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Dvar Torah
Merav S.B

In Parshat Vayeitzei, the Torah records the births and naming of eleven of the twelve shevatim, including the reasons for each name. The names that Leah gives her first three sons reflect her feelings about her relationship with her husband Yaakov, and her hope that this child would enhance their marriage. Leah's fourth son, however, is different. When he is born, Leah says "hapaam odeh et Hashem," this time I will thank Hashem, therefore calling him Yehudah, from the shoresh "hodaah," thanks. But why does Leah express a changed theme in the naming of her fourth son? Rashi explains that through ruach haKodesh, Leah knew that there would be twelve tribes born to four wives of Yaakov. If this was split evenly, each wife would have three children. When Leah gave birth to a fourth son, she realized that she was given more than what seemed to be her share, and was moved to express her gratitude for this extra gift. The Gemara in Brachot 7b refers to this when it declares that from the beginning of creation, no one ever thanked Hashem until Leah came and thanked Him for her fourth son. This seems hard to believe. Is it really possible that none of the tzadikim that preceded Leah ever thought to thank Hashem? Rav Zev Leff explains that Leah was not the first person to thank Hashem, but was the first to do so in a complete way. Previously, people acknowledged Hashem's goodness, but also felt that it was part of His plan, and it was “coming to them” regardless. By contrast, Leah was so surprised at her good fortune that she went beyond the conventional level of gratitude and expressed a true outpouring of thanks for this unexpected and undeserved gift. This reaction teaches us the foundation of gratitude. Having a thankful attitude stems from viewing all the good things in our lives as gifts, rather than expectations. Once we recognize that all of our "possessions" are not a given, we can truly appreciate the brachot we have and see Hashem's chessed in all aspects of our lives.

Discovery

D.V. Goldstein

    How do we know that Judaism is the correct religion, as opposed to the others? If a missionary tried to save your soul and convert you to Christianity, how would you disprove him?
    Rabbi Mechanic spoke to the 11th graders on this topic for four periods in a row, proving Torah Shebichtav. I will attempt a summary of his speech:
All other religions have one person that supposedly had a revelation from G-d. For example, Mohammed is claimed to have flown up to G-d on a donkey, been given the Koran, and flown back down to earth and told everyone that G-d commanded to keep this testament. Each religion started this way, with an individual revelation, Judaism being an exception. G-d did not give the Torah to Moshe alone. Hashem gave the Torah to Moshe and to all of Bnei Yisroel at once. Three million people witnessed the event.
However, you can say that all those three million people are not credible witnesses because they are no longer alive. But that is not the case. We believe George Washington existed, regardless of the fact that he and all his witnesses are dead. Why? Because those witnesses recorded his life and experiences in countless books. It is ridiculous to assume that he is made up!
    This is comparative with Judaism, as we know three million people could not have made up an identical story. And since we are the only religion that has witnesses, only we can be the true religion.
     Rabbi Mechanic gave many more proofs on how Judaism is true, and is able to disprove any argument you have. If you want to argue with him, you'll just have to wait until 11th grade.

Pictures and Video

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Father Daughter Learning
Penina Shir

This past Monday night, Bruriah students were privileged to have Rabbi Rapp come and speak to them about the Hilchot Lavan at the Father-Daughter Learning program. There was a great turnout and it was great to see all the fathers and daughters learning together. We learned that Lavan was such a rasha that he is said to be even worse than Pharaoh. Then how come we have so many Halachot derived from Lavan at the time that he was marrying off his sister, Rivka, to Yitzchak, and his daughters, Rochel and Leah, to Yaakov? The sources for Sheva Brachot, when one should get engaged, and how long one could wait until they get married, are all from Lavan. What is so special about Lavan that we keep these Halachot? The Ohr Hachaim teaches us that Lavan might have been a Rasha in many areas, but when it came to family matters, he was a Tzaddik. He had his head on straight and knew how to handle situations in a proper manner. This is why we keep these Halachot.

Commemorating Those Who Perished
Chana Gorelik

It has been one year since the tragedy in Mumbai, when a Chabad rabbi and his wife were murdered by terrorists. Rabbi Gavriel Holtzberg and his wife moved to Mumbai to do kiruv. They were known for their outreach and strong desire to assist people. In addition, they built a mikvah in Mumbai. These individuals were moser nefesh in order to help their fellow Jews. They had two sons and an unborn baby. Their little toddler, Moshe, was saved by the nanny and, unfortunately, he is now an orphan. He is living with his grandparents in Israel. Their other son, who is disabled, was in Israel at the time of the attack. A total of nine people were slaughtered at the Chabad House. We should never forget this tragedy, nor take baalei chasidim for granted.

Torah Bowl

Rivki Horowitz

Monday morning at Bruriah; a typical start of the week for most of the school…post weekend hugs and greetings, Rabbi Hagler running through the 75% of the school he needs to meet with for some reason or other and a general collective groan because after all, it is Monday. Not so for Bruriah High School’s Torah Bowl Team! That morning, ten Bruriah girls, ranging from 9^th to 12^th grade, got off their busses, Torah clutched firmly in hand, hair ironed in place, all set to make a good impression and put their brains to the test in the challenge of Torah Bowl (we’ll go into how it got its name a different time…) Of course, the van comes 45 minutes late - all the more time to go over those last few Rashis! Then off to MAYHS we go, and it’s a miracle in itself that all eleven of us managed to fit onto that bus a.k.a. claustrophobia on wheels. Stuck in traffic for over an hour, we finally arrived and the pizza was still hot! The first round against TA ended with a beautiful victory with a score of 24 to 1. The next round vs. Ilan was 21 to nothing and the next round vs. Kushner was 17 to 7. I think it’s safe to say we know our Torah pretty well. Now, you Torah Bowl baki’s out there may be wondering what happened to the usual 4^th round?...Good question. So, because of Bruriah's late arrival we missed the 1^st round and it ended up happening that we needed to play the last two rounds with the same questions. So, Rabbi/Coach Hagler came up with the beautiful suggestion of splitting our team in half. Half played, and the other half would go downstairs with the opposing team so that they wouldn’t hear the questions, then they would come back up and play with those questions, fair and square. The only problem was that the other school, who was competing the 4^th round, wasn’t aware of this beautiful eitzeh and they came up during the 3^rd round and were lounging around while the questions were being asked. It wouldn’t be fair to play with one team knowing the questions, so the 4^th round was disqualified. We hope Rabbi Wolofsky will understand. At 3:15, there were 3 victories, pies and pies of pizza for all, and most importantly, Torah knowledge gained. We headed back, making it just in time for Mrs. Stern’s announcement- “We interrupt this broadcast…” We wish the Torah Bowl team much Hatzlacha to keep succeeding and gaining much Torah knowledge, as Championships and beyond!

    Faculty Advisor
    Rabbi Hagler
   Editors
Ilona Grudnikoff
    Danielle Fersel
    Penina Sheer
    Lisa Berkman
    Neeli Rhodes
    Writers
    Talia Atlas
    Daniella Lejtman
    Shira Tuchman
    Raquel Miller
    Elizabeth Blass
    Shira Tuchman
    Tal Meiri
    Talia Berlin
Elisheva Greenblatt
    Yaffa Fogel
    D.V. Goldstein
    Deena Chisik
    Photographers
    Yafit Fishbach
    Ark Kohl
    Camera Women
    Eliana Diament
    Sarah Borck
    Tech Support
    Shulie Kornbluth
    Dalia Adler