MM, Rabbi Horowitz and Shoshana

Beyond BT’s One Year Anniversary Melava Malka
When: December 2, 2006 at 8:00 PM
Where: Congregation Ahavas Yisroel 147-02 73rd Avenue in KGH, one block east of Main Street.
Why: To meet and connect with fellow Beyond Bt’ers
What: 8:00 PM Pizza & Shmoozing; 9:00 PM ”Searching for Meaning – A BTs Spiritual Journey in Music and Monologue”; 10 PM Ice Cream & More Shmoozing
How Much: $5 per person, kids under 4 free

Rabbi Horowitz on Risk Factors for At-Risk Teens Part 2 (Part 1 here)

Rav Hutner was saying how we must change the way that we view our yeshivos. He was suggesting that the holy yeshivos of Voloshin and Slabodka were primarily designed for a tiny percentage of the outstanding achievers in Torah, as the grinding poverty of pre-war Europe forced the vast majority of children above the age of thirteen to join the workforce. American yeshivos and Beis Yakov’s, Rav Hutner maintained, need to be geared for all children to find success and refuge.

Sadly, as I pointed out last week, exactly the opposite has been happening over the past ten-fifteen years. School hours have been getting longer and longer. Kids are offered less time and opportunity to engage in desperately needed recreational activities, all the while greater and greater demands are being made on children. Most shocking of all, is the fact that parents are clamoring to get their children – ready or not – into schools that have the most rigorous demands and who summarily dismiss children for infractions.

Shoshana has a interesting post on Frum vs Religious

According to my friend, being frum is about keeping up appearances. It’s about the clothing, the hats, what other people see. It can also be about a mindset – that non-Jewish practices are not what we are supposed to engage in, that you shouldn’t go to a movie theater, that Jewish music is preferable to secular.

Being religious is a different matter. It’s about a spiritual connection, about serving God, following halacha with the correct intent. It’s about living Torah internally and really feeling it in one’s heart.