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.