So, it's about time that I gave some kind of description of my daily schedule. Here's a sample, using this Tuesday as fairly typical (actually, better than many). Now that Rabbi Eli is gone, I'm spending less time in Shiurim with him, and more time with other Rabbis, at least in terms of classes.
By the way, I've tried to attach links to any unusual terminology I may have used without thinking. They links are for you, George, in case you're reading this.
6:50 -- Got out of bed, performed morning necessities, and left for the Beit Midrash. I thought that we had Chasidut class this morning, but because of the Fabrengen that kept everyone up until 1:00 or 2:00 last night, we didn't. So I continued to read from my Tanakh, finishing the final chapters of Chronicles, and reading some more Psalms, including what might be one of my favorites, 119.
9:00 -- Shacharit in the Synagogue. Chabad takes a really long time for prayer, so I had enough time to actually say every part of P'sukei D'zimra, which is very unusual for me. I needed to wait for my friend Yosi to finish, so I waited for everyone to finish, which didn't happen until nearly 10:40 (I wonder if community members have problems with their employers, because they can't realistically make it to work until 11:00, and I see them in the Beit Midrash at the middle of the day). I kept on reading Psalms, and made it to 145, Ashrei.
10:40 -- Left the Synagogue with Yosi, who showed me the way to the bank and the post office. I needed to withdraw money (I only had 8 shekels left -- sorry, parents, but I'm trying to be financially responsible!). I then went to the post office to mail four postcards, to Eliezer's bookstore to buy four more, and back to the dormitory for a breakfast of some porridge with fruit. On the way back to the dorms, I saw a very upsetting incident on the street. However, it could just have been because of cultural differences in Israel and the U.S. that I found it so upsetting.
11:15 -- I arrived back at the Beit Midrash, in time for Gemara lesson with Rav Asi. Not everyone was on time, and I have the chance to ask Rabbi Pasternack about the event on the street, and what I might or might not have been obligated to do under such circumstances. In class, the course got caught up in some pilpul. We're looking at a dispute between Rabbi Yehuda and Rabbi Nachman, in tractate Bava Kama, over the circumstances under which a person may take the law into his own hands (in my opinion, a very important question). Pretty much, the two agree that a person should always defend his property when it's in immediate danger, but they tried to search for a certain case in which there was clearly no immediate danger, in order to resolve the dispute. (According to my reading of the text, there's actually a third opinion, held by Rabbi Chisda, that a person may under no circumstances defend his property out of court, but he's clearly in a 2-to-1 minority.) Today, because one student and Rav Asi got in a dispute over the mathematics of logic, in relationship to a Baraita. I now know this Baraita all too well. Here is a paraphrase: If a man sees his neighbor's ox getting on top of his own ox in order to gore it, and he pulls his ox out from under it, and the other ox falls and dies as a result, then he is exempt from payment; but if (under the same circumstances) he pushed his neighbor's ox off of his ox, and his ox died, then he is liable for payment. In any case, the argument lasted so long that we missed our Halachah class with Rabbi Gorenstein, which typically lasts from 1:00 until 1:30, in which we're learning the laws of making Kiddush on Friday nights. (I'm hoping that we'll get to the issue of the validity of grape juice, which a very good friend of mine has questioned, and which I therefore would like to know more about.)
1:30 -- Minchah. Done and done.
1:50-2:50 -- Read Kitzur Shulchan Aruch on hurtful speech (cursing, insulting,etc) with Ben. Ordinarily, we would have instead reviewed Gemara together, but because of today's lack of progress, we never got very far in class, so we read the Halachic work instead. We are learning, for instance, that one may not misdirect people in commerce, call someone by an insulting nickname even if that nickname has become thoroughly attached to him or her, ask someone a difficult question to which one knows the respondent does not know the answer, or insistently invite one's neighbor to one's house.
2:50-4:15 -- Read the book of Jeremiah with Ari, alternating by chapter, with some discussion. Got through chapters 5-16, or so, I think. Visions, prophecies, denunciations, false prophets, corrupt monarchs, idolatry, Babylonians at the gate -- all in a day's work. I'm glad to be returning to this prophetical book; in fact, I think that I should really go back and review all of the Former Prophets, and then the three Major Prophets. In other words, I have a lot of homework to do!
4:15-6:30 -- Two back-to-back classes with Rav Asi. The first one was on relating certain Psalms to certain events in King David's life, with relevant midrashim, etc.; today, the topic was David's annointment as king. The second class is based on a sicha by the Rebbe on spiritual challenges.
6:30-7:40 -- Cross-referenced in Bava Mezia 58b-59a of passages from Kitzur Shulchan Aruch with Ben. We learned some interesting things. Also, I finished the book of Psalms, and tried my best to continue reading Mishnah Bava Kama, reviewing legal responsibility for damage caused by one's livestock's feet (and, by extension, all damage caused by animals' general movements, excluding eating and deliberate attacking). I'm doing my best to understand as much as possible of each Mishnah in Hebrew; Rabbinic Hebrew, at least in this tractate, tends to be both very simple and very repetitive. I really like the Kahati edition that I'm using (recommend to me by both Eli and Peninah), which includes a brief summary of the associated Gemara and other famous interpretations, in order to give the reader some idea of the classical understanding of the Mishnah.
7:40-9:00 -- Two back-to-back classes with Rabbi Gorenstein. The first is on Tanya, continuing with chapter 12. The second I didn't really understand, we became so sidetracked, but it was more Chasidut.
9:00 -- Ben and I run back to quickly eat dinner, of vegetable soup, with some cold salad. We walk back with Dovid.
9:30 -- Ma'ariv. Done and done.
10:20 -- Back at the dorm, in time for my least favorite part of the day: e-mail and other computing. I have a huge pile I need to answer every day, and I don't even have time to write certain important ones. I also wrote all of the last post, and most of this one, too.
2:30 -- Bed, really tired, by now.
~JD
כיצד השן מועדת לאכול את הראוי לה"
הבהמה מועדת לאכול פרות וירקות
"אכלה כסות או כלים משלם חצי נזק
[In what case is the tooth (of the animal) fully liable (for the damage it causes)? For eating what is natural for it. The beast is fully liable in regards to eating fruits and vegetables. (For) eating a garment or utensils, (the owner) pays for half of the damages] (Bava Kama 2:2).
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