Mazel Tov to Mr. Eli and Shira Mirlis

For the past two and a half years Eli Mirlis has been an integral part of Derech Etz Chaim. After two years as a student, he came back this Elul to DEC for a third year taking on many of the day-to-day organizational responsibilities for the yeshiva. The wedding turned into a mini DEC reunion as many Alumni from all over the country came in for the wedding, as well as a few rebbanim from Eretz Yisrael, including the Rosh Yeshiva and R' Sheftel.

We wish Eli and Shira all of the joy and happiness in the world. We look forward to having them back in Har Nof and celebrating with them all over again upon their return.

Haircuts

Derech Etz Chaim would like to wish a Mazel Tov to the entire Horowitz family on the occassion of Shmuel Chaim's upshearin. Above you can see the Rosh Yeshiva 'get his snipets' while Rav Mendel looks on in amusement.

On a more humorous note we would also like to extend a Mazel Tov to our shana alef student, Meir "Memphis" Gersten, on his haircut as well. You can see the before and after pictures below

Oh Chanukah...Oh Chanukah

On the 3rd night of Chanukah, Derech Etz Chaim had their annual Chanukah Mesibah. We lit the oil menorah in the beis midrash. The menorah was kind enough to pose with shana bet student Moshe Steibel



Next we were treated with potato latkes (apple sauce and sour cream), lasagna, salatim and vegetable quiche, while we waited for the rebbanim to show up with their families. R' Gittleman gives pointers to Moshe Schaffer and Mordechai Birnbaum on how to pick the perfect latkah. (Look how carefully Rav Gittleman is m'ayain the latkes -- like he would a Tosfot -- to select the right one.) Meir Hauser takes a break from waiting on line to pose for the picture



Next, Rav Horowitz inspired us with some words about Chanukah. He pointed out that the root of Chanukah is Chinuch. Just as the re-dedication of the Beis HaMikdash on Chanukah was done in the most mehadrin min ha'mihadrin way, without cutting corners with thinner wicks or tumah hutra b'tzibur; so too, our dedication towards Torah learning in our Beis Midrash must also be in a pristine environment and with a pure attitude.



Then came the entertainment portion of the night's events with Yehudah Katz making his second appearance at a Derech Etz Chaim event (See previous blog entry for Zman Simchateinu). After we danced, sang, rocked and rolled for a little while, we turned the lights low and were treated to a kumzitz of stories, d'vrei torah and soft music.



Of course there were sufganiot -- like you had to ask!

Do you live in a cave or something?

Every once in a while, the boys at Derech Etz Chaim need a change of pace from their intensive learning schedule. So the Rosh Yeshiva decides that everyone should pack out of the beis midrash and go on a tiyul. Our most recent day of adventure was spelunking outside of Beit Shemesh -- or as our students commonly referred to it as "caving".


Above we have shana bet, Justin Kohn, showing shana alef, Joshua Gersten, the meaning of what it is like to live in "a hole in the wall". Below, although you may not be able to make it out, is a picture of shana bet, Moshe Steibel, enjoying the view of the sunset, while impersonating a statue.

So Let's Hear What You Have To Say

As per a Derech Etz Chaim student's suggestion I have enabled comments for the blog. So let's hear what you all have to say!!!

Tiyul Down South

Hang on David!!! Whatever you do -- don't look down!!! Wow look at that view. Shana Alef, David Robbins, making it look easy from a couple thousand feet up. The truth is that we generally get on David's case for "hanging around".



This is actually a picture of the walk from the dormitories to the beis midrash at Derech Etz Chaim



Yeah, it's definitely more fun once you get to the top. Smiling from right to left are Meir Gersten, Justin Kohn, Ari Galster and Mordechai Birnbaum

Zman Simchateinu - Derech Etz Chaim style

Pictured above is Ari Manheim, shana gimmel, who focuses intently on his siddur and the hoshanot prayers. The yeshiva kicked off Hoshana Rabbah with divrei chizuck from R' Yosef Brown, who happens to also be Mrs. Katz's uncle. After the guest lecture the bekius shiurim got together for a mishmar style, tikun le'il Hoshana Rabbah. After a few hours of sleep in the sukkah the talmidim were aroused to a marathon Hoshana Rabbah shacharis led by R' Sheftel.



Finally, the program concluded with a special yeshiva Hoshana Rabbah seudah

Over succos, Derech Etz Chaim, likes for the yeshiva to stay together. The yeshiva was open the entire chag and as usual we had many "guests" from other yeshivot looking for a sukkah to sleep in.

Another highlight over succos was our Simchat Beit HaShoava. For the second year in a row, back by popular demand, we had renown musician Yehuda Katz come on Motzai Yom Tov and lead a kumsitz style concert in the Rosh Yeshiva's sukkah.

Succos is also a time where we get to see our alumni. Some are visiting from chutz l'aretz for the chagim, but some are in Eretz Yirael. Pictured below is Michael Deutch who took a break from R' Yaakov Friedman's Yeshiva in Beitar and spent bein ha'zmanim with us.

Up goes the Sukkah

I've been working on the sukkah........

Derech Etz Chaim is all about teamwork and that's what it takes to put up the DEC Sukkah. Pictured from left to right is shana gimmel Ari Manheim, shana bet Ian King (with drill in hand), shana alef Mordechai Landesman and shana alef Moshe Kaplan. Until the wee hours of the morning they hammer, drill and build.

And when the night shift is over the morning shift begins. Pictured below is shana alef Mordechai Birnbaum assisting shana gimmel Eli Mirlis with the essential central column of the sukkah on which all the schach will be supported

Lending a Hand

Pictured above is shana alef student Moshe Caplan, flexing his muscles to help in the furniture warehouse of Koach Latet, and organization that refurbishes old "just about anything" and gives them to needy families.

On the day after Yom Kippur, the yeshiva students started their "clean slates" with morning seder until 11:30. Next, we charted a bus to Meir Panim in Romayma and spent a few hours dedicated to gimilut chasadim before the beginning of Bein HaZmanim. The students were split up between the Meir Panim "food kitchen" that feeds hundreds of people a day. The other students went to the Koach Latet warehouse.

September 2007 at DEC

Above you can see Rabbi Katz shmoozing with students about their weekend before delving into Mesechet Pesachim

As Derech Etz Chaim pulled into the station for bein hazmanim, they stood at daf17a in Pesachim, covering topics such as z'rizim makdim lmitzvot, bracha ovair l'asiyasan and kol haporesh m'drubah parish.

If you were with us the past couple weeks you would have enjoyed: A pre-Rosh HaShana shiur from Rav Stav, a game of Settlers, Wilshinsky Honey Cake, The Rosh Yeshiva's Mussaf Tunes on Rosh HaShana, Rent-O-Machzor, 7:00 Slichot, football practice, two new bookcases in the Library, the appointment of Mordechai Birnbaum as Gabbi, the return of the Keningsberg Slushy machine, Yitzy and Akiva's birthday party, the Simcha Feldman recording studio in the attic, the Gan Efrat Internet Cafe and a rocking day-after-Yom-Kippur morning seder.

DEC Alumni that have joined us for Yom Kippur and the end of Elul zman inlcude: Moshe Franklin, Chanan Baer, Leib Zeilish, Michael Deutch, Danny Sokol

Elul Zman at DEC

Rav Sheftel and all of his tzitzit clad students are shown here, contemplating an exceptional question posed by shana alef student Jacob Kon.

We are two weeks into yeshiva and have accomplished a lot in the short zman before the Yamim Noraim. Aside from the seven blatt we have covered in Pesachim, we have done a lot outside of seder two

Our first week featured our annual staff barbque in the backyard, ice skating/basketball in our gym across the street, a walking tour of Har Nof with Betzalel, Tuesday "Pizza Day", a tiyul with Barnea in old city, 5:30 - 6:30 chavrutas, the Rosenbaum engagement party, our first mishmar (with chocolate cake from Zahava), Football Practice #1 and our first In Shabbos of the year.

Our second week included the reopening of the late night Candy Store, the removal of that loud construction equipment (finally!), swimming, waffles from Grandma, night seder chugim, Potato Bar, the return of the Keningsberg slushy machine, Football Practice #2 and a Shabbaton in the Old City (with another tour from Barnea around the Muslem Quarter)

And we're just getting warmed up......

What's been happening over the summer

Here's a rundown of all the noteworthy things that have happened this summer at Derech Etz Chaim while you were bein hazmanaiming......

Rav Gittleman and Rabbi Wolf started preparing mesechet Pesachim in the mornings until the girls camp showed up and chased us all out.
Some electricians came and started drilling holes all over the place.
We had a Maariv minyan Tisha B'Av night and B.J. read Eicha (Yasher Koach)
Rabbi Katz bought a few things from IKEA
There is a new beautiful fence in the front of the building
The computers are no longer downstairs (see if you can find them)
The attic had a little remodeling job
Eli Mirlis showed up and started painting the town - I mean the building

Only a week or so left...See you all on Monday August 20th

Rabbi Mendel Horowitz, M.Sc.

Congratulations to our very own R' Mendel Horowitz, who aced his final semester with straight A's in graduate school and is only two weeks away from adding the precious letters M.S.C. to his title. R' Mendel always gives his students a high standard to live up to. Derech Etz Chaim is very proud to have a such a scholar and a gentleman in our midst.

HaDran Alach Mesechet Kiddushin and Makkos

Derech Etz Chaim was misayem both mesechet Kiddushin and Mesechet Maakos this year

Amitai Scott was given the honor to misayem mesechet Kiddushin at the closing Melaveh Malka on June 16th.

The Maakos Siyum was held at the Rosh Yeshiva's house BBQ style. Below is part of the outgoing shana gimmel crew saying the hadrans in the Rosh Yeshiva's living room. Jonah Zisquit (heading IY"H to Lander College), Isaac Manaster (IY"H to Sha'ar Yashuv) and Brian Tolstano (IY"H - TBA)

Jon Degani's Wedding

What a way for Derech Etz Chaim to end the z'man. At the beautiful Kfar Maccabiah Hotel in Tel Aviv the entire yeshiva celebrated with the chassan on June 12th. The Rosh Yeshiva was the mesader kiddushin. Brachot under the chuppah were made by R' Moshe Eliyahu , R' Mendel Horowitz and R' Leibowitz. R' Sheftel read the ketubah. Alumni BJ Mermelstein and Aaron Paine were also given kibbudim.

We were glad that the yeshiva could make the wedding leibadik for Jon and that the yeshiva could get together and celebrate in such a fashion before having to say goodbye for the year.

Mazal Tov to the Recent Graduates

Mazel Tov upon your recent graduation..........

Elchanan Abrams (Lander College)
Eli Aroesty-Cohen (Yeshiva University)
Sam Calabrese (Ohio State University - Phi Beta Kappa)
Aryeh Citron (Manchester University)
Seth Faigen (Lander College)
Uri Herzberg (University of Pennsylvania Law School)
David Manheim (Lander College)
Aaron Paine (Yeshiva University)
Benjy Sassoon (Yeshiva University)
Richard Silverman (Georgetown Law School)
Mayer Weisel (Hebrew Theological College - Skokie)

Those of you who know of any other graduates that are not on the list should contact the Rosh Yeshiva at rak@ondec.net - or leave a comment

Welcome Back Peter

It's an honor to have Peter Tepler back with us in the Beis Midrash after a couple of semesters at NYU. He hopes to chazar sections of sukkah and beitzah that he learned while at NYU. We hope to see more of him next year when we take on Pesachim (IY"H)

Other Derech Etz Chaim alumni who have spent extended time with us recently are Zack Eisner who was here for a few weeks before Lag B'Omer, Sam Calebrese who joined us for the entire spring/summer zman and Benjy Sassoon who also just arrived and will be with us until the end of zman.

Ari Kellerman's Engagement

Mazal Tov to Ari Kellerman and his kallah Bashie Melman on their engagement from all of us at Derech Etz Chaim. Last year Ari was everyone's favorite Madrich at Derech Etz Chaim. Ari, we missed you in the dorms, in the beis midrash, in the softball lineup, Monday nights in the gym, on tiyulim, at breakfast and of course for morning shacharis wakeup. Most of all we missed your "shana billions" Purim skit and your "have you ever been to the water spout - the very end of the water system".

We hope your learning has been productive in YU Smicha and we are thrilled to see you acclimate beyond the dating world into the realm of engagement. Wishing we could all be there with you at this special moment - but this virtual tribute will have to do for now. Mazel Tov wishes can be sent to Kellerman via his OnlySimchas page or directly at Micro274@aol.com

Yom HaAtzmaut

Batter Up !!!!!!

Derech Etz Chaim spent Yom HaAtzmaut in Chasmonaim. A little football, a little basketball and the much anticipated softball team. Players from the 2006 AFI Softball Champion Derech Etz Chaim team were on hand to split up with the other shana alef students for a game of softball. (Here is that recognition Dani - finally!!!!!)

Top picture is shana bet bachrum Yaakov Rose (who thinks he is playing cricket) giving it a go and the bottom picture is Ari Manheim (RF, DH) showing us his power stance (Ari, keep that bat back!!!)

After a fun filled day of sun and sports, the boys enjoyed a barbeque dinner with Moshe's parents, Mr and Mrs. Steibel, at their lovely home in Chasmonaim. We wanted to personally thank the Steibel family for opening up their homes to all of us.

Thanks also to Ian King for the photo credits.

Matzah Baking at DEC

L'SHEM MATZOS MITZVAH !!!!!!!!!!!!

Once again the boys at Derech Etz Chaim baked matza with their rebbeim in the comfort of their very own cheder ochel. They kneeded, pounded, rolled, holed and baked (and quickly cleaned up again) their way to hand-made shmurah matzah. Watching the well-oiled, finely tuned "DEC machine" team churning out matzahs every nine minutes is a sight to behold.

Pictured is shana gimel, Jonah Zisquit, waiting for Rachamim to pass him a perfectly rounded matzah to perforate with holes. Afterwhich, he will yell "MAAATTTTZZZZAAAAHH !!!!!!", causing a pole laden R' Sheftel to surface through the window and bring the beautiful flat dough to its purpose and destiny - the burning oven.