Usually when I wake up in the morning I think about davening, and as the morning progresses I eventually end up rationalizing that there is no time for davening. However on an important day, say a test day or a family member’s simcha, I make time to connect to my creator, to daven with kavanah, and my day starts off on a joyful note.
This morning I learned that everyday is an important day. I was lovingly awakened by my advisor and as I opened my lips to say modeh ani, I was overwhelmed with relief. My lost voice of yesterday had somehow found its way back into my throat. Hashem had returned my soul and is constantly renewing my body. When I walked down stairs, a girl handed me a siddur. As I entered the Beit Midrash at the early hour of 8:30am on winter vacation, I saw a room not just filled with teenagers but a community gathered together to individually connect to their creator. This display of love for a new day that everyone was expressing in his or her own way made me realize everyday is important. This is what being with a community as special and powerful as the Yarchea Kallah community does, it inspires you.
Hannah (right) pauses for a quick photo between two learning sessions.
After breakfast, the learning began. We learned about the story of Noah. NCSY gave everyone a beautiful copy the Rashi commentary. In the Torah it says that Noah was a righteous man for his generation. Rashi gives two explanations:
1) Noah was only righteous because everyone in his generation was corrupt
2) Noah was righteous because of his desire to grow
In a way we all live in different generations. We are all placed into this world by Hashem -— into a family and way of life — and we are all given challenges and opportunities to grow. One thing I realized was that it’s not about where you end up on the ladder, rather which direction you’re going in and how far YOU go. We are all our own generations, born into different situations with individual challenges for growth.
Yesterday NCSY gave me Rashi and today I was inspired by his words. Today NCSY gave me two books to start building my Jewish library. It’s not just two books, its thousands of words of wisdom. I can’t wait to see what tomorrow will bring.