Flyers have been posted over every square inch of Queens! Don't miss this incredible opportunity to learn some Torah, as we approach yet another one of those Jewish holiday things.

Chazaq is sponsoring this event. The world renowned lecturer, R' Daniel Mechanic, is making the long and arduous journey from Brooklyn to Queens, and will be speaking this coming Monday night, August 20th, 2007.

Discover the Truth of the Torah, with a special question and answer session after the lecture.

The event is for men AND for women, especially attractive single women. Admission is free.

Gates open at 8:00 pm, and refreshments will be served. The lecture is scheduled for 8:30 PM, though "scheduled" is probably a euphemism for "it may be a few minutes after that," because, after all, this is a Jewish event.

Location: Beth Gavriel Community Center, 66-35 108th Street, Forest Hills, NY 11375

For more info, please call: (917) 617-3636, or e-mail: ChazaqEvents@gmail.com

I'm (hopefully) going...

I might stop by for refreshments......

B"H. That's one.

The same way you came to the meet in your honor?

1. No one Texted, emailed or anything else.
2. The site was down
3. Shaina said she wasn't coming and that she doubts anyone else would either
4. I didn't feel well
5. By the time I got the message it was too late

Thanks for the

but I've actually been planning to go since I first heard about it a week ago.

i just read about him somewhere (binah? JP?) i heard he is a good speaker.

Are you going to come then?

i'm too fragile for the long and arduous journey from Brooklyn to Queens

I think this is the rabbi who said he will take off his yarmulke if the hyrax and the hare proof turns out false. They mean well I'm sure. . . .

what's that?

Says the chick who came to the U.S. from Uganda (or someplace like that).


To be kosher, a mammal must have split hooves and chew its cud. The Torah says that both signs must be present, so the pig, which has split hooves but doesn't chew its cud, isn't kosher, and three animals that chew their cud but don't have split hooves aren't kosher: the camel, hare and hyrax.

But some scientists and Bible critics say, "Hold on, the hare and hyrax aren't ruminants; they don't chew their cud." Well, they don't have four stomachs the way that cows do, so they aren't ruminants, but they do seem to regurgitate food and eat it again, even if this isn't well-known behavior. See the first post on this Xtian message board: http://www.christian-forum.net/index.php?showtopic=178, which brings much interesting literature on the hare and hyrax.

i was young and full of energy then

thanks. so, the point of some scientists and bible critics is to say that the bible/torah isn't correct about hyrax?

i still don't understand Moshi's post.

Is anyone else going?

http://www.yasharbooks.com/Camel.html

Is there separate seating???

Yes. There's no mixed seating, but usually no actual mechitza either. Just men on one side, and women on the other.

He has a sense of humor, but a warning to sle: I doubt the content of his speech will fly on h.com.

Doh! and I was almost going to come.....
Oh well...

How about free refreshments? People mingle then. lol

I don't mingle, I sit and the brave folk gravitate towards me......

Look for me there. Mincha and ma'ariv are at 7:30. I don't know what this Edut mizrachi nusach is, but I'll see if I can follow it.

It's pretty cool, you have to shout stuff out in the middle of the chazarras hashatz, like (l'havdil) in one of those holy roller's services.
I LOVE audience participation...

lol to krebbe's post.
Bezalel, mincha's not too different...just a tad longer than the ashkenazi nusach.
But from what I know, there will be a lot of ashkenazim there, so maybe there'll be separate minyanim.

Will I get strange looks if I come dressed like a Rebbe???

Why not?

What Kind of Rebbe?

He isn't always intellectually rigorous in making his points (at least from what I heard).

Yeah, what was that all about? Anway, I didn't see you there. If you were there and didn't introduce yourself to me, I'll be quite annoyed. I saw a chassidic looking guy pass by the Dougie's last week in a vehicle with NJ tags, and I wondered if that was you doing a drive-by.

The information that I had (from MinyanMaps.com) was inaccurate; I arrived right around 7:30, but they were just about to start chazarat ha'shatz. After mincha, the rabbi was giving a drasha, and I sat down to listen. I quickly realized that I didn't understand what he was saying. In fact, other than a Hebrew word every once in a while, I didn't know what language he was speaking. It wasn't English. It wasn't Hebrew. It wasn't Russian. It wasn't Spanish. It wasn't French. It wasn't German. It wasn't Arabic. I started wondering if it was Farsi, and then tried to remember if I had any idea what Farsi sounded like. I was freaking out. He finally finished and some of the guys were asking him questions in the same unknown language. Can you guess what it was?

Then we davened ma'ariv. Afterwards, I found an Ashkenazi-looking guy and asked if he had followed the drasha, and he said, "I'm not Bukharian; I'm Ashkenazi." I said, "Ah ha, now I know what that language was. Thanks." [And looking up Bukharian Jews on Wikipedia, I see that Bukhori is a dialect of Farsi, so I don't know if I guessed that maybe it was Farsi because I'd heard it before from Iranians, or because I was trying to guess what other Jewish cultures there were, and I thought of the Iranian Jews.]

Food was served around 8:10. It wasn't a meal. I mean, for me it was a meal, because I hadn't eaten anything else, but my Mom wouldn't be happy to hear that was my dinner. There were biracial cookies, plain tortilla chips and salsa, spicy tortilla chips, popcorn, artificial onion rings, and sodas. I had a little of everything.

The "scheduled for 8:30" lecture of R' Daniel Mechanic got under way promptly at 9:12. I was not amused. The lecture was good, though. Someone else may come along and file a report about his talk.

There were many people there, including many attractive females. They were generally around 16 years old, though, or at least that's how old they appeared to me.

The mile and a half walk to and from the lecture hall was pleasant and refreshing, with perfect weather going there, and only a mild rain and light winds buffeting my umbrella on the way back.

I'm insulted that you think I would even give the maras ayin that I am in any way associated with New Jersey
I wasn't there, but I almost came......

Which will be the next event to which you will almost come? The 2:00 a.m. Fulton Fish Market meet?

I guessed Yiddish before reading the next sentence.

Was it interesting, deep, or some combination?

I knew it wasn't Yiddish; I just forgot to add that.

Rabbi Mechanic's lecture was interesting; I've been through the Discovery seminar, so I've heard all the stuff before. He focused on the fact that other faiths all claim a one-on-one discussion between G-d and one prophet, whereas Judaism is unique in claiming a Revelation between G-d and the entire nation. He says that whenever the Torah was first introduced, it wouldn't have been accepted if there had not been a tradition the such a Revelation did occur with the entire nation present. It is an interesting concept.

He took questions afterwards, and someone asked if he was troubled that we were so few in number whereas others were so numerous. He said that there are a billion Xtians and a billion Muslims, and each says the other is wrong. At least one of them must be wrong, so that's a billion people who are wrong right there. If a billion can be wrong, then six billion can be wrong. Another thing he said was, imagine that you are among thousands of people who are running from a bear, and you come to a fork in the road, and 5 people run to the left whereas 5,000 run to the right. What do you do? You might think that the 5,000 know what they are doing, but then you realize that they are 4,999 blind people, holding onto the coattails of each other, with one sighted guy in front. So it's really a choice between the 5 sighted people on the left or the one sighted guy on the right. So the minority may be right.

He's a great speaker; thank you for reminding me of his style.

well, that ad did mention there would be refreshments served.

i was gonna say it was probably a bukharian shul

sle, did you end up making it?

Surely you've heard these points made before numerous times?

I have, and don't call me Shirley.

But we're a few weeks away from some Jewish holiday thingie, and it seems traditional to do some learning of some sort in preparation for said holiday, so I'm trying to do a little bit of that.

Yup. I wasn't feeling too well though, and I've heard many of the points before, but nevertheless it was an interesting speech.

I forgot to mention that the sponsoring organization, Chazaq, ran some sort of audio tape or CD between the close of ma'ariv around 8:10 and the beginning of the talk an hour later. The tape, run at very loud volume, consisted of people chanting "Chazaq" to a disco beat. I thought it was horrible.

Yup.
I wasn't feeling well, and in retrospect, I probably would've been better off staying at home & watching it online later on. Oh well.

Most of the females were around 20 or older, but I suppose they could pass for 16.

sle123, did you enjoy the Chazaq theme music? What's the story on that? Is it one song that keeps repeating, or a series of songs, or a 60 minute long "jam" song?

I couldn't make out the few other Hebrew words in the song (besides Chazaq).

lol. I think I left before the theme music...I only remember the music (I think it was yeshiva boys choir) which played before the presentation.

That's what I'm talking about. It just kept going and going for an hour, with the word "chazaq" being repeated thousands of times.

Chazak, chazak, v'nischazek, chazak, chazak, infinitex?

isn't it Avraham Fried's song?