Har-Sinai Update
WINTER CONVENTION
Albany
Rochester
Sounds like Rochester had tons of fun! Want to experience fun with them? Keep your eyes open for their next Shabbaton!
Purim
On Purim, be sure to take a selfie in your costume and post it on the Upstate NCSY Facebook page! We look forward to seeing you all in your amazing costumes!
Torah MiSinai
We Jews seem to like to talk a lot. I mean think about it; it’s true. We love to talk about Torah and while learning Torah; we talk to HaShem at least three times a day. We schmooze, we debate, we chitchat, and we just seem to talk a lot, and if we’re not talking we’re singing. But when are we ever really silent? When are we ever just in appreciation of the absence of noise? It’s almost as if we have forgotten the value of silence.
No, you’re not having déjà vu from Winter Convention, when Devora explored with us and the community what it means when it says in Pirkei Avot, “the safeguarding fence around wisdom is silence.” Right now we are going to explore an earlier Mishnah where Rabban Shimon said, “All my life I grew up among the sages, and I found that nothing is better for a person than silence…[and] one who talks too much causes sin.” This is so seemingly opposite of this world’s constant talk, including texting and messaging if we venture outside of the Jewish world, that you may throw your hands up in air and say, “Well! Maybe we just don’t abide by this opinion!”
This could not be farther from the truth. Rambam actually codifies this as halacha in the Mishneh Torah and writes in Hilchot De’ot, “One should always cultivate silence and refrain from speaking, except with regard to matters of knowledge or things that are necessary for his physical welfare.” That’s pretty extreme; Rambam essentially has just told us we should never ever talk unless we have something really smart to say or we have to continue living. But it’s not so crazy. Really.
When we talk a lot, we stop thinking about what we’re saying. We start to say things that are really dumb. We say things are Lashon HaRa, destructive speech. We say things that are just simply awful. We say things that we don’t really mean. Our lips are moving faster than our thoughts. The Rabbis’ aversion to speech is completely founded - if we speak too much we lose control of what we’re saying and stop thinking about what it means.
This is why the Rabbis knew silence was so critical to the preservation of wisdom. The sages did not engage in loud, crude arguments; they engaged in long discussions, from Rabban Shimon’s account, seemingly long and silent discussions with well thought answers. No wisdom can arise from a quick thoughtless statement; true wisdom requires us to be with our own thoughts alone in silence. So in this life, of seemingly endless talking, let’s learn once again to appreciate the silence and our own thoughts. To think before we speak, and not regret what we say. To be able to be in our own thoughts and meditate in them. Let us begin to appreciate and practice what our Rabbis have taught us about speaking, and by extension about Lashon HaRa. Because then, maybe, we can find real thoughts and true wisdom.-Samson Goldberg
Guess That Advisor!
See if you can guess who this advisor is based on answers to questions they were asked. Try reading the Hebrew, its transliterated from English words into Hebrew writing so you can understand it.
1. Describe an encounter with the most famous person you've ever met:
עי וואז תולקינג טו אי פיימוס רבי אנד הי אסקד האו אולד עי וואז-- עי וואז סו נארואס אי סד 17, אנד ת׳ן קורקטד מייסלף
I was talking to a famous rabbi and he asked how old I got nervous and said 17 and then corrected myself and said 19
2. Strangest thing you've ever eaten: זוקיני פלאוורי
zucchini flower
3.Something you'll never understand about har Sinai region: אוול טיים
OWL TIME
4. What's your spirit animal? איור ת׳ה דונקי
EEYORE the DONKEY
5. What's the weirdest dream you've ever had about NCSY?
הורסז ג׳מפינג עאוט ת׳ה ווינדו אוף ת׳ה הוטל דורינג מנחה
Horses jumping out the window of the hotel during mincha at Spring.
6.Modern Jewish music is like...: איטינג טשולנט ווית׳ פלאפל ספייסיז
Eating Chulent with Falafel spices
7. Most underrated bit of wisdom Jews know but no one else does:
קיפ יור פאלם בראנטש ורטיקל אנד יו וויל נט הורת אניוואן
keep your palm branch vertical and you won’t hurt anyone
8. Which Oreo are you and why? כושר וואנז
KOSHER ONES
If you guessed Rabbi Crystal, your correct!