Today is the first day of the Yeshiva’s Year Program. I woke up this morning at 6:30 and convinced myself to click on “Snooze” instead of “Disarm.” I think I thought that 5 more minutes would make a difference in the dream I was having. Unfortunately, I don’t remember that dream. When the second alarm rang, at 6:35, I convinced myself again that “Snooze” the better option. I don’t remember how or why. But by 6:40, at the third alarm, I was ready to get up. I got myself ready, ate some yogurt with granola and raisins, and trundled off to the Yeshiva listening to Bud Powell’s “Strictly Confidential” and the beginning of Brahms’ second symphony along the way.
Shaharit. And now writing.
My course schedule today will look like this:
8:45-12:30 Talmud II with Reb Mordecai Silverstein
12:30-1:40 Lunch
1:40-2:00 Mincha/Announcements
2:00-3:15 Biblical Grammar with Reb Shlomo Zacharow
3:20-6:15 Chumash w/Rashi with Shaiya Rothberg
6:15 Maariv
6:30 Run
8:00 Dinner
10:30 sleep
I’ll also be taking Ulpan, Midrash, Hasidut, and Halacha, but those classes don’t meet on Yom Rishon (Sunday).
Yesterday, during Seduat Shlishit (the third meal on Shabbat) at Moreshet Yisrael, Reb Shlomo introduced us to Reb Hayyim Luzzatto’s “Path of the Upright,” a book of medieval Jewish ethics written in the mid-18th century. It purports to lay out instructions for how to love God, how to walk in His ways, and more articulations of the same that I can’t remember right now. I’m very excited to read this book as learning to love God more completely is the central aim of my presence at the Yeshiva.
I hear a bustle downstairs that tells me Talmud class is about to begin. Better go. And now I will study Talmud for the first time in my life. Wish me luck. I’m so excited!
