Welcoming Itai- the integration specialist

I haven't updated my blog in such a long time but things have been going so great I was swamped. We have a new staff member - Itai. His Job is to get guys integrated in regular settings. He is currently helping five new guys find a regular learning setting in Yeshivot.
He is also supporting three more of our students in their integration into WORK. They manage to combine learning (and staying in touch with thier friends) with working part time. Excelent!

Itai is a life coach as well and I want to expand his position into work training and goal setting workshops, please g-d.

Rav Guy

Pessach 2010

This year we continued our tradition of volenteering in the community before Pessach and again joined hands with "good neighboor" foundation to make food baskets to needy families.

We got to the warehouse in the morning and started packing... carrots, onions, eggs... it was quite a physical activity.

We sang along while we worked and felt like this bit of manual labor was exactly the opposite of slavery in Egypt. What were doing here was helping our fellow Jew and giving up some of our physical comfort so we can be part of the Jewish nation.

After a whole morning of work, and hundreds of kilos of food, we came out of there exhusted but very very proud and happy.

Happy Passover.

Tripping

What a wonderful time we had. I feel absolutly blessed!


In honor of Rosh Hodesh Nissan and our 2 year anniversary, we took a bus and went for a whole day trip up north.
We met in Jerusalem at 8:30 and soon after that we were on our way. We picked up some of the students along the way and continued over to our Ramat Gan campus.
We picked up the rest of the guys in Ramat Gan - we actually filled up a whole bus - not to bad considering we started 2 years ago with six students and a dream.

We had an awsome time on the bus. It was a real party on wheels. We had music, jokes, tour guiding and torah. Many of the guys were encouraged by the incredible mood and came to the front of the bus to pick up the microphone.
It was touching to see how we all came together - from throughout the counrty, each with his background and culture, and really came together as friends making lasting relationships.

We had a great lunch on the north shore of the Kinneret. Some of us were brave enough to dip in the water of the hidden waterfall.
We continued to the Tzefat region and finished the night at Miron, tomb of Rabbi Shimon Bar Yochai.

We came back at 11:30 at night. Everyone was safe and sound, filled with memories that would last a lifetime.

Thank God I Was Sick

I was very sick last week.
It started on Thursday, I was feeling weak and a little hot. Things got intense on Friday, somehow I got out of the house for an hour on Shabbat and then crawled back into bed, where I stayed for three days. I had high fever, took advil Tylanol and Acamol, trying anything that will work. I also put cold compresses on and took four showers a day.
It felt absolutly awful not to be in contorl of my body. The high fever made me unrestful and weak (sorry enough for me???)
Finally, my fever broke and I felt a little better, physically. Although I felt drained psychologically. When I went back to teaching I felt that it was a lot harder to concentrate. I felt frustrated with it. Things that I used to be able to handle with ease took me a lot longer all of the sudden.
Yesterday I finally got it! I was explaining to some of my students (saturday night) how weak I felt and how I still felt the effects of the illness. All of the sudden I realized that I've heard this story many times before - from my students in the Beit Midrash.
I Yelled out THANK YOU GOD ! I understood that this short illness that I went through was so that I could better understand and feel what my students are saying. It's not that I'm really comparing three days in bed to what some of my students went through, but it is a microcosm, a peek into this reality. For this I thank God. I am now truely happy that I was sick on those days and felt miserable for it made me a better person. Baruch Hashem!

Tu Bishvat

Tu Bishvat !!!

What a wonderful day we had last Thursday. We took the guys to Tu Bishvat trips. We went with the guys in Jerusalem to the Botanical Gardens - which are right across the street from our new location.
We had a nice trip around the gardens. The tour guide blew everyone away with his amazing knowledge.
We also had a great time planting some flowers, it's such a good feeling to plant - amazing.

With our Ramat Gan branch we went on our first outing - the the national park in ramat Gan, we took the guys, brought lots of food and had a great time running around on the lawns.

These outings are great, they give a chance to relate to each other on a different level, to connect better and they enhance the feeling of belinging and the learning experience.

Can't wait for next month.

The power of hope

this week I understood - really understood the power of small jestures. During the weekly shiur at the yeshivah we spoke of the darkness that surrounds us. these are the shortest days of the year, where the nights are long and even the days are dark. This physical darkness leads many times to emotional darkness, fears and depression surround us. But, there is dgreat hope, as in times of darkness, every small light is meaningfull. At times of great light, your own light is sometimes lost and unseeming. At times of uncertainty, between light and dark, it is sometimes even more scary, you can't tell the difference between reality and imgination. In an ironic way, when the darkness envelops you, your light has more potential and can help you better see the road ahead. The darker it is, the greater the potential is. In this way, the darker it gets, the more hope there is to snap out.

We went out to a sports day in Gan Sacher in Jeruslem,this is the first time we attmpted this type of activity and I must thank Rabbi Yosef Palavani for the initiative.

we started the day at the Yeshiva with a short class. Around 10:30 we w

ere on our way, by foot, to Sacher Park. It took us about 25 minutes through a beautifull hidden walkway. When we finally arrived we took out the soccer ball. One of the students wanted

to demonstrate his kicking skills. he definatly had skills, he kicked the ball

so high, it got stuck on a very tall tree. We attempted to throw another ball up to the tree to try and get the ball down from the tree, for about 15 minutes we threw and kicked the ball up in our attempts to rescue the ball and finally... the other ball got stuck as well... we thought that this may be it for sports day buy then we managed to hold on to one of the branches. we shook it down and finally both balls fell down.

We split into two groups and the rabbis showed incredible soccer tallent as they be

at 7 teams of contenders in a row. We also had frisbees for low intensity workout. Oded showed great skill and some amazing moves.

At the end of the day we split into two groups and had a running contest and found some surprise sprinters between the students. We sealed that part of the day with baguettes, hummus, hamburgers and fries.

After the bountyful meal, we dragged ourselves up the hill to a hidden spot where a great Tzadik is burried, we prayed there, asked god to deliver our wishes and left from there. It was an exciting day, capping off a most amazing week. None of us can wait to do this again.

Dear Friends,

Today is a great day. Today is a milestone for our program as it marks the opening of our second center. From our modest beginning a year and a half ago, with 6 students, pushing towards a new frontier, today we counted 30 students in Jerusalem and an 8 student nucleus in out new Ramat Gan center. Today, sitting on the bus to Ramat Gan, I had the pleasure of sitting next to one of my veteran students. I listened to him as he told me about his plan to join a gym and his longer term plan / dream to start a small business. I was elated as he thanked the staff of the Beit Midrash for helping him find the strength within to bring forth his potential. When he told me that he gets up every day to pray before starting his day, I couldn't help but swell with pleasure as I remembered the student that walked into our program a year ago, contending everyday with the seemingly simple task of getting up out of bed in the morning. As you can imagine, it was a wonderful boost of confidence for me as I literally and symbolically rode forward to try and bring more hope to people.

I would like to end by thanking you for being a part of this endeavor and thank you for your support, both financial and emotional. If you know of more people that would like to partner with us in this life altering program, please send them for a visit. www.shafyativ.com

Short Trip

While everyone seems to be on break, we at Shaf Yativ kept on going. We were considering taking a vacation with the rest of the world. But our students didn't want it at all. They asked us to keep the place open and we did. Turns out more people showed up then regularly.

Last week we spoke about the importance of breaking the norm and taking some time out, while not losing ourselves altogether. we told them that if anyone wants to take time off, they are free to do it. Although I did ask them to plan things out and try to plan it with someone else, so that their time is not wasted.

Today we took a mini-break. we took a trip down the street, to a park next door. We brought drinks and ice pops. We had some games and had a shiur under the trees (R' Eli Cohen with his guitar). Amazing! at the end we capped it off with some cold watermelon and went back to pray at our shul.

we learned how it is not how far you go, but the thought you put into vacationing that gives you the real meaning.

catching up

well,

it's been a busy SIX MONTHS since i updated this blog.

I know this is a great tool to use, it gives a great feel for how we progress, it's just a hard habit to adopt. It really takes time and thank g-d we've been so busy lately.

we have grown much - at the end of our first year in operation, we have almost 30 guys signed up. most of them come regularly, but we try to adapt to students who can not come five days a week, so we have a few coming for two or three times a week program.

some more of our students incorporated work in their day, and some have extended their learning to the afternoon...

we've been going on trips, and improving amazingly in the learning - real high level.

i'll update soon -B"H.

We've gotten much moral support from the ministry of health and have been encouraged to open two more learning centers in Israel. one around ramat gan area and one up north. did I mention busy???

we miss rabbi Rosen, who is packing up in America, but are sure he will come back with his wonderfull energy soon enough.

I do realize no one is actually reading this, but it's fun to update. I'll try to be better at it.

Rabbi Guy

New article on N.Y's Forward check it out

http://www.forward.com/article/14989/

Standing by our brothers

I want to do something for our brothers in the south. I threw some ideas around with my good friend Rabbi Barry Rosen and got very enthusiastic about it. I think the guys in the Yeshivah also want to contribute and that for them it is a great way to feel part of mainstream society.
I spoke to my friend Josh Hasten about sending food baskets to the Hesder Yeshivah in Sderot, Any other ideas???

Shabbaton in Gush

WOW, what a weekend!

We've been planning this weekend for a long time already, with the wonderful advice and wisdom of our Mishna Berura teacher, my friend, Rabbi Barry (Baruch) Rosen (in the picture above, with Beni Horowitz).
We gave out assignments to all the guys; one was in cahrge of soft drinks, one in charge of cakes, others were in charge of spiritual food: prayers, torah reading, speeches. eveything was set, and everyone excited

...and then came the war.



We didn't know what to do, should we stick to the plans or cancel?

we decided to GO FOR IT !

IT WAS AWSOME!!!

it was better than I could have imagined.

The Guys came in large numbers, and the staff came and had a great time.

I brought my family and the staff came in full force:
Rabbi Dr. Gafni came with the family, R' Eli Cohen with his family and his guitar, Rabbi Rosen, our local Philadelphia Rav came with an arsenal of jokes and high spirits
Our social workers, Oded and Tomer were amazing as well as our versitle volenteer Beni Horowitz came out with a long list of songs...
I have to thank all of them individually they made the shabbat.



we began with Beni and a special early Kabbalat shabbat, which put us right in the mood for the great sephardic chazanut of Y. L. Then some great Divrei Torah from the students.

Dinner, more singing, Tefila in the morning, more singing, even dancing, food prayers, good times and more and more of that. We capped it off with melave malka with guitar and wonderfull singing. Wow, there is so much more, but I can't possibly get to it all


Go look at the pictures, they should be linked to the website already. for obvious reasons, I had to blur them out some but the energy should come out regardless...
http://picasaweb.google.com/avihod/ShafYativPics#

some of the people I consulted with told me this is going to be a demanding and hard shabbat. IT WAS!!! It was hard for us to end it after only 25 hours, we demanded to keep it going for another week, it was that great!!!

hope to share a lot more soon.

Rav Guy

נחת

לזה קוראים נחת