Growing up (Aish HaTorah Intermediate)

I started a new program at Aish HaTorah this week, before beginning the Intermediate program I had an interview with the director of the program and his last question of me was did I understand that they only wanted serious students in the program. I assured him I was serious and I was in. Boy I didn’t realize how serious he was, us yeshiva boys are really growing up now. No longer are we listening to simple lectures, going from one to the other. Now almost every class has some work to do outside of it, the Rabbi’s expect everyone to be aware of the material before hand and come to class prepared. It’s kind of like going from middle school to college in one swift jump. No more playing around classes for nine hours of the day and work to do afterwards, days are a minimum of ten hours long now. Its really going to force all of us to reassess what we want out of being here. Some people I’m sure will leave, find other places to be, realize this isn’t for them and our numbers will change. It’s inevitable, it’s natural. That being said I think this is a great program, my goal by the end of the next three months is to work on my Hebrew, not an easy thing, as easily as my mind absorbs the logic of Talmud or the concepts in or Philosophy class, just as uneasily does it learn Hebrew I find myself learning words and seconds later forgetting them. A friend told me I’m over thinking it, that I need to allow my flow brain to take over, to get the rhythm to feel it. He’s right for sure and I noticed the less I try to learn to words, the more I just try to feel the language the better it sinks in. So that my goal and the other learning I’m doing will be gravy I have my whole life to learn the details. And if I want to be able to get the details, explore the subtleties, I need to be able to learn them in the original Hebrew. So we’ll see how it goes, I’ll keep you posted. In the mean time its time to buckle down, I’m excited to see where the next months take my mind, what they force me to think about. Eretz Israel.