The Annotated Vitamin C "Graduation" Song

I know, this is SO 8th grade. (Actually, it was probably nerdy in 8th grade, too!) But, I've been singing this song in my head for the past week, so I figured this would help me get rid of it, or at least, help me push off my physics homework.

Graduation

Vitamin C

And so we talked all night about the rest of our lives
Where we're gonna be when we turn 25
Not just last night. This is a constant conversation we have daily.

I keep thinking times will never change
Keep on thinking things will always be the same
So true, so true. I keep saying to my roomates, next semester I want to take this class, and next semester I want to start doing..oh. right. there will be no next semester.

But when we leave this year we won't be coming back
No more hanging out cause we're on a different track
Yeah, apparently people in their first year of law school don't hang out so often?

And if you got something that you need to say
You better say it right now cause you don't have another day
In the comments section, perhaps. Though this blog should still be around for a while.

Cause we're moving on and we can't slow down
These memories are playing like a film without sound
ok, this is just cheese. nothing more.

And I keep thinking of that night in June
I didn't know much of love

But it came too soon
It was March. But yeah, that.

And there was me and you
And then we got real blue
Stay at home talking on the telephone
That's pretty much been my last two winter and summer breaks.

And we would get so excited and we'd get so scared
Laughing at ourselves thinking life's not fair
I really, really want to start law school. But I'm terrified of leaving everyone I know. Especially a very special someone.

And this is how it feels

As we go on
We remember
All the times we
Had together
Constantly. Also, facebook helps with that.
And as our lives change
From whatever
We will still be
Friends Forever
Will we? I suck at keeping in touch, so does he.

So if we get the big jobs
And we make the big money
That's what I'm going to law school for, right?

When we look back now
Will our jokes still be funny?
Some will. Some never, ever, were.

Will we still remember everything we learned in school?
Not a chance. I dare you to ask me about anything I learned in Meteorology sophomore year. All I remember is the sudokus I did during lecture.

Still be trying to break every single rule
Yes, but the stakes will be higher when you break rules as a lawyer or judge.

Will little brainy Bobby be the stockbroker man?
Can Heather find a job that won't interfere with her tan?
Last week, I played the board game LIFE with my friends. Let me tell you, it's not as fun when the things in the game are happening to you. I know a guy who will be a stockbroker, and I know a girl looking for a job on a beach. These are real people. It's scary.

I keep, keep thinking that it's not goodbye
That's what facebook is for, right?
Keep on thinking it's a time to fly
Well, that's not something I learned to do in college. Though I do want to go skydiving soon.
And this is how it feels
Free-fallin'...oh, right. that's a different song. We'll do that one soon.
[Repeat 1]

La, la, la, la:
Yeah, yeah, yeah
La, la, la, la:
We will still be friends forever
lalalalalalalalala....i'm not listening....lalalalalalalalala....don't tell me about real life...lalalalalalala

Will we think about tomorrow like we think about now?
being that we don't think now
Can we survive it out there?
Can we make it somehow?
Nope. I will live in a box. Or marry rich. Whichever.
I guess I thought that this would never end
And, that's what gradschool is for.
And suddenly it's like we're women and men
WTF? I have body parts?
Will the past be a shadow that will follow us 'round?
Will these memories fade when I leave this town
And again, facebook.
I keep, keep thinking that it's not goodbye
Keep on thinking it's a time to fly
I really should sign up for skydiving.

Hate is a Strong Word...

...but I really, really, really, don't like these things:

*When I call the mechanic to make an appointment for my car, ask for a certain time, he asks if we could make it half an hour earlier, and I say that will be a stretch for me to make it, but I'll try to get there on time. Then, when I arrive half an hour late (the time I WANTED to make the appointment for originally), no other clients are there and they are more than happy to take me. WHY couldn't you just schedule me in at this time to begin with??

*Parking garages that say "visitor parking straight ahead" but actually only have 30 min. parking meters for visitors. What if I have an hour an a half long class? I can't possibly leave class twice to feed the meters.

*Drivers who take 45 seconds to realize the red light has turned green.

*Students who don't look where they are walking, walk into the middle of traffic, then give the finger to cars who almost hit them.

*People saying they will do something then not doing it. I will not elaborate on this, but it's happened to me several times recently.

*7-11 coffee.

Am I Really That Old?

Today, my professor said "Does anybody here know what Y2K was?". I thought he was kidding, but the response of the class seemed to indicate that they only knew about Y2K by hearing about it from others. One guy raised his hand and said, "Wasn't it that time right before the year 2000, when everyone thought the world was going to explode because computers weren't equipped to handle the new date changes?"

Most of the students in this class were freshmen. They were 8 years old when Y2K happened. I suppose that there is a difference between the way a 12 year old sees the world (which is how old I was during the Y2K scare) and the way an 8 year old sees things, but I didn't think it would be that different. I didn't think they wouldn't remember something that people were worrying about for months over. I guess I was wrong, I guess 8 year olds are just more naive than I realized.

The Worst Day Ever

Well, maybe not ever. But here's a list of what happened in the last five hours:

-I planned to wake up at 7:30 to daven, shower, and study. I woke up at 9:30, and only had time to study. Now I feel unholy and dirty.

-I'm sick, but I just took off school for Yom Kippur and will be taking off more time to go home for Succot, so I really can't justify missing any more class.

-I'm in an eternal state of "Do I really want to go to law school or not, and if not, what DO I want to do?" I sometimes picture myself as a forensic analyst, but then tell myself there is a reason I've been avoiding any type of science-type classes. Then I get mad at myself for not taking a more well rounded course load.

-I've been spending too much time with the boyfriend. I think my roomates are annoyed. It's not their right to be annoyed (because we spend time at his house, not mine) but I don't want to get on their bad side.

-The meeting I was supposed to go to at 12 was apparently at 10. I never got the email, the boss asked me if I forgot and is meeting personally with me later.

-I have to give my advisor reasons why I want to go to law school so she can write a reccomendation letter for me. I can't really think of any other than, "I'll make a lot of money" and "I want my parents to be proud of me".

-I went to the coffee shop to get my standard feel better drink, a tall iced skinny caramel macciato, and realized that even though i had shlepped my whole purse with me, and even had to go back to one of my classes because I left it there, my credit card is still at home.

On Being A Woman

In light of recent political events, a story:

2 years ago, I took a class in which I was one of three females, and the ONLY female that attended class regularly. The class was called "Film: Form and Culture". When analyzing a particular film, the professor asked me "Beverly, as a woman, what would you say is the female perspective of this film?" I answered him by saying "Well, neither I nor you can speak for half the human population, but if you are looking for my opinion as to how women were represented in the film, I'd say..."

Guilty Pleasures

Today, my english professor asked us to draw a picture of our bookshelves, and list what books were on them. Then she asked us to list the books that are not on our bookshelves, but would be on our ideal bookshelves. I made my lists, and while in general I am very pleased with my bookshelf, I deliberately left off some things that I didn't want to share with the class, for example, the first book of the Twilight series.

I didn't plan on reading Twilight. My reasoning was that if my fifth-grade students are reading it, the book couldn't be THAT stimulating, and it certainly won't be up to my intelligence level. I "broke" one Shabbos, while visiting a friend. I got bored of the textbook I had brought with me, and there was Twilight, sitting on her coffee table, asking to be read. It's pretty poorly written, but it's kinda like a Pringle-once you pop, you just can't stop. I have to find out what happens to poor Bella and Edward.

Tonight, I was folding laundry while watching TV on my computer. My roomate came in to ask me a question, and I quickly turned off the show. Partly, it was so I could hear what she was saying, but partly, it was because I did not want her to know I was watching "The Secret Life of The American Teenager". The show is TERRIBLE. The actors don't really act, the plot is completely ridiculous and it glorifies teen pregnancy. Still, it's a guilty pleasure. I have to watch because I want to know what happens-does the 15-year-old pregnant girl keep her baby or give it up for adoption? Does the father do as much as he says he will? What's going to happen with this new boyfriend? Suffice it to say that I don't watch much TV, because anytime I do, I get highly addicted.

Really, I shouldn't be embarrassed at my forms of relaxation. If I solely read books such as Twilight, or watched shows like "Secret Life", then I might have to start moving up to the next floor in the library. However, I'm comfortable with the amount of time I spend with these forms of entertainment. There's nothing wrong with going brainless for an hour or two. Still, I close the computer and edit my bookshelf, because at the end of the day, I'd prefer to be a closet light-brain than a known light-brain.

Little Boxes

Ikea, the world leader in efficiently-packed, mass produced, globally distributed housewares, now builds houses!

Nearly my entire apartment is from Ikea. Before school started, I spent a week putting together a bunk bed, 2 desks, 2 bookshelves, and a dresser, all from Ikea. Many of the tools in my kitchen are also from Ikea, and lest you think that all kitchen utensils are packed the same way, I also had to assemble my pots and pans-it's cheaper to ship them with the handles removed, and placed inside the pots.

I can spend days walking around the Ikea store. The fact that there is the entire second floor dedicated as a showroom, there just for the benefit of the design-less like myself, makes me smile. But Ikea houses? I'm not so comfortable with that. My desk is a bit wobbly, and we had to return the bunk bed because some of the boards didn't fit into where they were supposed to. All that is fine for furniture that I'll be done with in 2 years, but a house is a long term investment, and I'm not sure I trust Ikea with that.

Driving Thoughts

I teach on Sundays at a school about an hour away from my house. It gives me some great time for personal introspection. Among the thoughts that crossed my mind this week:

-7:45am is WAY too early for a Sunday morning, no matter what. 

-I wonder why drive through Starbucks aren't more popular?

-How important IS Jewish continuity anyway?

-If I'm going 80 in a 55, I can't really get annoyed at the cars going 65 for going to slow. The problem isn't their speed. 

-My ipod is useless because in order to use it in the car, I have to hook it up to the radio, and change the station almost as often as I change the song. 

-If these parents are so committed to their children getting Jewish education, why not send them to day school already?

-My day school was really crappy. My high school wasn't much better. Still, despite this, I left both these institutions way more committed to Judaism than I was before. Why?

Roomates: gotta love 'em

-4 girls are sharing a 2 bedroom, 1 bath apartment. We're not crazy, right?

-2 of roommates are vegetarian. Yay for dairy shabbat meals!

-1 roommate brought a record player, along with her collection of about 70 records. Yay for authentic oldies music!

-I spent an hour trying to convince my roommate that our bunk beds would look better in the corner of the room. She was nearly in tears by the end of it, but finally agreed. We moved it, and she says "You know, I think it does look better this way". I think I have to be nicer during debates. 

-You can easily tell which stuff the freshman roommate put up: The pieces of paper with funny quotes from the internet do not normally survive more than one semester.

-I don't know how people who have to take airplanes move into college. 

-My best friend used to live a 30 minute walk away from me. Now she lives in my backyard!

-I really hope the people in my apartment don't get into any big fights, because I've seen too many friendships ruined that way, and my roommates are way too awesome of friends to lose. 

-I bought a dresser from Terrapin Trader, the university surplus shop, today for $24!

Shout Out: Einat

I have an intellectual obsession with my Hebrew professor, Einat. 

I sign up for everyone of her classes, even when it means not taking CORE classes that I actually need to graduate, and even when it means taking classes like "Introduction to Hebrew", in which we started with learning the alef-bet. 

Last year, she taught an experimental class titled "The history of the Hebrew language".  This article covers the basics of much of what she taught in that class. It was an AWESOME class, and I recommend every Jewish student at UMD to take it, or any other class that she teaches.  

Reasons I heart UMD, part 1

-I was doing a research project, and the book I needed had been checked out of the library. So I hopped on the metro, went to the Library of Congress, got an official "researcher card", and did my research there.is Anyone who has not experienced the awesomeness of being in the same building as every single book published in the United States since it's founding in 1776 is missing out.
-I donated blood yesterday, and they provided me with Kosher for Passover Coke and marshmallows.
-3 Jewish A Capella groups. 'Nuff Said.

All in the name of Miss Manners

There are really not very many people that I Dislike. Some I like more than others, and obviously, I would prefer to spend my time with those. However, there is one particular person who really bothers me, and would fall into the “Dislike” category. He’s extremely socially awkward, but that’s not what bothers me. I’m friends with an alarmingly large amount of socially awkward folks.

No, what bothers me about this guy is one particular incident. The first time I met him was at a Shabbos meal. He happened to be sitting next to me, and throughout the meal, did not talk very often, but did turn his head so that it was perpendicular to his neck.

I finally asked him why he was doing that, and he answered that he likes to look at the world from various paradigms. Clearly, the most literal way of doing so is to actually turn your head. (?) Well, I let that go, and continued to make conversation with someone else.

Now, apparently, this guy thinks it’s the funniest thing in the world to turn his head at an angle whenever he sees me. I’m going to be frank, and say that this creeps me out. A lot. So I tend to avoid this guy.

Well, last Shabbos, I was making a meal in my apartment. The guest list turned out to have 5 girls and 1 guy. I was a little uncomfortable with this ratio, so I decided I needed to invite more guys. Problem is, it’s winter break, and there’s just not that many guys here over break. However, I do have 2 other guy friends who are here.

But now, I ran into another problem. These 2 guys are roommates, and guess who roommate number 3 is. Yep, Creepy Guy.

I couldn’t invite both the others without inviting the 3^rd (I’m not THAT rude), but I wanted to avoid Creepy Guy at all costs. So I had to make a decision-which friend to invite. I hated making the decision, but I did.

The meal turned out fabulous (I even made challah and babganoush for the first time!), and the 2:5 ratio wasn’t a problem at all. Still, I really wish Creepy Guy would just do me a really big favor and transfer schools. Please?

The Evolving Organization of My Bookshelf, and Me

When I first started college, I was determined to keep my room organized. I had a knack for losing things, misplacing important papers, and I inevitably took five minutes to leave because I couldn’t find my keys.

I decided that college would be my chance for a fresh start. I sorted the clothes in my closet by color, length, and style. I assigned specific drawers for my makeup, hair clips, and accessories. I made a vow never to leave my room with the bed unmade. And most importantly, I was going to keep the books on my book shelf in a logical order.

And here is where the problem started. What’s a “logical” order? There could be so many ways to arrange them. I started out putting them in size order. The big, hard cover textbooks were on the end, and the smaller, thinner books towards the middle. But this didn’t work for me. There was no reason in my mind why my (large, hardcover) siddur was next to my accounting book. So I separated the books differently. I split the book shelf into two sides, with my box of markers, pens, and pencils in the middle as the divider. To the left were the seforim I had brought with me from home, and on the right were the books I needed for class.

As time went on, the books eventually lost their places on the shelf. I would take one out and then put it back in a different spot. Two books would switch places, and then four, and then eight, until it was impossible to tell that there was ever any sort of order to the shelf. I decided it was time to reorganize the shelf.

At this point,I'd like to point out that I am majoring in Judaic Studies at the University of Maryland.

When I started college, it was easy to divide the books. Stuff I used for class was on the right, stuff I brought from home was on the left. 

Then, I started taking Judaic Studies courses. It was still easy to divide, because I was using all my “textbooks” for class. But now, I’ve completed several of the courses. I no longer need the books for class, but decided to keep them because they were interesting reads. So now, do these books make the leap over to the left side? Do they become seforim? Do ALL of them become seforim? If I move my JPS English-only Tanakh to the left side, do I also move “Jewish Philosophy in a Secular Age”? “The Bible Unearthed”? And where do Jewish history books fit in? Is it like the famous George Santayana quote, that if we do not learn from history, we are doomed to repeat it? Then what about the positive aspects of history? I can’t possibly recreate the enlightenment, though I view it as a positive period for the evolution of Judaism.

I think the broader question at play here is how should one treat the academic study of Judaism.

A few days ago, I was sitting in a gemara shiur (not a university class). We had been discussing a difficult mishnah, and in the gemara, Rav Huna and Rav Chisda tried to explain it various ways. Both of the explanations were a stretch, and it didn’t seem like either of them were “pshat”. So the rabbi leading the shiur showed us what Rabbi David Weiss Halavni, a professor of Talmud at Columbia University and Bar Ilan University, had to say about the issue. Rabbi Halavni read the mishnah with a different perspective than R’ Huna or R’Chisda, and came up with a way of reading it that seems to make a lot of sense, even though it contradicted those amoraim.

The Rabbi asked us what we thought about what Rabbi Halavni said. We all had to agree that it made a lot more sense, but a few students had reservations about his methods. “You can’t just disagree with the gemara like that. It’s not how we do things”, they said. So then The Rabbi said “What do you suggest for someone to do, if they’ve been struggling and struggling to find pshat in the Mishnah, and then they final figure out a way to understand it, but can’t find any amora who agrees with them? Should they just ignore this thought?” The student’s response: “Well, if they see a value in sharing their views, they shouldn’t publish it in a book that looks like a sefer.” [Rabbi Halavni’s book is written in Hebrew, leather bound, and is called ‘mekorot u’mesorot’]

I personally thought that what Rabbi Halavni said was great, and if I had a copy of his book, I would have placed it prominently on the left side.

I wonder where I would have placed his book 2 years ago, before I started learning secular Judaic studies?

Don't Worry, Be Happy

In an attempt to decorate our room, my roomate hung up two larger-than-lifesize posters of Abercrombie and Fitch models in our room. They hang from floor to ceiling, and are about 3 feet wide.

A friend of mine came by my room, and we were discussing the posters (I'm not a fan).

She pointed to one of the posters

and said "You know, he's not so bad looking." I made an "are you crazy?" face, and told her that if I were to choose, I would go with the other one:

She said "Really? But the first one is so...pensive."

"True," I responded. "But the other guy looks so happy and carefree."

And that's the difference between her and I.

Seminary at UMD

I recently moved from an apartment to an on-campus dorm. The building I moved into is known to have a large percentage of religous Jews living there, as it is very close to Hillel, close to classes, and the rooms are slightly larger than the rest of the buildings near Hillel. I didn't realize quite the extent of the Jewish presence in the dorm untill I moved in, and saw the following sign, which is an official UMD sign put up by the department of resident life, hanging near the bathroom. This is in addition to the dreidels in the hallway, and the asher yatzar sign hanging up (those were student additions).

Ignorance is creativity...a reflection

A good friend of mine (you know who you are ;) recently wrote a really thought provoking post entitled "ignorance is...creativity". In it, she describes how when she first started learning gemara on her own, at around the age of 16, she was coming up with such wild and crazy chidushim that could never actually make sense in the larger scheme of things, but the served the vital purpose of allowing her to expand her mind.

I just spent the past 6 hours studying for a math test with another dear friend, "Danny". Danny is somewhat of an atheist (he's a little confused as to what he believes at this point), but more importantly, he's a philosopher. He's only 19 years old, yet he is brilliant beyond his years. Danny and I have the craziest conversations, that only someone as insane as I would understand, much less enjoy. Whats unique about Danny is that when I say something outlandish, instead of nipping it in the bud and explaining why it can't be, Danny will proceed to expound on it, and develop the idea as if it was something that could and should happen.

For example, once I mentioned that someone I know was told as a child that God only gives people a certain amount of words, and once you use up those words, you won't be able to speak anymore. Other people that I've told this too responded in one of two ways: 1. They said that it's probably just illustrating how important it is for one to think about the necessity of their wordsds before they speak, or, 2. They try to convince me that this is impossible since God wants you to do certain mitzvot, like teffilla, that involve talking, every day of your life. Danny, on the other hand, just expounded on that and went on to discuss how much different our lives would be if we had to ration out our words, and asked if this would apply to the written word as well?

Danny thinks so much out of the box that I don't even think he realizes there is a box. He hasn't yet got to the level of comfort with the way of the world to become sedated in his musings. His thoughts are absolutely insane, but at the same time, insanely rational. I could sit and talk to him for hours about absolutely nothing, and at the same time, feel like a smarter, more intellectual woman.

What I wouldn't give to see his thoughts for a day...

If Mastercard celebrated Succot

Lulav and Etrog set.......$40.00

Construction paper to make paper chains and other decorations......$3.69

Holiday meals at the UMD Hillel......$45.00

Sleeping under the stars.....Priceless

One more crazy jewish thing

Last night, one of my roomates came back at 2 am a little tipsy.

We were all up, and ended up sitting around the table eating cracker, hummus, hot peppers and apples. Yeah, it was a strange combination, but hey, we're college kids now.

One of my roomates is not Jewish. She's really respectful of the three of us, and also really curious about our religous practices. Last night, we were discussing plans for Succot, and the drunk one said she was going back to Baltimore to help her family build the succah. The non-Jewish one asked "what do you build?" This lead to a conversation about the practices of succot, explained by the drunk one.

Here's what she said:

"We build these cabana style huts in our yards. For 8 days we eat only in the huts. We also take these branches and an upside down lemon and shake them around inside the hut. Then, at the end of the holiday, we have a thing where we hit the branches on the ground. Its alot of fun."

If that doesn't make you think Judaism is a cult, you should see us all daven Maariv behind the library each night.

Flowers, Brain, and Jesus

At the Hillel welcome back night, one of the activities was to paint flowerpots, and then plant flowers in them. On my pot I wrote something which Lissy Isaacson said in 8th grade when throwing ideas around as to what to write in the yearbook. We didn't end up using it, but for some reason, I have no idea why, the quote has stuck with me.

"Germinate Your Mind."

I was looking at my flowers recently and realized that theres more of a connection between flowers and the human mind than one would think of at first glance. Theres the obvious one that just like flowers need outside stimuli to grow properly, our brains need to be excercised regularly as well.

But theres another one that I just thought of.

I have noticed that I need to rotate my plant daily, because the flowers grow towards the sun, so they seem to lean over towards the window. Rotating them balances out the leaning, and makes them grow upright.

Just like flowers, our minds tend to lean towards one way (presumably the way we have been taught previously), and, just like flowers, we need to be turned regularly to be able to view things from an objective perspective.

A personal example: I went to school at relatively right wing Jewish high schools, and then I went to a pretty right wing seminary in Israel for a year. Then I returned to America, to the University of Maryland. I'm taking Jewish History, and it's taught from an extremely left wing perspective. The Proffessor is actually really good about presenting all opinions. Recently he was talking about Bayit Rishon and Bayit Sheni, and he said sometimes he gets the question "Is there a third temple?" The answer, he said, was "No, unless you are one who is of the opinion that the Messiah will return and come build it." He said it in a way that implied that was a preposterous thing to think , and the class laughed politely at this.

Well, some of us are of the opinion that the Messiah will come and redeem us all from our long exile. However, I didn't realize exactly how crazy this sounded untill this class. I mean, when discussing Christian theology in High School, no one could understand how Christians could actually believe that Jesus would come back to Save them. However they could readily accept that Meshiach will come [a second time, as the first time will have failed] to Save them.

As the Adderabbi once said, "I have often pondered what would happen if Mashiach comes, and his name is Jesus."

Amazing Shabbat #1

I must talk about my amazing shabbos!

I honestly felt like I was back in Israel, minus the Jerusalem stone buildings and of course the kedushas haaretz blah bla blah. BUT…Hillel is amazing. Maybe not in other schools, but the Maryland Hillel is amazing. Friday night, theres four different minyanim-Reforn, Conservative, Orthodox Traditional, and Orthodox Carlebach. By far, the largest minyan was the carlebach. We sang EVERYTHING! Some of the tumes sounded a little, well, slow, sort of reminding me of gospel music, but I guess that’s pretty characteristic of Carlebach. Then we moved on to dinner, which was pretty good. It was PACKED. There were tables all over the dining room, the hallway, the conference room, and the rec room (which is where the Carlebach minyan davened.) You could barely move. I think that someone told me there were 400 people there. Imagine a mid-size house with 400 people in it.

Yeah, it was that packed.

If I didn’t mention it already, the singing was incredible. You could feel the intense ruach in that room. And it was cool because it wasn’t just frum, orthodox kids who were singing. It was everyone. I was sitting next to a boy who was theologically conservative. That’s cool. I mean, I am not theologically conservative, but I respect ppl who are conservative when its for theological reasons. I don’t think he’s a heretic *. He simply thinks that halacha can change with the times. And to some extent, it can. We believe that too. For example, the Jews at matan torah ate chicken and milk together. That was their halacha. The Jews of today do not eat milk and chicken together. That is our halacha. But it is based on the same Torah. And we serve the same G-d. And whats the difference between following divergent opinions when it comes to…how long to wait btw meat and milk, and if one is allowed to drive to shul on Shabbat if the alternative is to stay at home all day. There are actually some opinions which say that electricity is not kindling a flame, and therefore allowed on Shabbat. The vast majority of jews are not of that opinion, but if one is, he is not a kofer in my eyes *

We had lunch, which was just as beautiful as dinner (maybe 200 ppl as opposed to 400) and later in the day there was a womens discussion shiur. All the girls were really smart and had very profound things to say. I felt out of place, and embarrassed when the only time I spoke was when the woman giving the shiur quoted a Friends episode and asked if she was getting all the details right. (she wasn’t). There was supposed to be a shiur on Rav Kook before that, but I got the times mixed up and was upstairs learning in the Beit Midrash while that was going on. I got 2 perekim of nach yomi done, and that’s really good cuz I finally just sat down and figured out where exactly I was up too. So I missed the shiur, but atleast I was still learning, and I put into motion my future learning. Mitzvah gorreret mitzvah.


*I met a girl there who's mom converted and decided to name her Kefirah. She didn't know it meant heretic when she gave her the name. I wonder what would happen if this girls decided to become a theologically conservative jew and drive to shul on shabbat?