Mivtza Ends with Sushi Event

“Did you say Perek Mem Aleph yet?”

“Are you wearing your Bendel?”

“Make sure you learn today’s Chitas!”

If you were to walk down Oholei Torah Elementary school hallway over the past couple of weeks these would be some of the questions you would have been hearing.

Over a month before Yud Shvat, all the bochurim in 7th grade were introduced to a never-been-done-before-amazing-exciting mivtza, organized by Levi Druin, which completely changed and uplifted every single bochur’s day.

The mivtza was called ‘Shviin chavivin’ (which is a quote from the very first Maamer the Rebbe ever said) meaning that ’7’ is the best and most precious. The mivtza worked as follows: Each week, every bochur would receive a “Shviin Chavivin Duch”. Every week, the duch had a different story, a funny joke, a section called ‘The Big Why?’ explaining why we do what we do, and a ‘Huh? Question’. The Huh? Question was a random, general knowledge question which the bochurim would answer and enter a raffle for a trip for some pizza and ice cream! There would also be a weekly raffle on the duch where the winners would pick a paper numbered between 1 and 358 winning the prize written on that paper. It could be anything from 2 rolls of sushi, to a soda and chips every day for a week, to 2 shoelaces. (thankfully, no one chose that one!). The class which earned the most points would win the “Grand-Chassidishe-Amazing-Awesome Sushi Event”!

And now, all the bochurim know the lesson that can be learned from sushi: what makes a sushi roll unique? They (almost) all seem the same from the outside, no?! What makes a tuna roll different from a cucumber–avocado roll? The answer of course is, what’s inside the sushi. They could be so diverse that one would be so much more expensive than another! So too with us yidden. Even though we might look similar to other people on the outside we know that that does not define who we are . What makes us who we are, is what we have on the inside. That we have a Neshoma and that we are chassidm of the Rebbe!

The week before Yud Shvat there was also a bonus way to get points which was called Hashkeim. Each morning, 15 minutes before yeshiva started, there was a shiur on the maamer Bosi Legani (5710). Every bochur which attended received a big piece of cake and a steaming cup of coca. One day they were even treated to danishes! As the final week came to a close, the duchs were tallied, and the class which won was none other than…. A practical tie! So the duchs were recounted and finally, the winners were announced. Rabbi Fisher’s Class won! There also was a raffle for anyone who had received more than 395 points, adding an additional 9 winners! They were all treated to a very fancy event with glass bottles of coke, all types of things to make Sushi with and were able to make as many rolls as they wanted to, until the rice ran out. A special thanks to Lavi (Not Levi!) Klein, Dudi Slapochnik, Yisroel Lerer, Yankeleh Eidelman and David (all the way from Mexico!) After everyone finished eating (and selling) their professionally made sushi, in order to insure that they had enough energy for class, they also received a full hour of extra recess!

As a final count, there were over 264 duchs handed in over the 4 weeks of the Mivtza, which were placed in the Ohel. There were over 135 times Hashkeim was attended, and over 24,000 points were given out! All of the parents should have a lot of nachas from their young bochurim!

Iy”h, the new and improved “Shviin Chavivin, Part 2” will be starting soon as a Hachono for Yud Aleph Nissan.

The program is part of the extra-curricular activities run by Rabbi Yossi Bryski.