת אביי, בתור לומד אתה צריך להבין לגמרי את ההגיון שעומד מאחורי האימרה, ולשם כך אתה צריך להזדהות עם שיטתו של אביי. כשהגמרא שואלת שאלה, אתה צריך לדחות את טענותיה ולהגן על נקודת המוצא שלך
מייד לאחר מכן, רבא חולק לגמרי על אביי ואת החייב לזנוח את העמדה הישנה שלך ולעבור לצד השני. גם כן אתה צריך להגן על האימרה ולהזדהות עם השיטה. מתרגלים את זה בגמרא, כדי שיהיה אפשרי לעשות את זה בחיים
לא להתבלבל, כשמגיעים להלכה צריך לקבל את הפסק - להפסיק להילחם נגד. אבל הדרך רצופה בראייה כוללת ומקיפה
תודה לקב"ה שזיכה אותי לחיות חיים מלאי תורה וסדנאות בריאות נפש יומיות בדף היומי - כך החיים לא רק מלאים תורה אלא הם מלאים

Empathy

Empathy can be the most fake thing. It's easy to fake empathy. I don't mean people can't tell when you are truly empathetic and when you are just going through the motions, I mean it's easy to fool yourself.
It is especially hard when you are in position of power such as parent, teacher, counselor, or other professional capacity vis-a-vis the other person. after all, you are supposed to lead them, aren't you???
well, yes and no. You have to share from your knowledge where it's relevant, but you can't make the other person in your own image. It wont work, and it is senseless. The Torah teaches us: "who is wise? one who learns from every person" but it doesn't end there. The fact of the matter is we are incapable of completely understanding the other, since we only share some experiences. You can see that even brothers that grew up in the same home have different ways of thinking and looking at the world.
If you want to relate to the other, you have to listen to them, you have to respect them. It's not a trick. I often tell my students, if you can repeat exactly what I said in today's lesson - I've failed! I want to hear the idea presented through your prism.

The Gemara gives us these tools, teaches this to us without beating us over the head with it. The fact every page of Gemara has extreme disagreements is a great tool to teach us how to look at matters from different points of view. We must understand beit Hillel's view just as much as we have to listen and understand the logic and thought process presented by the opposite side. Halacha is different, that's where there is no wavering, you can't pick and choose, but the process is a building one. IF YOU PRACTICE LISTENNING TO OPPOSING VIEWS DURING LEARNING, IT MAKES IT A LOT EASIER TO DO IT IN REAL LIFE. At that point, you are not faking yourself out.

Thursday, November 20, 2008

Prayer -Daily Paradigm Shift

Wow, what a title - right into the deep end with this one...
well, this is a subject I've been thinking of for a while and will probably occupy much of my thought in the future - why do we pray? and why do Jews pray in such a set way???

When I was younger, I asked my father one time, why do we pray everyday using the same words? isn't it better to have a specific prayer for each day of the week? I was really bored with prayer and saw that people around me were not so elated as well... I didn't get a streight answer, or at least one that I remember which satisfied me.

over the years I pondered this point and the more I prayed the more I was connected to the process. I figured there are 2 aspects of prayer consciense and unconsciense.

There is a consciense part that helps you direct your thoughts, forces you to take action, physical action to thank God. thought is not enough, you have to GET OUT OF BED, get dressed , and SAY THE WORDS. It's very hard to be thankful, we have to minimize ourselves and control our ego. Prayer forces us to do that everyday.
the unconscience (some prefer subconscience) part of prayer is in the repitition. The world we live in is focused on us as individuals and what we do, It's a world of doing - of action. Prayer helps us connect to the world of being. It’s a daily paradigm shift; we repeat the words of faith and belief in connection to God every day. The familiarity makes for a reality in which we don't actually focus on the words and their meanings (sometimes!?!), but repeat them as mantras. Thank you God, You give water, you make me understand, and you give health and so on...

What’s the point in all this???

I think the point is clear; it's a mental health issue...
This world can be a heavy Burdon if we take on our own shoulders. When we make ourselves realize it's not all up to us to fix, the main responsibility is God's, all we have to do is contribute our part, not to the world, to God, we have much less pressure and are better equipped to take on the day.

This was a sliver of thought, I have to go on now and prepare myself to take on the day... to be continued

Sunday, November 16, 2008

I'm Back

Well, after quite a hiatus, i'm back.

Since my last post we went through a great time period, the chagim were energizing, and getting back to regular pace is not very easy. We are learning a lot, so much in fact it's hard to keep up.

Today, the Hebrew version of our website is up and now the blog will take on new life, B.H.

It's nice to write a blog no one reads because it's a nice preperation to when people will actually start reading it.

Some of our students are dating, some are finding new jobs afternoon, some are continuing on, to University, to another Yeshivah... I'm such a proud father.

The book and lecture series are on course and I am very happy.

Rav Guy

Wednesday, August 6, 2008

Prayer

I had an insight on prayer a few days ago.
It came when someone asked me how i can say the same words of prayer everyday and have any meaning. So I thought about my prayers...

I told him that when I pray, I don't limit my words to going in one way, up, but rather both ways. what I mean is that when we ask Hashem for things: health, wealth, Da'at... If we are parasites, we ask with no shame. But, the way to do it is to take the time and examin our requests of hashem. for example, if we ask Hashem for health we have to see what we do towards that. Do I eat fattening, smoke, drink execively? if so, how dare we ask Hashem for health? when you look at it that way, it is time for introspection, time for us to look at our hishtadlut, our part in our life. If we do this right, it strengthens our self realization and our relationship with God.

Thursday, July 24, 2008

My Em Habanim family

Yesterday I recieved an e-mail from my good friend Sidney Chriqui of Em Habanim in California.
It gave me another chance to reflect on how many people influenced my life to this point. Sidney, a wise man a few decades my senior, is one of those special people that showed me how it is never too late to make a change and an improvement in your life. I will not share the details now on how he went up to read the Torah a quite a few years after his 13th birthday, but I have to say that it taught me a lesson on how much you can achieve if you set your mind to it, no matter what people may think possible. It is one of the experiences that inspired me to believe in people and pushed me to open this Beit Midrash. Thank you Sidney.

Monday, July 21, 2008

Baruch Hashem

Yesterday was the fast of the 17th of Tamuz (to learn more click http://www.aish.com/holidays/tisha_bav_and_the_3_weeks/default.asp).
Not so many came, but we had a good learning day. I didn't think we could have Mincha because we didn't have anyone to read the torah, and i wasn't even sure if we had six people who fasted, which is needed for taking a torah out.
ALL THE SUDDEN, 2 people came off the street asking if we are doing mincha, and another potential student showed up unannounced. Turnes out, he can read the torah, and he is a kohen.
you can always look at things like that as coincidence, but I see it as God smiling at us.

Then again God smiled at us this morning, 9 30 we already had almost ten students and an hour later we had fifteen. we actually had to add more seats. Baruch Hashem

Tuesday, July 15, 2008

Sium Party



Yesterday we had a great Sium Party at the Beit Midrash. One of my students from my daf yomi lesson had to fly out of the country and may miss the party we will have later this month to mark the end on one more masechet (tractate of Talmud) so I decided to double the fun and have an extra party.

Some of my students from my daily lesson in my neighborhood came to celebrate with us and Rabbi Haim Louk, my teacher and mentor from my days in Los Angeles, and the greatest Moroccan musician of our time, came to teach and sing with us. here is a link to some of his songs online: http://www.piyut.org.il/cgi-bin/search.pl?Expression=%E7%E9%E9%ED+%EC%E5%F7
click on any of the links there... one of my favorites :http://www.piyut.org.il/tools/player.html?quality=good&per=http://media.snunit.k12.il/piut/GoodQuality/719.wma&d=n

We had some great food, given to us by my good friend Yossi Vashdi from Shalom Falafel (look, I even found a link to that... http://www.mapa.co.il/ng/buildrecord_d.asp?id=8748 )

It was an unbelievable experience, so uplifting. I think that some of what made it so great was the mix of people. everybody felt comfortable, everyone was at ease. Check out some of the pictures...

Tuesday, July 8, 2008

rosh hodesh trip





On Sunday we went on a trip to celebrate the new month. We went to Ein Karem... WOW


We wanted to go out and break out of the norm a little bit and it proved to be absolutely right.


We hiked for ten minutes and reached a little spring. We walked past the spring for a couple more minutes and found a huge fig tree.


We sat under the tree and had some pita and hummus, some cold cuts as well.


We spoke a little and it was heartwarming. The students shared and the staff shared in how we feel about the last four months. Some of the guys said it was a miracle for them that the Beit Midrash opened. They felt great about having a place where they can fit in, where they don't have to explain themselves.
I shared with them how i have fears as well, everyday i have fears, what if they don't like us, the program, me... I told them how every morning i come and pray that the students will show up and i am never sure. I know how hard it is and I'm very sad that i have my limits as to how much i can help.
as you can see, i got my place on the tree and i must say i got extremely energized from this trip.

Monday, July 7, 2008

Thank all the helpers

I think it's important to acknowledge and thank God, and his messengers: the people who are helping us (and i am including the Shaf Yativ staff, namely Udi Marili) carry out the vision of this Beit Midrash.

I must thank the Nissim family for allowing us to open up in the beautiful Yad Harav Nissim Building.

My utmost thanks to Sagi (Gary) Kolodaro for building the website, helping have it make sense online but mostly for his encouraging words and friendship

special thanks to my friends Ariel Azoulay and Eliahu Saban for their generous donations that help us get off the ground and our dear neighbor Moshe Yosef Lefkowitz for his great support

On this first thank you note I must thank my parents Eli and Galia for their support and backing for all these years.

And lastly, my wife Eris. I love you

What is Shaf Yativ????

Shaf Yativ
I guess I must explain what Shaf Yativ is and what the name means.

Let's start with what it is...
Shaf Yativ is a new program I opened up with Udi Marili, which is aimed at mental rehabilitation through the tools of Torah and the Beit Midrash setting. You can read all about it on the website http://www.shafyativ.com/ . if you're already there, read the "note from the Rabbi" http://www.shafyativ.com/shafyativ/Note_from_the_Rabbi.html

Now about the name...
I was looking for a name to the program and thought Arameic is a good place to start. I consulted with a few rabbis and one of them opened the Gemara (Rosh Hashana 24)
He showed me Rashi's commentary about a place named Shaf Ve'Yativ (some say Shaf Yativ) in Babel :
A synagogue in ancient Babel, made of stones from the Temple "which was ruined and re-built and always had holy spirit present in it" as soon as I saw the meaning I said "that's the name."

Tuesday, June 24, 2008

First post

All right !
i finally took the plunge this is the first post so it will be a short one. The aim of this blog is to talk about my thought, insights (Torah insights and otherwise), and about my mental health rehab program in Jerusalem.

since I'm the only one reading this for now I'll wish myself GOOD LUCK.