Dear Shvilei HaTorah Family,

After a difficult weekend, with the discussion around most Israeli (if not world-wide Jewish) Shabbat tables returning to the terrible attack of last Thursday night, it was comforting to return to our yeshiva and carry on with our Avodat Hashem. Once again, we had a solid week, although spring is beginning to peek its head through the clouds of winter, and that means …allergies.

On Monday afternoon, the yeshiva staff led a Yom Iyun on the topic of “Life on Secular College Campuses”. The focus of the day was making the secular college experience as meaningful as possible, both Jewishly and academically. Lively discussions were held regarding different types of people one meets on college campuses, with an emphasis on maintaining respectful relationships and speech. Workshops on challenges facing, and solutions for, the religious Jew on campus helped elucidate many of the difficult decisions that an Orthodox Jew must make: how to balance Talmud Torah with university classes, how to keep Shabbat and make it holy in an environment that might not be as conducive to holiness, how to continue to flourish outside the walls of Yeshivat Shvilei HaTorah. Rav Jacobson, a Princeton graduate, wrapped things up with a talk entitled "Doing College Le-chatchila (in an ideal way)." The seminar, on top of generating lots of food-for-thought over the next months and years, is also only the first in a series of pre-college programs in the yeshiva. After Pesach we will cover more practical halakhic issues, and then revisit some of these philosophical questions.

Our Wednesday night speaker was Dr. David I. Bernstein. An expert on European Jewish history, Dr. Bernstein, in one amazing hour, taught 1000 years of Polish Jewish history. Contrary to popular (mis)conception, until about 150 years ago, Poland was a wonderful place for Jews and Jewish communities. Of course, a profoundly dark time was marked over the next 100+ years. While all the guys thoroughly benefited from the speech, the boys who will be going on the Heritage trip really gained an important perspective before they set out on their trip in a few weeks.

Tonight, following Mishmar, a group of students will be heading to spend some quality spiritual time at the Kotel. This is to kickoff a Shabbaton in Tzefat, another holy city. It promises to be an incredible experience.

Shabbat Shalom,

Naftali and Rachel Balanson
Av and Em Bayit