Simchas Torah at DEC

After a month at Derech Etz Chaim our students have already covered the first perek of Gitten in bekiyus seder. After an uplifiting Rosh HaShana and Yom Kippur and V'Samachta B'Chagecha Succos, it was time to sing, dance and celebrate with the Torah.

At Derech Etz Chaim, the students observer 2 days of Yom Tov which means 4 sets of 7 hakafot. Although sometimes it gets exhausting the Rosh Yeshiva remarked how this year was the most energetic and leibadig Simchas Torah in recent memory.

To keep the excitement going, on the second night we encourgaed the guys to take to the streets. Even though the festival was over for the DEC staff, the rebbeim joined the yeshiva boys for hakafot shniyot. The boys also "crashed" a hakafa with our next door neighbor Machon Yaakov

Shana Bet on the Beach

After spending a year of learning in Israel, one of the most monumental decisions a student can make is to stay Shana Bet. After a year of breaking bad habits, fine tuning life goals and developing learning skills, Shana Bet is about blasting off in the rockship that you have built Shana Alef shooting for the stars.

Shana Bet brings with it a lot of responsibility. It is important to be role models for the Shana Alef students, to bring the ruach on Shabbos meals and Onegs and to set the tone in the Beis Midrash. At Derech Etz Chaim, Shana Bet is synonomous with R' Zalman Gittleman and R' Moshe Eliyahu Rosenbaum, the morning Iyun shiur and the afternoon Bekiut shiur, respectively.

Shana Bet has its priviliges as well. Above Shana Bet students Yeruchum Pliner and Adam Siebzener join R' Moshe Eliyahu for Shabbos in Netanya. Here they are returning from the private beach on Friday, after an opportunity to say Tashlich and relax by shore.

Working Up An Appetite

At Derech Etz Chaim, our students develop a strong hunger for Gemara and a thirst for Torah knowledge. Naturally, this spiritual appetite of the soul manifests itself in the physical appetite of their digestive systems.

Here we have shana bet students (left to right) Yeruchum Pliner, Adam Siebzener, Sam Ash and Meir Gersten loading up on refreshments before sitting down to review the first perek of mesechet Gittin in R' Moshe Eliyahu's shiur

Tiyul to Ein Gedi and the Dead Sea

Our first full-day tiyul started off in Ein Gedi. Our fearless tour guide and DEC alumni Danny Sokol took us through lots of water on a very hot day in Ein Gedi. The views were stunning, but more importantly, the guys got to see first hand where all of their Ein Gedi water bottles come from.
We all got back in the bus and headed a little further south to the Dead Sea. We round a pretty deserted spot on the beach and we all went in for a float. Below we have Adam Siebzener, Avraham Trieger and Joshua Gersten showing off the Dead Sea's buoyancy powers.


We finished off the evening with a barbeque on the beach. The guys had an awesome time. Yeruchum Pliner, a shana bet student said that the tiyul was probably the best tiyul he had ever been on since coming to Derech Etz Chaim, then he paused, thought for a minute and said, "Well, maybe tied with the Golan tiyul at the end of last year."