CYHSB WEEKLY 11.05.21

November 5, 2021

CYHSB WEEKLY Cooper Yeshiva High School for Boys

Volume 16, Issue 2 A Look Back at an Amazing Trip to Loco Ropes Page 3

Open Gym: A Great Way to Train for Basketball Page 4 Rede ning the Requirements for a Sukkah Page 5 Crazy Crosswords Page 6

This week’s CYHSB Weekly is sponsored by the CYHSB Weekly Sta in honor of Rabbi Semmel, Ms. Brandy Flack, Ms. Amanda Minner, and Mrs. Yocheved Naftel for helping us get the rst Weekly of 2021 printed.

Rabbi Meir Balofsky, giving a presentation about Bar Ilan Photo: Jessica Bau

The Return of Yeshiva Season Ezra Wiener (’23) Yeshiva, although not the only post-high school option, offers a meaningful opportunity to increase one’s faith while also getting to take in the beauty of Israel.

This past Monday, Rabbi Binny Freedman from the Yeshiva Orayta visited our school in an effort to recruit kids to attend his yeshiva. This visit marks the beginning of many yeshiva visits to come. Many seniors look forward to these yeshiva visits, as they get to see all of their options for the coming year. For students who are undecided, these visits are a

really great way of letting them know what their options are and which yeshivas would be a good fit for them. For students who have already decided where they want to go, these visits can still be beneficial as they can show students alternative options if their original yeshiva plans don’t work out.

Some visiting rebbeim also have one-on-one conversations with students who have a particular interest in their yeshiva or the various restaurants surrounding it. These personalized one-on-one conversations can be very determining which yeshiva Continued on next is page 1

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Cooper Yeshiva High School for Boys

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Yeshiva Cont.

helpful for students in determining which yeshiva is best for them and will help them make the most out of their gap years.

Now, not every yeshiva is a good fit for every person. Some students may want a yeshiva that’s learning is more spiritual. Some may want the opposite. Some students may want to go to a yeshiva in the old city, while some may want a yeshiva that is more removed. It really all depends on the person. For some, yeshiva may not be the best option at all, but regardless of what you plan on doing, there is no denying the benefits of a gap year. After four years of high school spent working hard and staying up late, it can be very difficult for people to go straight to college, where they continue to do that for three or more years. It can be very good for many students to give themselves a break and enjoy life a little bit. It has also been proven that gap years can improve one’s self-awareness, maturity, or even language skills if you decide to go out of your country.

While there are many benefits to having a gap year in general, there are also many benefits to spending that gap year in yeshiva. CYHSB alumnus Shlomo Bosin, who is now in his fourth year at Mevaseret, describes the experience as something serious and full of hard work that stays with you throughout your whole life, saying, “To call one's time in Israel a ‘gap year’ is a misnomer. The time one spends in Israel is not a gap from the normal

Joint Yeshiva Application makes applying to Yeshiva much easier. Source: yeshivaapplication.org

schedule of life. It’s not a year or two off to mess around and goof off.

The time one spends in Israel helps build their foundation in learning and yiddishkeit, which holds one steady through life.”

As we can clearly see, yeshiva isn’t something you do once and then forget about for the rest of your life; the Torah you learn stays with you and helps you throughout your entire life. Yeshiva is also great for those who really want to work on themselves.

B. Another CYHSB alumnus, Moshe Davidovics, who is now in his first year at Kerem B’Yavneh, describes yeshivah as a great opportunity to reach your full potential, saying, “The year in yeshiva allows you to have time to focus on yourself and working to make yourself the best person you could be.”

Even if someone doesn’t choose to go to yeshiva, there are still some other great options for students who want to spend their gap year in Israel. CYHSB senior Nadav Goldkin plans on attending Mechina, which he describes as “an army preparatory program where you train for the army and learn a lot more about Israeli culture.” Nadav is excited for this program as it is a great opportunity to meet new people, learn more Hebrew, and get ready for Machal service. If one wants, there are also many different types of learning programs in Israel, such as SIACH, Carmel, or Bar Ilan, which are known for their great educational programs.

Regardless of whether or not you want to go to Yeshiva or any other amazing program like Mechina, there is no doubt that any Israel program you choose will result in some of the best years of your life.

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November 5, 2021

A LookCont.

Back at an Amazing Trip to Loco Ropes AP Students Ezra Davidovics (’22) This past Tuesday, the students of the CYHSB had the opportunity to go on a spectacular trip to Loco Ropes, which is a ropes course, and so much more. This trip was actually many of the freshmen and sophomores’ first CYHSB trip.

This is quite strange for a normal class of sophomores to be going on their first trips so late, but of course, these ever-important trips were stopped last year due to COVID-19. These trips are so important because of the bonding experiences that present themselves throughout these trips, and they are so majorly important in acclimating to the high school.

Nathan Greenbaum, a freshman who also went on his first trip, said, “My first trip was a great bonding experience and helped me meet all of the other high schoolers in the CYHSB.” Their first taste of these trips was unfortunately delayed, but the underclassmen are glad that they are still getting it at all.

The actual trip was an enjoyable experience. The day started out as a regular old Tuesday, but as soon as davening was over, we all started to pack the bus with the stuff we were going to use at our destination. Once this was done, we drove off on a threeand-a-half-hour bus ride. Luckily for us, this was no dinky van; no, this was a coach bus with comfortable seating and plenty of room. So that we weren’t bored the whole time, there were plenty of different activities happening all throughout the bus. Some people reviewed the Gemara topics that they were learning, while others played games on their phones or watched movies. Once the bus ride was over, we got out to beautiful weather on the parking lot next to the course. When we arrived, we ate lunch for a little bit, explored the area, and played some games like Spikeball.

To start our Loco Ropes adventure, we went to teambuilding exercises with Bob, where we learned the lessons of communication and leadership, as well as harnessing your chi. The first thing we did with Bob was sit down and think about what we look for in a group. We then played a game where we all stood in a circle and repeated the words of a sentence one word at a time. After we managed to go all the way around the circle twice without messing up, we moved on to a game where we had to walk across a log, but if anyone fell, everybody else had to start over. Eventually, we realized that since Bob never said that we couldn’t help people across, we were allowed to, which made us move incredibly fast.

B After this, we all did trust falls together and then discussed more attributes of a good leader.

Following this leg of our journey with Bob was the actual ropes course itself. We all got harnessed

up and ascended to the trees. Once everybody went through the course, we got to go on another zipline, as well as a rock-climbing wall and a freefall. After the fun had finally died down, we went to go eat dinner. The barbeque that we had was delicious, and we all had fun playing more sports as well.

Unfortunately, after this, we had to drive back, but we came back with new memories of all the amazing experiences of our trip.

Overall this trip was unforgettable, and it was great to go on many of our first school trips. The underclassmen really felt what the CYSHB felt like before the pandemic. The feeling around the school is that this trip will help the entire school start to get back to normal after almost two years of everything but normal. Hopefully that there will be many more trips and programs throughout the year at the CYHSB.

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Nadav Goldkin zooming down a zip-line Photo: Coby Goldblatt

Cooper Yeshiva High School for Boys

November 5, 2021

Open Gym: A Great Way to Train for Basketball Nathan Greenbaum (’25)

With the absence of last year’s basketball season, many junior high and high school students were looking for an opportunity to enhance their basketball skills for the coming year.

Players have longed for the days when they could play basketball together as a team, have fun, and enjoy playing after school with their friends.

To get these players accustomed to playing once again as a team, Coach James Nokes started an open gym period after school for seventh through twelfthgrade boys who are interested in playing in the upcoming season. Open gym features training activities, basketball drills, and gameplay for vaccinated students. In order to participate, they must have sent their vaccination cards to MHA’s executive director Brandy Flack prior to joining.

With nearly all the CYHSBers playing a scrimmage game. Photo: Nathan Greenbaum students excited for the new season, you can hear the opportunity to get back into the to a year off. Most of our sports discussions throughout the gym and play basketball.” It’s opponents had their own season hallways of the CYHSB. obvious that the students are last year, so we’ll have to make up Benjamin Siegel, a senior who extremely happy to have that missed time.” missed participating in last year’s basketball back in their daily As you can see, Coach Nokes season, exclaimed, “At first I was routines, and they hope to have added this open gym period to shocked that the school was more opportunities to play like benefit the basketball team, as we opening up, but after attending the this in the future. missed a season that other teams first open gym, I began to Because of the long break due had. Open gym will also accustom remember all of the great to COVID-19, players’ skills new high school students to fully memories I had made at the haven’t been as good as they used grasp and understand what it is beginning of high school. I can’t to be during the previous seasons. like to play on a higher level wait to make more.”

Coach Nokes didn’t think that against more challenging teams.

Zev Bosin, also a senior who getting back into playing would At the end of the day, the open previously started for the Cooper be an issue. He says, “With the gym and return of the basketball Macabees, remarked, “It’s great to open gyms and the time we’ll season will be the final puzzle have the open gym back this year. officially practice once we are piece to our school year, and no For the last few months, we allowed to do so, I’m not matter what happens, we will haven’t been able to use the gym, concerned with fatigue. Our succeed and grow as a team. so it’s amazing to have the biggest challenge will be adjusting 4

CYHSB Weekly

November 5, 2021

Rede ning the Requirements for a Sukkah Shahar Cahana (’22)

By the laws that pertain to a Sukkah, we know that the halacha concerning the minimum requirement of the walls is that one needs two full walls and the third wall can even be a tefach. The Gemara at the end of the 6th and the beginning of the 7th daf deal with this law.

The Gemara poses the question of how this 3rd wall, which is a tefach, is placed? Rav answers that it should be placed at a 90degree angle. Rav Kahana and Rav Assi question this and suggest that perhaps it would be better if that small third wall is placed at a diagonal. What exactly would be the advantage of having the third wall a little bent inward. Rashi answers that it would appear as if there were four walls, despite the fact that there are only three.

The question that needs to be posed is the following: who cares that it looks like four walls? The law clearly states that you only need three walls, two full, and the third need only be a tefach.

To make it look like four seemingly has no purpose, so what exactly was the goal of Rav Kahana and Rav Assi in bending the third wall inward to make it look like a fourth?

In order to answer this question, we need to go back a few daf and turn to the fourth daf, where the Gemara deals with a scenario of what is called an itzteva. This is a platform that is in the middle of a Sukkah, touching both ends but does not reach the opening. The Halacha is that as long as the platform meets the basic dimensions of a sukkah, the platform itself becomes the sukkah, and the

The iztava described in the gemara Source: hebrewbooks.org

extra walls are psall yotzei min hasukkah (which means the walls are extra, as they are not connected to the platform). The whole sukkah is kosher, even the part of the Sukkah that does not touch the platform. It is Rashi’s comment on this Gemara that starts to shed light on our original question. Rashi comments that by this platform inside the sukkah, that the fourth wall is the opening of the Sukkah. With Rashi’s comment in mind, could it possibly be that a sukkah needs four walls? What about the law that you only need three walls? What does it mean that a sukkah would need four walls?! But perhaps that is exactly the point, that a sukkah really needs four walls. You’ll

tell me that it only needs three?

Perhaps all you can have is three because you need to be able to enter and exit the sukkah, and really a possible fourth wall is the opening (i.e. the entrance).

Because ideally, it would be there, but physically it is not possible, and the fourth wall is really in the calculation of how many walls a sukkah needs!

A proof for this logic can be found in the topic of private domain (reshus hayachid) on Shabbos. We know that on a Torah level, you only need three walls to make a private domain.

However, the Rambam (Hilchos Shabbos 14:1) says that you need four walls in order to establish a reshus hayachid on Shabbos.

Additionally, when on looking at the Continued next page

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Sukkah Cont.

Additionally, when looking at the commentators on the Rambam, the Rambam’s opinion comes out to be that you need four walls in order to make a private domain on Shabbos.

With that in mind, let’s jump back to the Gemara in Sukkah daf 7, where we are introduced to a massive chidush, that a Sukkah that only has two full walls and the third wall is only a tefach is a private domain on Shabbos, despite the third wall not being whole. The Gemara uses the logic of migo, which translates into English as “since.” This logic in Gemara says that since the law is like this for A, it is like that also for B. So in our case, since these 2 ½ walls are considered valid for a sukkah, they are considered valid to be a private domain on Shabbos, and this third wall is considered to be a full third wall, despite it not being so. But the question is, how exactly would the Rambam learn this sugya?

He requires four walls for a private domain on Shabbos, yet this sukkah which only has three

November 5, 2021

walls is considered to be a valid reshus hayachid on Shabbos. In answering this question, we may suggest that the Rambam would bring you the Rashi we learned earlier on 4a, which states that the fourth wall is the opening.

The Rambam would tell you it is the same idea here. These 2 ½ walls, which are considered to be three full walls, are actually four walls. The fourth wall in this sukkah is not there; you can’t have it there because you need an entrance, but really the fourth wall is there. So this sukkah, in theory, has four walls, and that is why it can be a private domain, as the Gemara suggests. This would work perfectly according to the Rambam’s method.

Because it is not three, but rather four walls, and we can conclude with this logic that a sukkah really has and needs four walls.

But, we cannot physically have all four walls due to the problem mentioned above, so instead, we have three physical walls, and the fourth wall is considered to be the entrance.

Now we can tie all of this information back to Rav Kahana and Rav Assi’s comment that the 3rd wall of a sukkah, which is a tefach, should be bent inwards.

Because, as Rashi said, it would look like four walls. We had asked what the point of it looking like four walls if you only need three was.

With what we have just established, we can say just that a sukkah ideally should have four walls, but it is simply physically impossible because you need an entrance. That is why Rav Kahana and Rav Assi were asking Rav why the 3rd wall, which is a tefach, was not bent inward to make it look like the sukkah had four walls. Because in Rav Kahana and Rav Assi’s mind, four walls is the ideal composition of a sukkah. To make it look like a sukkah to look physically as close as possible to four walls would seemingly have been the optimal solution.

Crazy Crosswords Last week’s solution

The rst one to send in a completed puzzle to

Can you guess the CYHSBers?

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ezra.wiener@mhafyos.org will receive a shoutout!

Cooper Yeshiva High School for Boys

November 5, 2021

Loco Trip to Loco Ropes

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November 5, 2021

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

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From the Editor: As the year progresses, the senior students’ focus shifts from college plans to

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

yeshiva plans. The school trip offered a meaningful team-building and reflection opportunity that

Zevi Kirshtein| zevi.kirshtein@mhafyos.org

allowed for relaxation

CYHSB Weekly Staff

during this important

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 Ranaan Vanderwalde | ranaan.vanderwalde@mhafyos.org Nadav Lowell | nadav.lowell@mhafyos.org Jojo Ardestani | jonathan.ardestani@mhafyos.org Nathan Greenbaum | nathan.greenbaum@mhafyos.org

process. The open gyms have also served this purpose while helping students improve their basketball skills before the season.

-Michael Baum

Administrative Advisors

Rabbi Baruch Harris & Mrs. Ashley Brown

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