Shabbos at UMASS Hillel

This past Shabbos the New England Region NCSY Regional Board spent Shabbos at the UMASS Hillel. I must say, it was a really really really really awesome, bangin, mad crazy, totally amazing Shabbos. When we got there, Meir, the "Premeir" of the Orthodox Hillel, KHH, and one of our NCSY advisors, took me to the kitchen, to show me all the food, including the chulent--yeah baby!! We then proceeded to find out what you do when you're stuck in a basement, then we got ready for Shabbos Kodesh, davened, ate, played Apples to Apples which was really fun. During our game, Ben, the "Vice Premier" of KHH, rapped for us. It was awesome, i love rap. He's making a cd, made a commercial, Ben's awesome. GO BEN! We then had a tisch. That was awesome--how could it not be?? Meir's amazing chulent, singing, stories, chizzuk, a little mussar, it was great. People were coming in and out, in and out, i loved it. Singing, stories, singing, stories, couldn't get enough of it. Around 100, though, it was winding down, we were clearing off the tables, and putting them away, and I just kept singing. Whoever wanted to sing with me was welcome, although mostly it was me. People did say, however, they liked the songs. Like, I started Pihah Pasichah by Mendy Wald, and Adina (who mostly commented on my selection of songs) was like, "Oh yeah!" And also when I was singing Av HaRachamim by Eli Gerstner (I don't really like him too much, but this is a really nice song), Adina said something. At around 145, I went into the hall to go over the leining one more time, and Meir comes out. We're shmoozing, whatever, it was nice. Then he has to leave to talk to someone, and he says to me, "Tonny, life is about investing in people." And I thought about it for a minute, and of course, he was right. Investing time, effort, to help each other to do whatever they want to do. We have to be selfless, not selfish. Once we become selfish, it all goes down the drain. Koheles 5:9 says, "Oheiv kesef lo yisba kesef--if you love money, you won't be satisfied with money." But that pasuk, I think, isn't talking just about money, it just used money because most people become selfish for money. But you cannot become selfish for anything. And if that p'shat is wrong, then another could be that whenever you'll selfish, either the base, or the outcome, is money selfishness. It is a problem, here in such a materialistic world. Pirkei Avos (I forgot where, sorry) says, "Eizehu ashir? HaSamei'ach bichelko--Who is rich? One who is happy with his portion." It's a big ma'ale. Life is about investing in people.

There was a girl sleeping on one of the couches still there, while Gonzo and I were watching the college dudes walking around--I mean, come on, who doesn't like watching drunk people?? So again, I kept singing anyway. She woke up, and she said she's sorry she fell asleep. We're like, it's ok, don't worry about it. So she leaves and we're still watching the drunk people. It was quite funny. Whatever then we fell asleep. Woke up, got ready, davened. I leined and did haftarah--first time looking at it too. I made 2 or 3 mistakes though :'( whatever. Then we had lunch, great chulent again by Meir, and then we took a walk around the UMASS campus. Nice place. Chabad house is nice too. Then we rolled sushi, and I chopped the cucumbers for it. T'was fun. Oh yeah, we davened mincha at 1230, right after shachris, which was hot. And UMASS people also made a siyum. It's sad, at one point the girl saying the DT said, "it is our duty..." at which point I said to Ed, "You know, if this was MTA, at least 10 people would have gone, 'haha, duty....'" except, obviously meaning something.....Yeah, anyway, shalosh se'udos was nice. Meir taught everyone a song, a song he taught us at the tisch. He learned at in Tzahal, and it was his unit's anthem, if you will, morale booster. "K'hanishama mehira, gam shamayim otei arafel mefikim Ohr Na'im--When the soul is tired, exhuasted, also the sky filled with fog, a pleasant light is shining through." Showing us the silver lining in the clouds. Beautiful song.

Then we had Ma'ariv, then havadalah, then went back to the room (yeah, Meir's). We decided what we were going to do, and then the girls left, We got ready, went online, checked email, people were coming in, etc. The girl who was sleeping the night before, came back, hung our a little bit. Then we went to play pool. I beat Abby at chess, Ari and Lauren at pool, Ed and Adina at Air Hockey. T'was fun. Then we watched HaHesder--confusing movie. Whatever. Then we talked about it a little bit in Meir's room, around come candles. Then we did a thing. He gave Gonzo a string (like the ones you tie balloons with), and said, he has to give it to someone, and say something good about that person, something they admire about them (yes, straight from UYO....), all the while holding the string, so that after a while, a lot of the string would be around and around going this way and that way etc. It was fun, we all needed it. We went for 2 hours. Mad crazy. Then we kumzitzed. Mad awesome. Then we wakled the girls back, Ed Gonzo and I watch the drunk people again. Sleep.
Then we woke up, packed, davened, finished packing, filled out evaluations, ate breakfast, talked about the rest of the year. Meir said that on West Wing this season, it's the last year of Martin Sheen's 2nd term, and everyone is jumping ship, but his right hand man, told everybody, we have one year left, we said 4 years, not 3. Well, Ed and Co. said 1 year, and we have only done 2/3. We're not finished.
Thank you Meir, Adina and Ari G (ha, almost like Ali G!) for planning and participating an awesome Shabbos, and Abby, Lauren, Ed[die[ and Gonzo, and Meir, Adina and Ari G, for the amazing, awesome (I know, I need new adjectives), fabulous, fantastic, fun and very funny Shabbos. I love you guys.


SPLASH!

Have an awesome day y'all!!

Karban Nesanel ben Avraham