Today’s Chabura spotlight is on Nachi Cooper’s chabura.

Nachi is spending his 6th straight summer at NCSY Kollel. He has been a camper, sports staff, junior madrich, and madrich. He is currently the hockey commissioner and the camp EMT. He is from Teaneck, NJ.

The NCSYers in Nachi’s chabura are Aaron Kurtzman (Omaha, NE), Logan Levin (Buffalo Grove, IL), Nate Simon (Beachwood, OH) and Aharon Tabakman (Toronto, ON).

Every chabura starts off with learning the Igeres HaRamban, a letter that the Ramban wrote his son. It deals with different character traits and practical ideas that one can use to improve those traits. Afterwards, they study about a specific mitzvah in depth. By understanding the various laws and sources of a mitzvah they hope to gain a greater appreciation for why we do them.

Some of the topics they have covered are honoring your parents, davening, tefillin, and the ten commandments.

Due to the interactive nature of his chabura many “tangents” have been covered also. A topic that often comes up is the question of free choice. Everyone is very interested in it and wants to know more about it. These discussions always lead to every getting involved and have really influenced the growth over the summer.

What a day- in learning, and on the courts.

This year’s calendar has allowed us a great number of long Thursday nights for incredible Mishmar programming.  The Beit Medrash on these nights is a sight to see.  There are huge crowds, multiple shiur options, and an incomparable pulse to the learning.  This Thursday we celebrated 2 siyumim, enjoyed great refreshments, and kept things going strong until the wee hours of the morning.

The sports scene provided no shortage of highlights.  The playoffs continued with earnest, and the hockey and basketball brackets shrunk to just 4 teams apiece.   In basketball, these 4 were the 4 top seeds, so the final games should be something special.

We also crowned our 3 on 3 advanced bracket champion.  The trio of Yair Adler, Ben Zion Feld, and Zack Kalatsky capped a most impressive run with a decisive victory in the final game.

And our all-star games got off to a rousing start, with two thrillers in the late afternoon.  The post-11^th grade NCSY stars finally tasted some defeat, falling to a mighty squad of madrichim.  The post-10^th grade stars fared no better, losing in overtime to a great effort from our team of Rabbeim.  The Rabbeim have now won 3 of the last 4 years in this series, and continue to impress.

http://www.ncsysummer.com/gallery/trip/kollel

Today’s chabura spotlight is on Yoni Senter’s chabura.

Yoni Senter is spending his first summer on NCSY Kollel. Yoni lives in Monsey, NY, and attends Ner Israel Rabbinical College in Baltimore. On previous summers yoni has done various SEED programs in California.

The NCSYers in Yonis’s chabura are Eli Brochov (Cedarhurst NY), Yaakov Bronstein (Far Rockaway), Yehuda Fogel (Woodmere NY), Pinny Fried (Flushing NY), Aryeh Laufer (Lawrence NY), Yaakov Samuels (Toronto ON), Yisroel BOAZ Wiess (North Miami Beach, FL). We all blended together to make a colorful, loud, and fun bunch of guys.

This summer we are learning a variety of topics, primarily discussing topics relating to levirate marriage and conversion. The main focus of the chabura is to show the depth and complexity of the seemingly simple material pertaining to the topics under discussion. Whilst working through the material , which is mainly focused on analytic thinking rather then source material, we all get intensely engaged and opinionated resulting in an appreciation and enjoyment of  the depth of Torah.

We all enjoyed a great summer both in learning and the animated discussions relating to Jewish life in general. We all contributed to the chabura in our own unique and specific ways.

Playoffs are here!  The courts came alive all afternoon with the intensity of NCSY playoff action.  There were few upsets in the early rounds, a trend that would continue on Thursday.  Kudos to “The Dream Team” captained by NCSYer Shai Kaminetzky for pulling off an impressive double:  First winning their tie breaking play-in game, and then coming back to win their first round playoff matchup.  Two playoff wins in a span of three hours!  A job well done.

For those whose luck had already run out, there was a great mini-tiyul to the beach.

But without a doubt, the highlight of Wednesday was the celebrating following the engagement of long time Madrich Corey Fuchs.  Corey is extremely beloved by staff and NCSYers alike, and it was a thrill to dance and sing with him and his new Kallah.  Mazal Tov!

http://www.ncsysummer.com/gallery/trip/kollel

Today’s Chabura spotlight is on Dan Schindelheim’s chabura.

Dan is from Long Beach, NY, and is spending his third summer on NCSY Kollel. He was an NCSYer in 2006, and after spending a few summers working at Camp Stone, is now in his second year as a madrich. Dan also manages to find time in his busy schedule to serve as an advisor for NCSY Central East.

The NCSYers in Dan’s Chabura are Ilan Hirshfield (Rochester, New York), Aaron Kingsbury (Thornhil, Ontario), and Ami Nadiv (Farmington, Michigan).

Dan has focused throughout the summer on emphasizing the importance of truly understanding the fundamentals of Judaism, facilitating deep philosophical and halachic discussions as to why we serve G-d, why he gave us the mitzvot, why learning Torah is so significant, why we yearn for our redemption as a people, etc.

Naturally, such a great learning experience creates a bond that goes far beyond the classroom, as just this past Wednsday night the chabura enjoyed a late night get together featuring shwarma on the house. A truly delicous summer.

To do it proper justice, Tuesday would require multiple blog posts.  Morning, noon, and night all featured distinct programming, and all three were memorable and meaningful.

The day began with Shiur Trips.  This is a very different kind of tiyul day, with the focus resting on the shiurim and the activities serving to bond the NCSYers into more cohesive units.  Each shiur had its own itinerary, and tremendous fun was had by all.

Back in Beit Meir, Chabura Wars awaited.  This zany and challenging competition serves two primary purposes.  First, it widens our range to include talents and skills that are otherwise dormant over the summer.  Instead of the standard leagues and learning, for one afternoon we create more spotlights and more stars.  Of course, the second goal is to spur even more Chabrura camaraderie.  Mission successful!  Whether through Apache Relays, Panopoly or any of the other creative games and contests, the chaburas forged ahead and grew closer in the process.

Things got a bit more serious again at night, as our regular night schedule was supplanted by a choice between two interactive panel discussions.  One group heard from Rav Yosef Bronfeld and Rav Mordechai Burg, always two of our most sought after night Rabbeim.  The other group had the remarkable opportunity to hear from Rav Mendel Blachman and Rav Moshe Taragin.  The NCSYers were incredibly impressed and moved by the erudition and dynamism of the presenters, and will not soon forget the experience of listening and questioning them.

http://www.ncsysummer.com/gallery/trip/kollel

We recently summed up a set of chaburas on the mitzvah of honoring one’s parents, discussing the halachik and personal aspects. We also discussed the importance of being commanded in mitzvos and the appropriate response to the fall of our enemies. The NCSYer’s enjoy seeing the relevance of these topics in their lives, such as whether we could deem it appropriate or inappropriate to have celebrated the death of Osama Bin Laden. Evan tries to teach his NCSYers both an interesting and practical approach to successful learning and skill building.