CYHSB Weekly Jan. 7, 2022

January 7, 2022

CYHSB WEEKLY Cooper Yeshiva High School for Boys

Volume 16, Issue 5 Calvin and Hobbes Page 2

The Emergence of the Omicron Variant Page 3 Evil Opposite Your Faces: A Deeper Look Page 4 Classical Music Returns to Steak Dinner Page 6

This week’s CYHSB Weekly is sponsored by the CYHSB Weekly sta in honor of this week’s issue.

Steak Dinner Returns a er missing out on it last year. Source: MHA Facebook Page

Steak Dinner’s Long Awaited Triumphant Return Shahar Cahana (’22) The steak dinner, a yearly tradition here in the CYHSB, is a school fundraiser in which we serve food and provide the guests with entertainment. People get to come for an evening and enjoy themselves. In past years this dinner has been a tremendous success, and most of the community attended and enjoyed it. Even those who were not able to make it were able to order a dinner that they would be able to pick up and take home.

Last year because of COVID, we were not able to make our yearly steak dinner, which was okay since we were able to find an alternative. However, there was definitely something that was missing, something traditional that COVID took away from us. But no more, because this year, the steak dinner is back with all its glory and with the wonderful food and entertainment. Students have been told to make phone calls to get reservations. The filming for

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Cooper Yeshiva High School for Boys

Cooper Yeshiva High School for Boys

the commercials is already underway, and so is the preparation for the musical part of the entertainment which we have every year.

The preparation for this steak dinner will be a new experience for half of our school. Due to the dinner being canceled last year, all the underclassmen have never experienced preparing for a steak dinner before, which creates a unique situation in the school, one that has not happened before. But not to worry, because this dinner has been around for so long, everyone has been caught up and knows what they need to do. Some of the 9th-grade students seem to be eager to take part in the upcoming steak dinner. Rafi Goldkin said that he is “super excited to experience the famous steak dinner for the first time in my high school career.” iiiiiEzra Davidovics showed optimism saying that he was “grateful that events like this are returning.”

The preparation the day before is always intense, making sure that every detail is correct. Students, with the help of Rabbi Gersten, put in hours making sure that everything from the food to the setup is done in the correct way to the very last detail. Students could be staying up until midnight the night before and work from the morning the next day until the

January 7, 2022

Avi Klein, Nadav Goldkin, Noam Cahana, and Nadav Weiss pose for a photo at Steak Dinner two years ago. Photo: Jessica Baum afternoon when dinner starts while preparing everything.

There is also always the clean-up after, which takes a while. Just like before, students get hard at work cleaning up.

Many people think that working this hard for a long time is exhausting.

Don’t get me wrong, it is. But there is always something rewarding about putting a lot of effort into something, and seeing the fruit of your labor. The hard work allows for students to work as a team and do something that they don’t do the rest of the school year. At the end of the day, despite the hard work, it seems that everyone has enjoyed themselves.

As explained above, there are several things that happen during the dinner itself. The first is obviously that you are served dinner. Another facet of the

dinner is the commercials; sponsors of the dinner have commercials that are filmed and are presented at the dinner.

These are commercials created by the students and have a comedic and humorous side to them, and everyone enjoys them every year. Another facet of the entertainment is the music that is played at the beginning. We have several students prepare a piece to play for the entire community. This all combines for a great experience and for a wonderful night.

Overall, the steak dinner is a great experience for the community and for the student body. We are looking forward to continuing this annual tradition. The dinner is on February 14th, and we hope to see you there.

Calvin and Hobbes

CALVIN AND HOBBES © Watterson. Reprinted with permission of ANDREWS MCMEEL SYNDICATION. All rights reserved.

CYHSB Weekly

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Cooper Yeshiva High School for Boys

January 7, 2022

AP Emergence Students Cont.

The of the The Omicron Variant

Ethan Vanderwalde (’25) Omicron. Most people have probably heard this word recently, along with other words such as lock-down, variant, and highlycontagious. This new variant of Covid-19 was originally discovered in South Africa and was classified as a Variant of Concern on November 26th by the World Health Organization. Even though studies show that it is not as severe as the Delta variant, it is still highly contagious, and it only took three weeks for it to become the dominant strain of Covid in the United States. For comparison, the Delta variant took over three months. Covid cases in the U.S. have surged 83% in the past two weeks, with an average of 214,500 cases per day (as of December

Shelby County has enjoyed a relatively Covid-free few months.

The number of new cases has dropped to about 100 cases per day since the surge in September. Daily cases have started to rise in the past few weeks, with 309 new cases per day as of December 17th. Covid cases have surged in the Memphis Jewish community, and the Covid announcement emails have been rolling in. MHA is enforcing a strict masking policy to help ensure the safety of students and faculty. They require students and faculty experiencing Covid symptoms to stay home.

Because of the Omicron variant and the surge of Covid cases it is causing, Israel has deemed the United States a “red country,” and has restricted travel between the

The Omicron variant is one of the most contagious variants we’ve seen yet. Source: axios.com

26th). Over 73% of those cases have been from the Omicron variant. This dangerous Omicron variant’s impacts on the CYHSB and broader Memphis community are clear.

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U.S. and Israel. Many winter break plans have been canceled because of this, with families not being able to visit their relatives in Israel. One such family is the Mendelsons, who had to cancel their trip to Israel to

visit their son Benjamin, a CYHSB alumnus. They also had their plans to visit Israel canceled in March and had really hoped that they would be able to go this December.

Mrs. Tracey Mendelson said regarding this predicament: “In March we planned a summer trip to Israel with friends, only to be diverted to Utah. We laughed and enjoyed our time out of town even though it wasn’t our first choice destination. This December we feel a little different. Not only were our plans cancelled, but we were barred from seeing our son Benjamin and our good friends for a second time.

Today we are very disappointed and miss everyone even more. We are still holding out hope to go soon, but a little anxious about navigating all the protocols when air travel returns.” Thousands of Jewish families just like the Mendelsons are waiting anxiously to see their loved ones, praying that the Israeli borders open up for “red countries.” iiiiiCovid cases will continue to surge in the U.S., and there will most definitely be more bad news regarding Omicron, but there is a light at the end of the tunnel. Dr. Anthony Fauci, Chief Medical Advisor to the President of The United States, predicted that this Omicron surge will probably start to recede soon, saying, “I would imagine, given the size of our country and the diversity of vaccination versus not vaccination, that it will likely be more than a couple of weeks, probably by the end of January, I would think.”

New Year’s and the start of 2022 might not be the Covid-free time we were expecting, but hopefully, we will get through this dark tunnel very soon.

Cooper Yeshiva High School for Boys

January 7, 2022

AP Students Cont.

“Evil Is Opposite Your Faces:” A Deeper Look

Ezra Davidovics (’24) This week’s parsha is parshas Bo. In parshas Bo, Hashem delivers the last three plagues, Arbeh, Choshech, and Makas Bechoros. After this, all of Bnei Yisrael are commanded with the mitzvos of Pesach and they have the very first seder. Before Paroah had finally let the Jews go, he had, of course, refused many times. One of these times was in perek yud pasuk yud when Paroah was in the middle of refusing Moshe’s plea to let the Jews go out of Egypt. In his refusal, Paroah says, “See that evil is opposite your faces.” What does this sentence really mean? What does this even have to do with the rest of Paroah’s refusal?

The Ramban actually asks the exact same question. His answer is simple, let’s look at Rashi’s answer.

Unfortunately, Rashi’s answer is to look at, without bothering to elaborate, Onkelos’s answer which is far less simple as there are multiple interpretations and versions of the Onkelos that Rashi quotes.

The first explanation of what Onkelos says is that “For the evil that you intend to do has istecharas opposite your faces.” The Ramban translates this to mean that the evil that you thought to do, fleeing, will sit opposite you and testify against you that want to run out of Egypt.

The Ramban also brings many more examples of where this word, istecharas, to testify against or to sit.

The second of the Ramban’s interpretations of the Onkelos is that Paroah said, “The evil that you intend to do is to turn around toward your faces.” This means that again the evil that they are doing would be fleeing Egypt and Paroah is saying that it will turn around in their faces.

The Ramban explains the Onkelos even deeper saying that Paroah was

The Jews painted their doors posts with lamb blood as a sign for the Angel of Death to pass over their homes. Source: ca edoutbelievers.org

saying that the act of trying to flee Egypt would boomerang and instead of freeing the Jews, it would greatly damage them. According to this interpretation, istecharas means to turn around and he brings more sources to back that up.

One of those sources is a midrash that says that Paroah would agree with letting the older people make korbanos but not okay with the young people going, saying that only people who wanted to flee would say that. He then said that they won’t leave and that they will be hurt with harder work.

The third and final version and interpretation of Onkelos is that Paroah meant to say that “The look on your face is not able to turn away.” The Ramban explains to mean that Paroah had seen the looks on Moshe’s and Aharon’s faces and saw that their true intentions were to flee from Egypt and he was using

their expressions as the reason that he would not be allowing them to leave Egypt.

Having seen all of the different interpretations of the Onkelos, the Ramban decided to give his own answer. His answer is that Paroah meant to say, “Know that evil is standing before your faces.” This means that Paroah would inflict upon them pain evilly if they were to show a desire to flee.

In conclusion, Rashi had an answer saying that the interpretation goes like Onkelos. The Ramban brought down three different explanations as to what the Onkelos’s answer is. And finally, the Ramban disagrees with all of them citing his own explanation that he finds the most sound one.

And finally, the Ramban disagrees with all of them citing his own explanation that he finds the most sound one.

Check out the CYHSB’s Instagram @weekly2k21!!

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Cooper Yeshiva High School for Boys

January 7, 2022

Winter is Here Top Right: Zev Bosin and Benjamin Siegel enjoy skiing. Photo: Zev Bosin Top Le : CYHSB’rs enjoy footba in the snow. Photo: @weekly2k22 on Instagram Bottom Right: Ra Goldkin jumps for joy at the start of winter break. Photo: Zev Bosin Bottom Le : Benjamin Siegel, Coby Goldblatt, and Zevi Kirshtein take a sel e in the snow.

Photo: Benjamin Siegel

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Cooper Yeshiva High School for Boys

January 7, 2022

Classical Music Returns to the Steak Dinner Noam Cahana (’22) I remember my freshman year when Rabbi Gersten approached me to play at the Steak Dinner. At that time, there was simply not enough time to prepare; however, I told myself that I needed to play at the Steak Dinner at least once during my high-school career. The years passed, and I never played, not during my sophomore year or junior year. However, I have one last shot this year, and I fully intend to take advantage of this amazing opportunity.

Of course, I could not play alone, so Shahar and I decided that we needed to find an appropriate duet to play at this event. I scoured the internet for something that was good but was not satisfied with anything I found. They were simply pieces I would have played when I was in middle school. However, one day while on Youtube, I listened to three people perform Czardas by Vittorio Motti. Originally composed for violin, mandolin, or piano, this piece is based on the Hungarian folk dance, Czárdás hence the piece’s name. I heard this piece many times and would have never considered this as an option because of how many times I heard it; I considered it basic and boring.

However, they performed it so well in this Youtube video that I immediately knew that this was a piece worthy for the Steak Dinner.

However, there was one problem: we needed someone for the piano part, so we asked Ethan Vanderwalde to join and perform with us. He agreed, and the three of

Noam Cahana, Shahar Cahana, and Ethan Vanderwalde prepare for their act for the Steak Dinner.

us started practicing this piece of music.

I wanted a piece that was not too simple yet not too hard; it would be challenging as we struggle to master it, but we would have to be able to finish it before dinner. This piece presented the perfect challenge as it had shifts that take time to master on the violin, challenging high positions on the cello, and piano chords that would be tough to master. This piece is a famous and wonderful piece of classical music history. One of the things that makes it so great is that if one literally plays what they see on the music page, it will sound bland.

There needs to be an emphasis and certain techniques that go along with the piece to make it what it is.

The challenges that this piece presents need to be worked on, and there is still a long way to go before the three of us will be ready to perform. It is the struggle, the trial and error, and the practice that will allow us to deliver this piece. It is hard, but that is what will make it so amazing. It gives you a feeling of accomplishment once you are finished.

I remember Ethan saying after we finished, “Who picked such a hard piece?” and I responded, “Me, I did.” But it was clear that even though it was challenging, we are all motivated to do the absolute best we can when we deliver this piece at the steak dinner on February 14th.

See the Weekly’s New Digital Copy at issue.com/mrsashleybrown!

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Cooper Yeshiva High School for Boys

January 7, 2022

Crazy Crosswords

Can you gure out the names?

The rst one to send in a completed puzzle to nadav.weiss@mhafyos.org will receive a shoutout!

Note: All answers can be found in the articles themselves.

Last Week’s Solution

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Cooper Yeshiva High School for Boys

January 7, 2022

Sponsor an Issue A sponsorship is a great way to honor the memory of a loved one, celebrate an accomplishment, or just show appreciation to the CYHSB Weekly. We reach hundreds of people each week, helping to get your announcement out for just $20.

CYHSB Weekly Staff Editor-in-Chief Michael Baum | michael.baum@mhafyos.org

Assistant Editor Zev Bosin | zev.bosin@mhafyos.org

Layout Editor Ezra Wiener | ezra.wiener@mhafyos.org

Editors Benjamin Siegel | benjamin.siegel@mhafyos.org Shahar Cahana | shahar.cahana@mhafyos.org Avi Klein| avi.klein@mhafyos.org

Complaint Manager Zevi Kirshtein| zevi.kirshtein@mhafyos.org

CYHSB Weekly Staff Coby Goldblatt | coby.goldblatt@mhafyos.org Nadav Goldkin | nadav.goldkin@mhafyos.org Noam Cahana | noam.cahana@mhafyos.org Aidan Kahane | aidan.kahane@mhafyos.org Gavi Peiser | gavi.peiser@mhafyos.org Ezra Davidovics | ezra.davidovics@mhafyos.org Yosef Vanderwalde | yosef.vanderwalde@mhafyos.org Ra Somer | ra .somer@mhafyos.org Ethan Vanderwalde | ethan.vanderwalde@mhafyos.org Raanan Vanderwalde | raanan.vanderwalde@mhafyos.org Nadav Lowell | nadav.lowell@mhafyos.org Jojo Ardestani | jonathan.ardestani@mhafyos.org Nathan Greenbaum | nathan.greenbaum@mhafyos.org Nadav Weiss | nadav.weiss@mhafyos.org

From the Editor: As we return from winter break and begin 2022, we look towards and prepare for the upcoming Steak Dinner on February 14th. This marks a return to “normalcy” following the start of the Covid-19 pandemic. The dinner will be an entertaining event filled with classical music and hilarious commercials. If you have not already done so, we would appreciate any sponsorships and/or reservations for the dinner. With the rise of the Omicron variant, we hope everyone stays healthy, and we wish anyone currently sick a refuah shelema.

Administrative Advisors

Rabbi Baruch Harris & Mrs. Ashley Brown

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