I did it I DID IT!!!!

Fireworks by Katherine Dolgy Ludwig

I read, loud, in front of my seminary class!

Do you get what I just typed?

I read a whole paragraph from Rav' Dessler's z"t"l 'sMichtav M'Eliyahu, I read loud, I read nekudos-free hebrew!!!!

I READ IN FRONT OF THE WHOLE CHEVRAAAAAA!!!!!!!!!!!

This has been a fear since I started learning in seminary, my hebrew embarrasses-actually embarrassed me, but thank G-d it motivated me to learn more.

Today during the Michtav M'Eliyahu class, for some reason I had enough courage to volunteer to read in front of 15 girls, it has been one of my biggest fears.

I hated the idea of not reading as well as other girls do, i hated the possibility of making mistakes, i just didn't want to embarrass myself, the girls in my class are mature and don't care, but i do.

Voila, it is done, the class went as usual, we learned, we dbated and I said bye bye to "old" fears.

Design...

OMG!!! MY BLOG LOOKS SOOO SCARY IN BLACK! EWWWW!
But then...
It is sooo elegant!
...
but it is sooo sad and dark and serious...
still, so classy...
Nu??
I'll think about it, I need to fix a few things, the post titles need to be pink, or maybe not, I don't know exactly, but as elegand and classy it might seem there is somthing so off about this new look, it just doesn't go...hummm. Can u help me figure it out?


I am soaking some beans for a weekday chulent, in this cold weather I end up taking chulent to eat for lunch, it is easy to make, nutritious, and so good when it is freezing!

Here is how I make my weekday chulent:

• Beans
• Sweet Potatoes
• cucumbers, sliced.
• Organic Vegetable soup
• Paprika
• Garlic powder
• Salt

Wake up at 6 am, say brochos, cook the above mix on a low flame, while it cooks, daven, learn chitas, do laundery, talk to my parents ( it is early afternoon by them), exercice, check my email...

8:15 am, turn flame off, make lunch bag with water bottle, plain yogurt, a fruit and a few almonds and of course my chulent which I store inside the thermos and catch my ride to seminary.

Bon appetit and have a great stress-free day!

Je n' arrive plus a ecrire!

C'est la verite, d' abord je ne trouve pas d' histoire, toutes les histoires interessantes sont trop prsonelles pour partager avec un aussi large public ( oh la blague! ) Ensuite, qd je trouve l' histoire je suis "overwhelmed" quand je commnce a l' ecrire, j' ecris unparagraphe ou deux, et puis je baisse les bras en defaite litteraire!
BREF!
A plouch!

my Thoughts...in the making

I am thinking about my yidishkeit, I am thinking about my hashkafa, I am thinking about my minhagim, my chumras, and my leniencies.

A ger falls in a very different place than BT's when it comes to picking minhagim, maybe I am wrong, but usually BT's end up picking the minhagim and following the derech of the families/friends/rabbeim who were mekarev them.
And yes, there are exceptions to the rule...

However, gerim, get to pick and choose, one reason is simply that the ger's parents have no established minhag, do we know if Avraham Aveinu and Sarah Imeinu stood or sat for kiddish on shabbos day? How about sleeping in the sukkah?

Once I get married I"Y"H I don't have to worry about it...but wait a second, don't I want to get married to someone who has my same hashkafa? So actually, the decision is mine...to some extent...

I am happy with my seminary B"H it is the nicest thing that happened to me since my journey started, but in my seminary we are not thought minhagim, it is a regular seminary, girls come from different backgrounds, they all went to yeshiva high schools growing up, and most of them have already established minhagim, we learn halacha lemaaseh, we learn a couple of seforim, we learn hashkafa and mussar.

My learning includes a daily Tanya, and various mp3 shiurim, a weekly JNET
chavrusa...and college and some necessary sleep.

Maybe I worry about minhagim because, as part of my curiosity about yidishkeit, I learned with
chassidim?:
I must say, that I do admire and secretly envy Chassidim. I learned/lived for about a year in Crown Heights, there wasn't a question about how are things done, there aren't halachik debates about gebrochts on pesach or not, the question is not even asked, because, simply, there are no gebrochts on Pesach, period. Nothing to do with chumras, or with what your last frum parent did, you are a chossid, therefore no gebrochts.

I am just trying to be a simple Bas Yisroel, I want to serve HaShem better, I want to work on my middos, I want to refine my character, and I want Moshiach to come, now.

I want to be as careful about the level of filtration of the water I drink as I am with hearing/saying lashon hara, I want to be careful with hechsherim as much as I want to be with the chevra I associate myself with...

There, my thoughts, still in the making...