This year in Gan Yisroel we didn’t only have Hiskashrus War – we even had a Moshiach War!
AND THATS NOT ALL!
Gan Yisroel 5782 broke GYYR history by having the first ever FRIDAY NIGHT GRAND SING in Gan Yisroel Detroit history!
Give yourselves a pat on the back! you deserve it! this is a big deal!
Enjoy this short video recap of the beginning moments of this special day in Gan Yisroel!
Oh wow!
That was a crazy week!
On Sunday, your Launchers, Shea and Avi went to Boro Park because they heard that there is free falafel there, and as many of you guys may have heard, the prices for falafel in NYC raised up, so Avi and Shea went to go get falafel so that they can sell it and make money so they pay for the gyyr magazines to get printed, and guess what it worked! Avi and shea sold the falafel to bmd hc mordechai rosinsweig for 150$!
Monday was pretty calm.
Tuesday and Wednesday, Avi and Shea decided to learn for 48 hours straight, it lasted about 3 minutes, so after that, they decided to go on a run for an hour to lose weight, which lasted only about 2 minutes. Basically, Avi and Shea decided to go launch some random people in Crown heights, the first person they met was a big mashpia R’ Shlomo Zarchi, Shlomo asked Avi and Shea what the whole inyan of launcher is? So Avi and Shea explained to him what it is, Reb shlome decided that this is something which needs to be taught to all the bochurim learning in 770 (Reb Shlome is the mashpia in 770) he asked us to come and give a speech to the bochurim, of course we agreed, and we are actually now preparing a class for them!
On Thursday it was Yud Daled Kislev, the Rebbe and Rebbetzin’s wedding anniversary, in honor of this special day the gyyr team made a gyyr zoom rally! Bh over 60 campers and staff joined an amazing program! Joined by guests rabbi Chaim Mentz, rabbi Zvi Hershkowitz and many more, also there were amazing raffles at the end!
On motzei shabbos, the launchers along with levi shemtov, and Arik Deren, made visits to a number of houses in NY for mini gyyr reunions!!
As Avi and Shea rode in the back of a taxi on the way to a special, exclusive petting zoo, they spoke about all the cool animals they were gonna see!
Shea was especially excited to see the chickens because chicken was his second favorite food after pizza of course!
Avi wasn’t as excited about seeing the chickens, he wanted to see the goats because they have cool beards!
Eventually, they arrived at the petting zoo and got right to petting the animals. Avi wanted to ride the chickens but they didn’t let him.
As they were preparing to leave after about an hour they noticed there was one more animal that they didn’t visit – Chamor the donkey!
They went to the donkey and Avi told Shea a funny joke:
“What did the donkey say to the couch?”
“What?”
“Nothing! because donkeys can’t talk!”
As Avi and Shea rolled on the floor laughing the Donkey laughed with them!
Shea launched in the air so high that it took 5 minutes till he landed back on earth!
“Did the donkey just laugh?” Avi asked Shea, “I think so” Shea responded.
Then the donkey introduced himself “Hi, I’m Chamor the donkey!”
Shea launched so high this time that it took a half-hour till he landed again!
The donkey saw that they were shocked so he decided to Chazer a Dvar Torah he heard that week to lighten the mood:
“In this weeks Parsha – Vayishlach, we learn about Yakov sending angels to meet his brother Eisav to tell him that he’s coming from Lavans house and he worked longer than he expected, Yakov also told his angels to tell Eisav that he acquired cattle, donkeys and sheep.
The Midrash explains that when Yakov mentioned the donkey he was referring to Moshiach.
Yakov was telling Eisav that he worked in the physical world in Lavans house and lifted all the sparks of Hashem to the heavens, and he is now ready for Moshiach. Yakov was hoping Eisav would be ready for Moshiach as well and they can go to Moshiach together.
When the Angels returned they told Yakov “We came to your brother, to Eisav” Basically telling Yakov that although you are ready for Moshiach your brother is still Eisav and he is not yet ready and therefore Moshiach can not come yet…”
Avi and Shea still slightly shocked by a talking donkey, were very intrigued by this Torah lesson, they screamed out to the donkey: “Nu? what’s the lesson? How do we launch from this?”
The donkey continued:
“We are the Rebbe’s Kinder, the Rebbe’s Shliuchim, we work on our Avodas Hashem, we do what we need to do etc. But that’s not enough! We need to make sure every Yid is ready for Moshiach! That every Yid is doing their part!
The lesson is that we need to go out into the world and take over! Bring Yiddishkeit to every single Yid, purify the world once and for all and bring Moshiach!”
“WOW,” Avi and Shea said in unison, that’s so inspiring!
Shea looked at Avi and said: “Avi! what are we waiting for lets launch and find every Yid and bring Moshiach!”
The donkey then disappeared into thin air!
Good Shabbos Gan Yisroel!
L’chaim Chassidim!
It was a beautiful Tuesday morning in Tustin, Michigan, the sun was shining, bees buzzing and the new grounds of Gan Yisroel were still carpeted and in one piece.
It was evident that a special day has arrived, and special it was! The campers of Gan Yisroel 5782 were arriving in 3 hours!
Walking through the bunkhouse hallways you were able to see the floor, how nice and quiet it was. until…
*Beep! Beep! Beep! Beep! Beep! Beep!*
Levi Shemtov slams the snooze button on his alarm clock and turns to Mendel Azimov who was still sleeping “Mendel, wake up!!!”
“AHHHHHHHHHHHHHH,” Mendel screamed, “what happened?” Levi asked, “I had a dream that I slept through a full Friday night in camp and missed the whole meal!” Mendel responded. Levi Shemtov began to cry together with Mendel at such a thought, it was then when Mendel made a firm decision to make every Friday night in Gan Yisroel a vort!
Finally, Levi looked at the clock and his eyes popped out of his face! “Mendel! the kids will be here in three hours and we didn’t make the bunks yet! We have to wake up Levi Katz and get to work!
They ran into the next room and jumped on Levi’s head until he woke up screaming! They asked him what’s wrong and he said that he had a dream that he missed breakfast! Mendel, levi, and Levi cried together for a few minutes, it is then that they made a firm decision that they will never miss breakfast but occasionally miss lunch.
The head staff ran to Mikvah joined the staff Minyan for Shachris and ran to the office and Levi Shemtov got to work on the bunks while Levi Katz and Mendel Azimov began making their way through the 25 egg wraps that chef Shmully Berman prepared for them!
after about 8 and a half minutes Levi Shemtov proudly showed his finished bunks to Mendel and Levi.
They burst out laughing!
“Levi” Mendel screamed, “You put all the campers in one bunk and called it bunk Gan Yisroel!”
Levi looked at Mendel and became very serious and said to him in a very stern tone “Mendel please pass me three egg wraps with extra spicy mayo.”
After devouring the egg wraps Levi again looked at Mendel this time with an even more serious face and said “Mendel please pass me a diet coke.”
Finally, Levi stared Mendel right in the eye and said, “Mendel! did you just ask me why the whole camp is in one bunk!? of course, the whole camp is in one bunk! this is Gan Yisroel, are there divisions in Gan Yisroel?
Levi sat on the floor and began to cry, it was then when Levi noticed for the first time the mushiness of the Gan Yisroel carpets…
As Levi Shemtov cried and Mendel Azimov laughed and Levi Katz was shoving down the last egg wrap, they heard an announcement on the PA “Head Counselors please make your way to the Chosidel lobby.”
As they made their way to the lobby they noticed a small French looking man, they introduced themselves and then asked him if he speaks English, he smiled and said “Yes, I’m from America, my name is Mendel Backman.”
They immediately responded with a massive mazel tov for his birthday and began to dance!
It is then when he broke the news to them “I’m afraid to tell you that I’m here to be the head counselor of Gan Yisroel and you guys will be waiters instead…”
Stay Tuned For Part Three…
Wow! Feels like it was yesterday when we fooled the entire gan Yisroel into thinking it was a Staff Play when it was really Hiskashrus War!
And what a Hiskashrus War it was!
Definitely going down in history!
Enjoy this short recap video of the first night of that amazing Hiskashrus War (First Session)
Thank you to our dear photographer, Yossi Sasonkin who captured these moments for us to forever enjoy!
Oh wow, what a week it’s been, let’s jump right to it.
It was Sunday afternoon in crown heights where both of your launchers, Avi and Shea are launching (and learning) for the year, after a few hours of learning lunch break finally came, unfortunately they served a really gross lunch that day, asparagus and rice, who even eats that?! So Your launchers decided to go buy food. Avi sees ess and bentch and goes straight in to buy a hotdog, the problem was shea wanted to go to Kingston pizza to buy pizza, and that’s where it all went down, We got into a screaming match, within moments half of crown heights were standing around and taking videos of us, nah, we are just joking, no one actually came to footage us, but avi and shea were very upset at eachother “hotdogs” avi screamed, “no, pizza” answered shea, and on and on and on, it seemed as if the world was gonna end, but then avi and shea chapped that they can each buy the food they want and then everyone will be happy, and guess what? It worked!
Monday through wednesday were pretty regular days for your launchers, each of the launchers revieved about 63 phone calls a day from campers, some crying that they miss us, some prank calling, and some just wanted to farbreng!
Thursday was the most craziest day ever!!!!!
I’m not sure if you guys know this, but We’ll let you in on a little scoop, but don’t tell the headstaff we told you, 3,2,1, STAFF PLAY !!!!! Ha! I’m joking, it’s actually the GRAND TRIP!! Ok, all jokes aside, every thursday night Avi and Shea meet up in a secret Location and discuss and work on the gyyr magazine, so every thursday is a good day, so next time it’s thursday and you’re feeling down, remember thursday is the gyyr planning day, and you will instantly be happy.
Shabbos was bh very nice, we are pretty sure Avi gained 12 pounds (minimum) from his Bubby’s food!
Alright, we will see you soon.
Tune in on monday for a special memory monday video!!!!!
Tuesday- secrets from the headstaff
Thursday- dvar torah
Friday- weekly erev shabbos video
Last week the Launchers went to a circus! It was so cool! we saw so many animals and Launcher Shea even got to chase a lion!
After the circus they went to the circus man and asked him for a tour of the animals, the circus man was friends with Avi’s Tatty so he said sure!
When he showed us the elephant they noticed that the elephant was tied down by a short and thin rope! They asked Avi’s Tatty’s friend how the elephant never escapes!
He told them that when the elephant was a baby they tied him to the rope and whenever he tried to escape the rope would pull him back because at the time he was a baby, so now it’s so engraved in his brain that he can’t escape from the rope that he doesn’t even try! Even though he’s huge!
On the car ride back they were thinking about this and realized that it can teach us a valuable lesson for Parshas Vayeitzei!
And that’s when Shea began Farbrenging:
When Yaakov made it to Charan with the intention of getting married and running away from his brother, Eisav, the first he did was go to the well where he saw all the Shepards of Charan waiting around the well which was covered by a big rock. Yaakov asked them: why don’t you just remove the rock? they told him: “we can’t do it” Yaakov then went and took the rock off the well all by himself!
Wait a minute! was Yaakov trying to show off to the shepherds? Why didn’t he just wait till they all got there and took it off together? and even if he wanted to take it off by himself why did he make such a big show about it? he could have just don’t it and walked away but instead, he waited for them to tell him that it’s impossible and then took it off proving them wrong!???
The answer is as follows:
Yaakov didn’t wait because he was trying to teach the shepherds a lesson that just because yesterday you couldn’t do it and just because other people told you that you cant do it – doesn’t mean that you cant do it today! Did you try it yet today? Yes, yesterday you couldn’t do it – but what about today?
Avi WAKE UP!!!
Do you understand this beautiful lesson we learned from the elephant?
We can’t just not try because people or even our brains tell us we can’t do it!
Obviously, this doesn’t mean that we can imagine that we can turn into rocket ships and fly to Mars, but every camper on their own level definitely has certain things in Avodas Hashem that we convinced ourselves is not Shayich to us…
Well, Parshas Vayeitzei come to tell us that we can do it! As long as we keep trying!
Then Avi woke up:
“WOW! Shea that was beautiful! But the car just pulled up to Kingston Pizza so let’s go inside and order 3 pies.”
“3 Pies! Avi, you invited friends?” Shea asked
“NO!” Avi responded
Wishing you and your family a good Shabbos!
From your Dear Launchers
P.S. This Shabbos is Tes Kislev, the birthday and Yartzeit of the Miteler Rebbe – don’t forget to hold a Chassidishe Farbrengen with your family!
Secrets from the Head Counselors – Tuesday, 5 Kislev
As many of you know, this year we had the special Zechus to spend the first summer in Gan Yisroel history in the brand new campgrounds of Tustin!
Give yourself a pat on the back! Good job!
What you may not know is that before Tustin was ready, the Head Counselors arrived only to find some leftover mayonnaise in the fridge from the Kettunen Center!
So our dear director gave head counselor Mendel Azimov, the keys to a massive truck and told him to go to Kalkaska and get things for camp.
So all the head staff made their way to Kalkaska and when they arrived they tried thinking of what they needed in Tustin to prepare for camp.
First Levi Shemtov tried taking all of Kalkaska’s rowboats and Kayaks because we need at least one red and blue Kayak for color war!
But sadly wade told us that they need them in Kalkaska.
Next, we went to the other side where wade couldn’t see us and started filling the truck with dirt from Admas Kodesh to bring to Tustin. Once the truck was full of dirt we were satisfied and made our way back to Tustin.
On the way back we went on a runaway to a gas station and a nice man paid for our drinks because he loves Jews!
When we arrived back in Tustin we were so excited to show our director, Levi Raichik all the dirt we brought back!
But when Hillel Pritzker opened the truck all the dirt came pilling on top of him! Once we got Hillel out of dirt EMT Mendel Goldstein gave him an ice pop and he was ok.
Then Levi Raichik came outside and when he saw the dirt he started screaming at us that we were supposed to get real things for camp like benches, beds, siddurim, etc.
Right then and there the truck disappeared into thin air and we had no way of going to Kalkaska. We spent the next few days spreading the dirt around different areas of camp and that’s when the campers showed up at the beautiful new campgrounds.
So if you ever wondered why there wasn’t enough Sodurim or why we were forced, against our will, to sit on normal chairs for the first few weeks it’s because you had the Zechus to stand on some holy dirt.
Either way after spending a summer of learning and davening in Tustin, we have definitely elevated it and it is now a world-recognized religious destination in Tustin and attracts close to 500 people every summer!
“Near Tustin I wait, around the glistening lake!”
Until next Tuesday.
Your head staff.