11:35 AM - Looking back it was a wonderful week.

Writing now, I am continuing to add of a list of Mishkan related Rambans on the Mishkan for the head of our Chumash Department. I feel strongly that rishonim, and even Chazal discussed the meaning behind the keilim of the Mishkan and that it's not - as some people contend - "just vortlich."

I feel a bit more rested and contented than I have all week. It's the first chance I've had in a while to sit on my own and think, learn, write, and breathe. When a friend of mine recently asked what I'd be doing on Presidents week-end I said my plan was to breathe. She got what I was saying and said she had signs in her home serving as reminders to her and her husband and children - "Breathe."

1:21 PM - I sat and ate lunch with a dear colleague, first time in a while. Talked with students. The bell just rang and the music is playing on the loudspeaker (a tradition as long as I've been here) as the kids head home for the weekend.

2:19 PM - This week I helped a bunch of kids with the processing of their poems for an upcoming poetry event for high-schoolers. On Monday I spent a few hours on a school trip for ninth graders working with kids in the Friendship Circle's President's Week Camp. On Wednesday I participated in the schools full day educational program for the eleventh grade. In twelfth grade we reviewed for a Gemorah test. My Chumash classes are all moving forward, post test. All but one person in Public Speaking have given their autobiographical presentation. The topics have included: the loss of a cat, having divorced parents one of whom is an Orthodox Jew and the other one being intermarried and disengaged from Judaism, believing that greed is good, almost having choked to death on a hard candy, and the effects of the experience of shadowing a developmentally disabled kid in camp. It's amazing to see kids grow. Today a student of mine who graduated six years ago spoke from the heart to my class about his passionate commitment to Judaism.

4:06 PM - A colleague scooped me up from the bus-stop at 2:40 and dropped me off on the New York side of the GWB. Thank G-d. Thank colleague.

I had a great chat with a colleague today. She told me that she walks outside for exercise every morning and then goes to prayers. Impressive. She wishes that people would be more godly and treat one another with kindness, because she believes that's what we're here for. She certainly does her part to be helpful and cheerful toward others. Last Wednesday morning, Helen was taken by her clergyman's words. He said that it was great to see many people before him but that, sadly, tomorrow he'd be there alone again. It was Ash Wednesday and people came out in great numbers for morning mass, much as they do for Christmas mass. And Helen noted that the disappearance the next day is just like Christmas too. Besides doing her best to make morning mass daily, Helen teaches in her church's school, in addition to her family life and full time employment at the same place where I teach. It's my honor to work with such a rarely refined, spiritually, and emotionally developed human being.

Soon I'll be heading home, making preparations, as Shabbos approaches.

I just learned in memory of my paternal grandfather, whom I didn't merit to meet, Mordechai Dov ben Eliezer:

Trumah, as explained by Rav Elimelech Bar Shaul:

The Medrash tells the following allegory: A servant of the king married the king's only daughter. The man wanted to move away, for them to make it on their own. The king said, "I can't tell you not take her where you wish, as she is your wife. But she is my only daughter and I can't part with her. So do me this favor; wherever you go make a room for me to stay in." Similarly, G-d tells the Jewish People, "I gave you the Torah. It is impossible for me to part with her, and I also can't tell you not to take her. So, wherever you go make a home that I will dwell in. This is as it is written, "Make me a Mikdash..." (Shmot Rabbah, Trumah - 33)

If G-d cannot part from His Torah, we should follow His example and be inseparable from this holy gift He has blessed us with. Torah is our very life and by showing that we feel this way about the Torah we show how we feel about G-d who gave us the Torah. Just as G-d shows his love of Torah by always staying close to her (as it were) so too we should express our affection for Torah through closeness to Torah living. G-d loves the Torah He gave us and we love the Torah we received from him: the Mikdash is a testament to this dual love - from above to below and below to above.