The Rest of Chanukah at DEC

Monday night (2nd night of Chanukah) both R' Sheftel and the Rosh Yeshiva had shiurim for their respective afternoon shiurim. On Tuesday night it was morning seder's turn with R' Gittleman and R' Mendel both entertaining.

Here is a photo of the yeshiva singing Ma'oz Tzur on the 3rd night of Chanukah in the DEC beis midrash. The boys lit their personal menorahs in the Richard Gersten Memorial Library.

From Wednesday until Sunday the yeshiva had a brief ben hazmanim. Some students took the opportunity to travel, others spent time with parents and friends that were visiting Israel over Chanukah, but others stayed in Yeshiva and continued learning -- albeit with a less intense schedule. R' Gittleman's shiur continued to meet in the morning and some students stayed in the shiur room and continued on, long after their rebbeim had gone home....

Monday we were back to normal. R' Wolff and his shiur made a siyum on the 8th perek of Gitten and started the 9th. We are looking forward to students to step up their learning and chazarah as we enter the main stretch of winter zman about 9 weeks until Purim.

1st Night of Chanukah at DEC

Chanukah is one of those turning points of the year. Since Sukkos the students have been gradually picking up the learning. It's time to celebrate our accomplishments during Chanukah, and the light of Torah She'Bal Peh.

Sunday night, the first night of Chanukah, the Derech Etz Chaim mesibah was at R' Binyamin Wolff's house at 6:30 PM.

We had some suprise guests, like alumni Ari Galster, whose new yeshiva apparantly doesn't throw an awesome Chanukah party like DEC.

We also had R' Schwartzman, grandson of R' Aharon Kotler, who happens to be R' Wolff's upstairs neighbor, give us a shiur on "Why do we celebrate Chanukah?"

There is nothing better to work up an appetite like a shiur from R' Schwartzman!

After some lasagna, quiche and latkes, R' Betzalel Gersten gave a d'var Torah about the need to "fill our flasks with more oil" than our ancestors may have in order to "last the long, cold, windy night". Madrich and alumni Yaakov Rose brought along his guitar and filled the night with Chanukah songs.

R' Wolff finished off with a d'var Torah and plea to the students to identify all the "bags of gold" around them and gather them up while they still can.

R' Moshe Eliyahu, who also lives in the neighborhood, stopped by to visit and to endulge his "sweet tooth" with a sufganiah.

The Land Down Under

No, I'm not talking about Australia -- I'm talking about the caves of Eretz Yisrael. Yair, or the Caveman, as we like to call him, takes the yeshiva students to explore the caves outside of Beit Shemesh. Below we have the Caveman posing with shana alef Jeffrey "Mendel" Small.

It is completely dark in the caves. Students bring flashlights or use their cellphones to maneuver around the caves. Often they will turn off the flashlights and have fun groping around in the dark trying to carefully make their way through the "obstacle course' like tunnels inside the caves.

Likewise, photos in the caves are complete guesswork as flashes go off hopefully capturing a good picture. Here is a random picture of Rafi and Joey in the caves. The snow-like effect is caused by dust that circulates through the poorly ventilated caves.

If you can make out the triangular indentations in the wall, we were taught that these are actually nests for birds that come in and out of the caves, made by those that once inhabited the caves. Throughout history in Eretz Yisrael, caves like these were where many Jews hid to escape religious persecution -- l'havdil, similar to what we hear about today in places like Pakistan and Afghanistan.

Although the caves are cool, both literally and figuratively, it feels good to make your way to an exit and squint out at the large world out there after such a claustrophobic experience. Here shana bet Uri Henig squeezes out of one of the caves doorways. Come on guys...give a Uri a hand and help him out of there.

Someone's in the DEC Kitchen

Another great perk of DEC is that Kitchen is open for the students to use. Budding B'nei Torah have a chance to work on their culinary skills and perfect their chulent recipes. Above we have Nechemia with the oven mitts on and wide-eyed Jack just can't wait to rip open that bag of potatoes and get that chulent cooking.

Now every so often, as boys will be boys, the students may lose their kitchen privlidges from time to time, usually for making a big mess and not cleaning up after themselves, or snacking on prepared food in the kitchen that was supposed to be for yeshiva meals. But usually the perpertrators have a sit down with Mrs. Katz and/or Chef Doni to go over proper kitchen procedures and pretty soon the Derech Etz Chaim kitchen is vibrant with our students homemade recipies once again, like Avraham Trieger's...uh....what is that...donuts?...fried bagels?...I'm sure whatever it is tastes deeeeeelicious!!!!!

Golan Shabbaton

One of the Shabbatons that we look forward to every year at Derech Etz Chaim is the Golan Shabbaton. The yeshiva spends the Shabbos in the town of Nov and trades the urban Har Nof for a peaceful weekend in the rural Golan. It is so beautiful up in the Golan, sometimes it's hard to find our way back to Jerusalem

We don't have too many pictures from Shabbos, but we have a few from the Thursday and Friday that we spent up at the Golan. Although it is breathtaking to hike around the Golan terrain, and visit interesting historical battle sites, the students always find the Golan Winery to be the most enjoyable of all. Nechemia please give someone else a turn.

Students get to taste test different Golan wines and act as wine connisores whafting in the fruity wine aroma and swirling it around in their wine glasses. Below we have from left to right: Jeffrey Small, Alex Bistritz and Yitzy Fox learning about some of the finer points on Kosher wines.

And here is a final picture of a beautiful Golan sunset
Photo Credits: Avraham Trieger

The Derech Etz Chaim Connection

One of the most wonderful things about being a student at Derech Etz Chaim is that relationships with rebbeim and talmidim last a lifetime. A talmid at Derech Etz Chaim becomes an exclusive member of an extended family with R' Aharon Katz as our rosh yeshiva and patriarch.

When R' Katz comes to the United States to meet with potential DEC students around the country, he makes time to visit with Alumni. These days there is a giant cluster of alumni in Kew Gardens Hills, both at Lander College as well as THE HOUSE on 147-09 75th Avenue, which is home to DEC alumni working or going to graduate school in the area and basically functions as the non-official DEC Frat House.
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We are used to seeing R' Katz give his shiurim around the table, but this past Thursday night THE HOUSE living room became the setting for the alumni shiur. There were over 25 students in attendance and another 10 other alumni were live online sending in questions and comments. Morris Isaacson, one of the alumni arrange for the shiur to be live webcast, but if you missed it you can still catch it online at the following link

Another example of the connection of DEC alumni is when our talmidim get married. The custom has developed to not just invite individual friends from your year in yeshiva, but all DEC talmidim from all years of the yeshiva's existence

Two recent examples come from Josh Musicante Year 5 whose wedding is coming up IY"H in Baltimore on January 18th, as well as Ben May Years 5 and 9 (as madrich) whose wedding is scheduled IY"H for March 1st in London. These events become mini DEC reunions as rebbeim and talmidim get together and simcha dance for the chassan and kallah.

Mazel Tov to Josh, Ben and all of us. We look forward to seeing ourselves at these simchas and many more...