Stollel Tamid: January 2009

Friday, January 30, 2009

The Avodah of Shevat

As the Queens and Washington Heights-branches of the Underground Chassidic Movement continue to slowly and subtly slip Stollel like behavior into "normal" society (i.e. intense clapping, spontaneous rikudim and niggunim...), our Rosh Kollel, R' Moshe Tzvi has been on the streets in an attempt to rejuvinate the Bergen County base.

This past Thursday night, R' Moshe gave a shiur in Bergenfield entitled "The Avodah of Shevat: Thawing out Frozen Trees." The shiur can be found HERE for those who wish to listen. Note the shout out to the Stollel about ten minutes in.

Enjoy!

Wednesday, January 28, 2009

A Search for Lost Things

HAVE YOU SEEN ME?

I was reluctant to use the blog for my own selfish needs but I have sunk to a new level of helplessness in this journey of recovering my lost things. I come now in an attempt to awaken the z'chus of the Stollel Ha'Kadosh:

This past Monday night/Tuesday morning my laptop was taken from the Muss Beis Midrash (sometimes referred to as the "Klein Beis Midrash"). I have left it there on many other occasions and had no reason to suspect that this night would be different. I am usually in there until a decent hour but that night I left my laptop charging on a table near the door and retired early. The last one out of the Beis Midrash was one of the Albert-twins and he assured me that he saw it as he departed. He figured I would return later in the evening.

From my experience, I am aware that students do not come into the Muss Beis Midrash at the hours of the incident. What does enter the doors between 2AM and 6:30AM is a whole bunch of foreskin. I am nearly certain that one of the YU employed areilim removed my computer and took it for his own needs, (though at this point, everyone is suspect...even sruli.)

After a long night of sleuthful detective work led by A. Lichtschein, Gabby Danielli and Garritanya, we had made some progress. We interrogated the extremely cracked security guard outside Muss, we questioned my good pal the kind colored fellow who cleans the Annex and the Main Beis during the late night hours (it turns out he's not really 25 but is 37 and a grandfather! Mazal Tov! His son is 22 (do the math), his daughter is 20, both went to college and have cars and apartments), and then finally, we interrogated the #1 suspect, Dixon - the shady security guard (who I hope doesn't frequent kolleltamid.blogspot.com.) After a long series of questioning, Lichtschein thought he was clean but Gabby and myself are still not so sure.

I had a big chunk of my life on this computer and in a single moment it was gone. I have nowhere to turn. It's 3:12 AM and I'm using Pomerantz's computer to write this. All I can do is beseech you, Members of the Stollel, to have my laptop in mind, and maybe in the z'chus of our joint efforts, the culprit will return the computer to the Beis Midrash and everything will be back to normal.

The whole experience has not been terrible. I have learned these past few days what it means to really have something on your mind at all moments of the day; to stay focused and concentrate on a single concept without distraction. It's been a very strange, yet enlightening, experience. R' Tzaddok (as well as many other tzaddikim) writes that a person should take note of the extent of passion or kochos that a person has towards something (often the passion of a taiva...in this case: my constant thinking about my silly computer) and realize that they possess within them selves such intense power which can be channeled and used for more holy and important matters.

With the help of the Almighty all will be well, regardless of what happens with the computer, and we will soon reconvene in the Stollel in our new location in the sweet land of Zion.

-jw

[Additionally, if anyone has any advice on how I can go about looking at the YU personnel in a positive light, I'd love to hear. I'm having a lot of trouble not being a big racist these days.]

Monday, January 26, 2009

Exclusive Message: Staying Strong Outside the Stollel

Elisha has graced us with a heartfelt message of how to keep that Stollel flame burning now that we're outside the Stollel's walls...

    I am constantly facing opposition here in Yeshiva about my chassidic
ideas. The difficulty of this opposition is impossible to describe in
words, even if I had the ink of a thousand oil mines.
   One guy has been watching me closely recently with a suspicious eye.
He sees me telling people about the Underground Chassidic Movement.
He's seen the secret hand signal which spells a "U," and then a "C"
which stands for "Underground Chassidim." I even once told him the
whole plan hoping to share with him the beauty of the wellsprings of
Chabad, Breslov, Kook, and Carlebach, but I'm starting to sense that
that was also a backwards step. He's constantly asking me: "So you're
a Chassid? You think you're a Tzaddik?"
   I try to tell him: "Listen, I've been in Olam Hazeh for about 20
years now, and I just haven't seen such sweet teachings before in my
life. Every time I'm feeling down and lost, I just open a book about
Reb Noson (Rebbe Nachman's main student), or I play a Carlebach song,
or story, and soon enough, I'm back on the right track."
   But his aim, I feel, isn't for truth, it's to degrade. As if I've
just spoken Japanese, he repeats: "So you think you're a tzaddik… I
think I found my answer."
   What can I tell you, Chevra. The hearts of our brothers are very
closed. We're not working fast enough! People are in too much despair
to believe in the teachings of the true tzaddikim, like Reb Shlomo.
   Sometimes it gets really tough being a lone, undercover Chassid,
behind enemy lines. As a matter of fact, just a couple of minutes ago,
I was in my room, thinking about easing up a bit on my Chassidic
devotions, when suddenly, I spotted a bottle of scotch on the table.
There was only a little bit of L'chaim left in there.
     I fondly recalled Josh Weinberg's shiur on L'chaims which he gave in
the Stollel Tamid. And all of a sudden, I was hit with the
realization: why not take the Stollel with me Tamid, Always.
   The same happy state of mind of warmth and care which ran through the
air of the Stollel… I could recreate that atmosphere in my mind, and
try to spread it to other people that weren't zocheh to spend time at
the Stollel. I took a little scotch in my cup, and raised it: "to the
tzaddik, Rebbe Nachman, who gave us precious tips on how to bring
Redemption to ourselves and the world."
   I made a blessing, "…She'Hakol Neiyah Bi'dvaro," and as I was
drinking it, the modern-day misnaged walked into my room.
   "Were you drinking scotch?" He asked.
   "Yeah. Maybe I was." I replied.
   "But that's Binyomin's scotch."
   "Fine."
   "So you stole his scotch? That's Assur."
   "Fine. See I told you I wasn't a tzaddik. I'm just a desperate
criminal at the end of his pitiful road – trying to pull himself out
of darkness through the teachings of Rebbe Nachman."
   "But you stole."
   This time I remained silent.
   "I don't chop [yiddish for "understand"]," he stated. This continued
for a while. Siggghhhhhh. Chevra, all I can say is: take it one day at
a time. L'chayim.

Sunday, January 25, 2009

Living with the Times

We know that when we wish to see what the matzav is, both globally and individually, we look to the weekly sedra. Moshe Uriel noted (as did Sruli and some others) that only a week after the Stollel's temporary completion, the Torah is teaching us to stay connected and attached to the gathering that was the Stollel.

עודך מ-סתולל בעמי לבלתי שלחם.
הנני ממטיר כעת מחר ברד כבד מאד אשר לא היה כמהו במצרים למן היום הוסדה ועד עתה

"If you still tread upon my people, not sending them out. Then I am going to rain down a very heavy hail at this time tomorrow, the likes of which have never occured in Egypt from the day it was founded until now."
(שמות ט:יז–יח)