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...

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.