How Many Balloons....

Week of Feb 6th- 12th
Monday night we had a Mechanchos Supper at my teachers house in Ramat Shlomo.
That Shabbos I also stayed in the dorm. There were only about 4 other girls there this time though.

Week of Feb 13th- 19th
Monday night I went to Karaoke with Mindy which is always fun.
Wednesday, Shalom Task Force came to speak to us. For most of you Michigan people, you have no idea what this is. But its pretty recognized in NY. STF is an awareness program for Domestic Abuse. They help and aid frum women in abusive marriages all over the east coast. They also put together informative and preventive programs for single women who are either dating or even not yet. They focus on recognizable signs of manipulation and that sort of thing. I found the program very interesting, and overall it wasn't at all extreme or assuming. Just down to earth and real.
That night me and bunch of the gals stayed up blowing up balloons and stuffing them into Rabbi Meisels office. 500 balloons wasn't enough to fill it to the door so we started with a balloon wall and tape and then worked toward the door. In random balloons we put water, rice, flour, confetti, and beans. Also we made faces and pictures on the balloons. The madricha made a Baloon Rabbi Meisels and put it on his chair, so that when he broke through all the balloons he would see it. We wrote P'ninim Purim Katan in Balloons on the wall behind his desk too.
We closed the light and left a safety pin on his door. When he came into school the next day (the day before Purim Katan b/c there is no school on Fridays) me and one other girl were sitting outside the office (a common place to be for most students) as if to be waiting to speak to him. When he unlocked the door but couldn't open it, we were right behind him with the video cameras. So we have a full 15 minute video of Rabbi Meisels trying to break through the balloons with the safety pin. The whole thing was a riot and we all had a lot of fun doing it!!
That Shabbos was a Shabbaton in Kommimius (a Chassidish Kibutz). The girls were absolutely enthralled with the scene around us- all the Yoelli's on tractors :P
The theme was Tov LeHodos LaHashem and Gam Zu LeTovah.
Okay, all in all, it was a beautiful 75 degree sunny shabbos that was just relaxing and inspiring. I gave a 'Dvar Torah' on the Gam Zu LeTovah part of the theme during Shalosh Seudot that I was mucho not prepared for. No but I really wasn't... I had zilcho written down. I just had printed out a few pages on the subject from chabad.org and Aish.com... and asked people for some stories over shabbos. It ended up being more like a 15 minute shiur because I had so many cool things to say even without the stories.
Like the whole concept of the Tes for Tovah. If i'm correct its the first Tes in the torah, and just like the Ches represents a marriage, the Tes represents the child in the womb- inner goodness that is hidden. The idea being that all is good but goodness is not necessarily revealed or known to man. Just like to Moshe's request for G-d to reveal Himself- He answered "You may see My back, buy My face- that you will not see"- I believe its the Ksav Sofer who says that Hashem was telling Moshe a rule- in hindsight (at the end of days) you will know why I've done all that I do, but foresight was not given over to man. And I told a few stories about knowing that even when something is bad... and it stays bad... and its not going to change- it too is intrinsically good, whether we can see why or not.