Torah Torah

The Boiling Point • January 2020 • Torah 10 Torah JANUARY 2020

Rabbi Tsaidi’s Gemara classes work on improving mitzvah observance

By Bayley Sandler, Staff Writer

Rabbi Yagil Tsaidi has started a mitzvah program that promotes doing meaningful but small things, so students can better themselves over time.

He calls it avodat hanefesh, which literally means service of the soul -- though it doesn’t exactly translate. “I call it avodat hanefesh, which means, like, working on your soul,” Rabbi Tsaidi said in an interview. ”I mean, someone should be proud of themselves but there is always, always room for improvement.”

To make this happen, Rabbi Tsaidi last fall asked students to choose three mitzvot to do every day for three months. Things like giving tzedakah (charity), wearing tzitzit and davening (praying) twice a day were each assigned a certain number of points, and to earn the points, the student must perform the mitzvah every day.

How many points each one is worth depends on how far out of their way the person has to go to fulfill it, Rabbi Tsaidi said. For example, tzedakah is worth one point because any shul you go to, there is a tzedakah box, but it isn’t always easy resisting the temptation of using your phone on Shabbat, so that’s worth more.

Students who earn eight points will be invited to a dinner together at La Gondola, he said, but the reward is not the point of the exercise. “The reward is a little nudge, a little push,” Rabbi Tsaidi said in an interview with the Boiling Point.

The program’s goal, he said, is to encourage Judaic improvement beyond the classroom. All three of his Gemara classes -- two juniors and one sophomore -- are participating. Rabbi Tsaidi said he got the idea from teaching at a yeshiva back when he lived in Israel, but that his students at Shalhevet helped him realize the necessity of the program here. He thought of it when he noticed that special events he planned didn’t seem to have a long-term effect.

Among these were Mishmar -- after-school learning -- and hosting celebrations of learning at his home. Such a celebration is called a tisch, literally a rabbi’s “table.”

“I felt like I was having a lot of events that were like a one-off, like a mishmar or a tisch or stuff like that… and kids were singing and we turned the lights off and we’d dance and etcetera, and at that moment, we were all inspired,” Rabbi Tsaidi said.

“It felt like the next day, when I would see the kids who were over that night… like they already [had had] so much school work they forgot about it,” he said. “Like no longer in their head.” When he started avodat hanefesh, Rabbi Tsaidi first suggested a few basic mitzvot, like tzedakah (donations to charity), but then opened the floor to suggestions from his students. Some proposed mitzvot like kashrut or tzniut -- modesty.

His hope is to make a lasting impact as opposed to a short-lived one, by offering students a way to practice Judaism in small ways, through everyday actions. For some, it seems to be working.

Sophomore Amanda Wannon chose kashrut and Shabbat.

“Some days are harder than others,” said Amanda, “and since I know it’s up to me if I wanna stop or not, I don’t feel so pressured to continue. I like that it’s on my own terms.”

But she did continue to practice them throughout winter break.

Fellow sophomore Haïm Oliel chose two mitzvot: wearing tzitzit and davening twice a day. After a week of doing those things every day, Haim said that he had felt an impact already.

“It’s brought me closer to Judaism and it’s kind of helping me figure out what life’s all about,” said Haïm, “because Judaism is a big part of our lives and I just want to like expand and feel closer to what Judaism is.”

Junior Alessandra Judaken used avodat hanefesh as an opportunity to try out a mitzvah that she had been interested in for a while: shomer negiah, or not touching anyone of the opposite gender.

“A lot of people keep asking me like, ‘Oh, you’re just being shomer negiah just for the sake of the La Gondola dinner,’ and that’s not it at all,‘“ Alessandra said. “I frankly don’t even care if I get it. It’s really just kind of, it was a little push and it was the push that I needed.”

She said she felt holier keeping more distance from her male friends.

“The best part is knowing I can maintain such a strong relationship with them, without touch but connecting through the soul,” Alessandra said.

Rabbi Tsaidi said that the dinner would happen in three to four months so that more students can reach the point goal and attend.

“The goal is to make sure more kids get involved,” said Rabbi Tsaidi. BP Photo By Maia Lefferman FRIENDS: Juniors Alessandra Judaken and Lenny Wolkind talked on the turf last week. As part of the avodat hanefesh unit for Rabbi Tsaidi, Alessandra decided to focus on shomer negiah. It’s brought me closer to Judaism and it’s kind of helping me figure out what life’s all about. -- Haïm Oliel, 10th Grade

With last candle, thoughts on taking Hanukkah into rest of the year

By Rachel Lasry, Staff Writer

As Modern Orthodox Jews, we’re all well versed in the practice of combining our authentic selves with who we feel we are supposed to be. We’re constantly struggling, always forced onto the middle ground that lies between being an ordinary American teenager and being a Modern Orthodox Jew.

We’re always in the middle ground between the two parts of ourselves, the part that wants to wear pants and the part that wants to wear skirts, the part that wants to go to yeshiva and the part that wants to start college, the part that looks forward to keeping Shabbat and the part that’s waiting for Saturday night. It’s hard to know when is a time to adapt and follow our teenage instincts and when our Orthodoxy should trump all else. It’s easy to get lost in one or the other.

We all know how the story of Chanukah played out, and it all began with the assimilation of many Jews into Greek culture. On the one hand, I remember hearing this story as a child and thinking that I could never just be brainwashed into losing my Judaism in another culture. On the other, maybe assimilation isn’t as simple a subject as we thought. As people who are immersed in varying cultures ourselves, we know it’s possible to feel we have multiple facets to our identity. So the question of Hanukkah remains. Is assimilation an issue today? How do we approach conflicts between our identity as American teenagers and our identity as Modern Orthdox Jews? While we aren’t assimilated to a concerning point as were the Jews of the Maccabees’ time, we definitely must take caution when living a Modern Othodox lifestyle. Choosing to be single-faceted in many ways is the easier choice. However, there’s no clean-cut rulebook for Modern Orthodoxy, no dictionary definition, and it’s up to us to lead our Westernized lifestyles while maintaining our Modern Orthodox morals, no matter how hard it can be.

Being caught between two identities is never easy, but at the end of the day it makes our character that much stronger. This Hanukkah, celebrate the God given miracle that is your authenticity. Celebrate that you can choose to be whoever you want to be, even if it’s not the cookie-cutter Jew or American teenager that typically exists.

Celebrate that you have the freedom and the opportunities to be both. And as you leave this holiday behind, carry all parts of yourself into your future with pride, never losing sight of who you are.

Tu B’shvat: Who grows the fruit?

Liad Machmali, Torah Editor

The “new year” of the trees, also referred to as the birthday of the trees or Tu B’shvat, meaning the 15th of Shvat, is coming up this year on Feb.10. You can celebrate it by having a seder, consisting of various fruits, nuts and vegetables commonly associated with the land of Israel -- figs, grapes, barley, olives and pomegranates, for example -- or simply by eating these things throughout the day.

The Talmudic rabbis originally meant for Tu B’shvat to assist farmers in determining when the trees were ready to blossom and start a new produce-bearing cycle. Any fruit that was harvested from the trees before Tu B’shvat is considered produce of the previous year, and what’s harvested after is counted as produce of the new tree year. Maaser -- the requirement for a Jew to give one-tenth of agricultural produce to charity-- relies on these calculations, a kind of religious tax applied to produce.

However, this tax is not like the ones paid to the U.S. government, through which you can easily recognize that you are paying for your safety, paved roads, protected freedoms, etcetera. This maaser tax -- to God -- is given with the expectation of not receiving anything in return, as God is ultimately the creator of the universe and with that, the “Owner” of the trees.

This reality is not always easy to remember, especially when you are the person working hard labor and putting immense effort into taking care of these trees. It feels as though, “Why do I have to give my produce away if I worked so hard to earn it?” The answer -- the proof -- is rain. The rainy season in Israel usually ends before Tu B’shvat. This means that by the time the holiday arrives, the trees have all the nutrition they will receive in order to grow and flourish in the coming year. Whatever a farmer does for his trees to cultivate the fruit, God is the orchestrator of rain and without it, the trees would not be able to blossom in the first place.

How does this apply to everyday life? It’s quite clear: no matter how powerful you are or your achievements, whether you got 100 on your

math test or scored the winning shot for your basketball team, it would not be possible without the help of God. Of course, your efforts in studying for five hours the night before and practicing your aim at the net were all very critical for your success -- but we must always come back to relying on God, and recognizing that He granted each and every individual with the resources needed for one to draw upon.

Tu Bishvat is another way in which we can focus on God, who is ultimately responsible for this fruit. Farmers worked hard to grow their produce, but without the help of God and His blessings of rain, the trees would not have been given the opportunity to flourish and grow.

So next time you earn a sense of pride or congratulate yourself for doing well on a math test, make sure to take the time and thank God too, as this victory would never have been possible without Him. You might even want to say a blessing before you eat your next piece of fruit.

BP Graphics By Zev Kupferman

Whatever a farmer does for his trees to cultivate the fruit, God is the orchestrator of rain and without it, the trees would not be able to blossom in the first place.

Visit from Rav Judah sheds a Hasidic light on prayer

Liad Machmali, Torah Editor

When Rabbi Judah Mischel made his annual visit this year, students once again engaged with a Hasidic perspective that they don’t always encounter in their regular Judaic Studies program.

Rabbi Mischel, known simply as “Rav Judah,” says he tries to embody Hasidism personally while teaching it in many different ways.

“I think that it’s what I desire for myself and my own family — to really believe in what we’re doing,” Rav Judah said in an interview, “to really cultivate a sense that Hashem is interested in us, that God believes in what we’re doing and that everything that’s happening to us in life is meaningful and important.”

“If I’m trying to transmit that in my teaching, it’s because I’m trying to live with that myself,” he said.

No one knows exactly how long Rabbi Mischel has been coming to Shalhevet. He has been a Scholar-in-Residence each year since 2014, and before that he sometimes visited when in Los Angeles for other teachings.

This year, Shalhevet’s administration asked Rav Judah to teach about tefillah — prayer. Over a period of four days, he taught two sessions in each grade, guided a parent-teen learning session on Oct. 29, and met with groups of students about incorporating prayer into their everyday lives.

The topic was a natural fit for a Hasidic outlook. “Tefillah is something that every human being is engaged in and working on and struggling with, it’s the creation of the world,” Rav Judah said.

“King David — David Hamelech — described prayers [as] ve’ani tefillah” — meaning, I am prayer, he said. “The goal of tefillah is recognizing that our entire life, that we ourselves, are prayer. There’s nothing that more encapsulates and expresses the goal of our lives than living prayerfully.”

Hasidic thought, also known as Hasidut, began as a search for meaning among Polish Jews in the 18th century. It emphasizes the need for the Jewish people to love one another, as well as the importance of developing a relationship with God, as opposed to simply following the Torah as a rigid code of law.

According to Rabbi David Block, head of Judaic Studies and Associate Head of School, Rav Judah explores ideas that the school’s curriculum does not always teach, even though it fits into the school’s philosophy.

“We don’t always get an opportunity to explore Hasidic thought, and all of the other pieces of Torah that he brings, and that’s simply a function of our curriculum,” Rabbi Block said. “But I think it’s also really important to be exposed to different ways of thinking, of learning, and I think he brings that.” Rabbi Block, who along with Rabbi Yagil Tsaidi chose the topic of tefillah for Rav Judah’s teaching this year, said tefillah is something Shalhevet’s faculty is constantly trying to improve.

“Many people at some point struggle with tefillah and it’s hard,” Rabbi Block said. “This is not just a Shalhevet issue. This is a community issue. How do you make tefillah more meaningful and engaging? So we thought Rav Judah is someone who both has unbelievable Torah on this and is a deeply spiritual person, but has also probably struggled with this himself.”

Rav Judah said that as a child, he did not feel the same connection towards Judaism that he does today. He said he was raised in a “proud Jewish home,” with parents who did not have any formal Jewish education. However, his parents made sure that he received a strong Jewish education.

“I didn’t always find meaning in observance,” Rav Judah said. “I certainly didn’t find meaning in all of the traditions but always identified with the cultures and symbols of Judaism.”

He said his years of teaching experience have shown him that students all experience the same struggles.

“The hardest thing for U.S. high school students is probably the hardest things for high school students in general, for teenagers in general, and for most people,” said Rav Judah. “To really know that we have a unique role to play in the world, to believe in ourselves, to know that our efforts in Yiddishkeit matter.”

Most of the year Rav Judah lives in Israel. But during summers, Rav Judah works as the Executive Director of the Hebrew Academy for Special Children, also known as Camp HASC, a Jewish summer camp in New York for boys and girls with special needs.

Head of School Rabbi Ari Segal said Rav Judah brings something unique to everyone he encounters. “Rav Judah is really a one-of-a-kind human being and I have loved what he has brought to our school – in his work with students, parents and faculty,” Rabbi Segal said.

Except for his summers at Camp HASC, Rav Judah lives most of the year in Ramat Beit Shemesh, Israel, with his wife, Ora, and their eight children.

He also has served as a member of the Judaic Studies staff at the Frisch School in Paramus, N.J. After making aliyah, Rav Judah taught at Yeshivat Reishit in Beit Shemesh for 10 years. He is also the founder of an organization devoted to inspiring and connecting Jews with each other, called of Tzama Nafshi. After so many visits, students have come to expect a certain style and mood from Rav Judah’s lessons. Junior Sophie Handelman says that his shiurs have had a lasting impact on her.

“He taught us about knowing your worth and having confidence in yourself, and it really made me think about it in a different way,” said Sophie. “I was thinking about it for a while after.”

Freshman Avi Litvak says Rav Judah’s discussions are interactive. “I really enjoyed how he discussed the Torah with us and asked everyone individual questions,” said Avi. “He made sure that everyone was part of the conversation.”

Sophomore Jessica Melamed wished he’d spoken about more topics.

“The school should’ve had him talk about multiple topics, not just tefillah, because I felt that it just got really redundant,” said Jessica. “I saw him four times and he spoke about tefillah all four times,” she said.

Rav Judah said he appreciates the feedback he gets from students at Shalhevet.

“It’s rare to find a community that’s so dynamic and open where there’s just a little challenge, fact-checking, a little push back, in a respectful way as part of a search for truth together,” he said.

He describes himself as “a Jew who’s really trying to try his best, to be a good person, to live life to the fullest, to reveal Hashem in the world.”

“I don’t always feel this close but I always want to feel close,” he said. “There is no such thing as a Jew who’s far. Our Yiddishkeit is what we are, it’s not just what we do.” YIDDISHKEIT: At a parent-teen learning session Oct. 29, Rav Judah taught about the meaning of tefillah and how to bring it into daily life. BP Photo By Liad Machmali He taught us about knowing your worth and having confidence in yourself, and it really made me think about it in a different way. — Sophie Handelman, 11th grade