Eliyahu's Blog

With the beginning of the year, I'd like to share an essay I've been working on for quite some time now. Over the past year, I've read all of the founding literature that I could my hands on as well as some Edmund Burke which has inspired the following essay. I find that with anything I create, the more I improve it, the more I notice how far it is from perfection. This, for me, is one of the most difficult parts of performing a piece of music. The more time you spend practicing the more you realize just how far away you are from materializing the perfect rendition that you have in your imagination. This tragedy of perfection can be dealt with in only two ways. You can accept that nothing is ever perfect, but convince yourself that it's better to have something nonperfect than nothing at all. While this may be the more prudent approach, I've been tempted by the latter which is "if at first you don't succeed, lower your expectations until you do". In any case, I made the best argument that I know how and I stand firmly behind every word. It would be wonderful to receive any form of feedback, particularly if you disagree with me (believe it or not, my mind has been changed before). I'm sharing it as I google doc link only because it's easier to keep things formatted there. If you'd like a PDF or a different format I would be more than happy to oblige. https://docs.google.com/document/d/1Ie5acgppZ-tvrNiD2JMOGXwXjEcSIXncDhbQ326v3rw/edit

“Should I keep back my opinions at such a time, through fear of giving offense, I should consider myself as guilty of treason toward my country, and of an act of disloyalty toward the Majesty of Heaven, which I revere above all earthly kings” ~ Patrick Henry. I open with this terrific quote in order to justify what I’m about to write. I am writing what I know is right, and I won’t allow the “fear of giving offense” to stop me (not that it ever has). My decision has been made. Actually, I suppose it has been made for quite some time now. I have no mixed feelings about the matter. I'm thrilled to share with you that I will be finishing my degree in Israel. I’m not staying in Israel for reasons that many people would like me to stay. I’m not staying because I’m in love with the state of Israel. On the contrary, I find their government to be intrusive, keen on making life unpleasant, and highly unbearable (I’m fully aware that this is the nature of any government, but they seem to try harder than most). The amount of bureaucracy that has infiltrated all levels of life in Israel, particularly in academia, is why I have no plans of living here after college. (Although the fact that I came to Israel in the first place and ended up staying for far longer than I thought I would is highly revealing). h My decision may baffle some. As a few of you may know, I was granted generous musical and academic scholarships. I was offered chances to study at prestigious academic institutions. The very best of the musical and academic world were within my reach. While they gave me a very much not needed ego boost, I recognized those feelings for what they were: just feelings; certainly nothing to base an important decision on. The worst mistakes I’ve made (and I suspect it isn’t just me) are the ones I’ve made while entirely emotional. After this realization, I dedicated myself to thinking strictly rationally about college and put no emphasis on any glamour of a particular institution. The rest of this read will guide you through my various considerations and how regardless of which angle I looked at it from, they all provided the same answer. Firstly, I’m not writing this in order to convince you that this is the best choice for everyone. Although what follows is a general critique of American universities, I understand that what’s best for me is not best for everyone else. I don’t believe that everybody should follow the same path, and I’m not so insecure as to need others to validate me by making the same choices that I do. That being said, what follows is a short and general critique of academic institutions that I believe have very little left to offer. Academically, there’s no doubt in my mind that any of the universities I was accepted to would offer me more potential academic growth than the current college I’m in. JCT couldn’t possibly compete with the likes of an American university’s resources and graduate programs. But at the end of the day, the courses taught in universities are almost all standardized. The computer science degree I’m taking here is almost exactly the same among all colleges, private and public. Furthermore, I’m more than capable of teaching myself, as I did throughout high school. When I want to learn something, I do. Even 15 years ago this may not have been true, but currently there is no information that is taught at universities that can’t be found online, typically of excellent or better quality and more often than not, free of charge. I am convinced that I will get no worse of an education in Israel than in America. Financially, I could have made any of the options work. Due to the scholarships, cheap interest rates, and the ever-rising inflation rates, I could have taken out student loans and not lost too much sleep over them. But are the education and opportunities provided at a prestigious school worth tens of thousands of dollars a year? Not a chance. College is not what it once was. It used to be a place where the best minds competed and excellence was measured in ability. No longer. Even the connections that you could count on making at an esteemed university are dwindling. Colleges no longer seek out the smartest and brightest students. They make SAT scores optional to give them more leeway to admit subpar students. That is, students who no longer meet the “traditional” requirements. Not only is this bad for the schools, but it also hurts students who are set up to fail by a system that places them in academically rigorous universities that they aren't prepared for. As a result, the people you meet today at an elite school are no longer elite students. For better or for worse, this trend has tarnished the reputations of even the most prestigious schools. In 1960 you could attend Harvard for less than $1000 dollars a year. Now, you’ll pay upwards of $50,000. What more do they offer now than they did in 1960? I’d say they offer far less. So if it’s not the people or the education, why do people still fall for this scam? Perhaps they haven’t fully realized just how much colleges have changed, but I think that many are under the delusion that having your name underneath a school logo is going to make you successful. The world is quickly changing to adapt to the increasing uselessness of a university degree. Work that was once near the bottom end of the payroll (plumbers, truckers, electricians, etc.) now wildly outperforms a typical college graduate with a degree in the arts. I appreciate art; I love music. But I have no plans of making a career of it and it makes no sense to pay enormous sums of money to spend years of my life working for something I consider a serious hobby. I just don’t see what colleges have to offer anymore. As Elon Musk said, “colleges are for fun and to prove that you could do your chores, but they are not for learning.” Furthermore, colleges are no longer the beacon of science and rationality that they once were. Physical diversity is championed by colleges while diversity of thought is not even a consideration, often vilified. Truth can only come through dialogue. Discussion involves disagreement. No truth can come from an institution where those in it are scared to speak their mind if their political view is not "correct". What once were the centers of thought of the western world are now egotistical echo chambers of the delusional. You would be hard-pressed to find a college student who can give a coherent definition of a woman. I’d have to be highly intoxicated before you could convince me to study science at any institution that openly believes that there exists a pregnant man. As usual, Thomas Sowell puts it best: “In a democracy, we have always had to worry about the ignorance of the uneducated. Today we have to worry about the ignorance of people with college degrees.” On these issues, JCT far outperforms American colleges. However, at the root of the matter I chose Israel over an American university because I want to belong to a community that values a man for his contribution to the world, not for what the world has taken from him. I don’t have the faintest desire to join a community that believes that the sum of a human is his skin complexion and sexual whims. Additionally, and very much related, college campuses are infamous for the glorification of tremendously harmful and dangerous activities. I’m not worried that I would ever fall to such levels of depravity -depravity that characterizes life at a university- because I wouldn’t. I have never been one to do something just because everybody else is doing it. At the same time, I do understand that in some small way the people I surround myself with do define me. I want no part of that lifestyle defining me. I don't know where my life will take me. I can't predict. A year ago I was under the spell of college elitism. At the time I would have said that I would go to the best college I could get into. My experience with applying to the universities, the musical applications, in particular, woke me up from that fantasy. It was quite jarring to find out that my pronouns are of more importance than my musical ability. I (and many others) put a lot of time and effort into submitting the best applications I could muster together to apply to an institution I now consider a joke. I'm a worse predictor of my fate than many others so I'm not going to say where I'll be in 5 years, or even 1. Who knows what's next, but one thing's for sure: I will never stop thinking for myself. I want to wrap up by thanking you. If you’ve gotten this far you probably care for me, you’d have to in order to get through that. I know that most won’t see things the way I do (that is, correctly (: ) and those who agree with my decision probably do so for other reasons. I have tremendous appreciation for all of the support and advice I’ve received from family and friends. I wouldn’t be able to do this without you. Looking forward to an incredible future with all of you! Eliyahu

With the new year, I bring a new website. A website that I built during my C++ classes and hopefully a website that will be slightly nicer to use. The mobile version of this website is far superior to the previous website and I have moved this website to Django's framework which will allow me to more easily implement new features. For those who want it, full technical details can be found on my GitHub page, which is linked to on the "About" page. It's hard to tell exactly where this whole year went, but one thing's for sure. This year has been the most productive year of my life. I've met more people, been to more places, and learned more this year than in any previous year. It's hard to tell just exactly how I ended up where I am, that is, in Israel. If you asked me in January of last year where I expected to be in a year's time, I would have ranked "Nuclear Engineer for Iran" above "spend a year, maybe more, in Israel.” Israel was the last place I would have decided to go to in January of last year (as I’m sure many can attest to). Fortunately, my friends and family, who had had more than enough of me, helped me realize that going to an international college in which I knew absolutely nobody, where I would be nearly a decade younger than most attendees, halfway around the world in a country whose language could be replaced with Mandarin without me detecting a thing, was a match made in Heaven for me; and they were right. I would be a fool to guess where I will be at one January from now, I understand how drastically things can change in a short amount of time, so I won’t lie to you and tell you that I know exactly where my future lies, I haven’t the faintest clue. The possibilities are endless and the world is here for my taking; and take, I will. I have only good options ahead of me this year. I recently received a $12,000 scholarship from UMBC, and I’m waiting to hear back from other universities. I’m not sure if I’ll be in Israel next year. I’m not sure if I’ll be in college next year. I do know, however, that this year will be even greater, even more productive, and even more successful than any other year. Everybody who’s reading this has helped me in one way or another achieve everything that I have and I’m more grateful and appreciative for that than I’ll ever be able to express. Thank you.

This past Shabbos I went up north to Pardes Chana with Yosef to visit a family friend, Yoni and Nina Tokayer (Medved). Their kids were a great deal of fun, the food was phenomenal, and needless to say, it was a very musical Shabbos. I enjoyed it immensely. This semester is wrapping up, it ends sometime in January but the classes are already slowing down. I took a look at what classes I'll be taking next semester, and although I'm going to have twice as many classes as I'm taking now, it's not going to be that much more work. There are a bunch of programming labs, a business ethics course, and two advanced math courses: calculus and linear algebra. Unfortunately, JCT won't accept my Calculus and Linear Algebra credits because their courses are heavily proof-based, and CCBC's classes were not. However, I know the material backward and forwards so I probably won't go to those classes and just submit the homework. Last Thursday I brought my cello to the Ben Yehudah area to make a few shekels. I noticed something fascinating, which is that if I made eye contact and smiled at people who were walking by, they were more than twice as likely to drop a few coins in my case. It didn't seem to matter what I played, or how well I played, but if I smiled at passerbys, they would drop coins almost twice as often. It seems incredible, but it was very consistent. I played for about 3 hours during which I alternated between trying to play the best I could without engaging with passerbys and making eye contact and smiling at those walking by, not worrying about how well I was playing. During the latter stage, I consistently had twice as many people drop coins. I thought that that is something worth sharing. I've been thinking quite a bit about what I'm going to be doing over the next few years. I have a bit more information now and I'm going to have to make a few major decisions within the next few months. As always, I'll be posting updates on this site on a (fairly) regular basis. All the best! Eliyahu

I know that it's been almost a month since my last post, in part this is because I've not had a lot of time, but mostly because anything I write will be just a mere shadow of my previous post (my posts average 50 unique viewers, my last post got more than 300). Over Chanukah, JCT hosted a hackathon where various organizations (Medtronic, Intel, the Israeli police force for instance) would submit challenges to JCT and over the course of 48 hours, students would attempt to solve those challenges. For various legal reasons involving me being the only student under 18 and gallons of beer being served throughout the 48 hours, I was not allowed to compete. I had already created a team of people to work on one of the challenges, so they were down one man. 36 hours into the event, they told my team that I could help as a "mentor", so from 9:30 PM Wednesday night until 9:30 AM Thursday morning, I single-handedly built the website for our project. We didn't win (had I been able to work for the other 36 hours, we would have, though) but we did make it to the final round so the team I "mentored" for was able to present my website to a panel of judges. That shabbos (shabbos Chanukah), I had planned to go to Zichron Yaakov, a two-hour trip. I went to bed Thursday night after not sleeping for 40+ hours, making sure to set my alarm. 2 AM Friday morning, the fire alarm went off and strangely so did the electricity. A terrifyingly large number of students slept through the fire alarm, I wasn't one of the fortunate ones though. After standing outside for 30 minutes I went back to sleep. Because the electricity had shut off my alarm didn't go off. I woke up 1/2 an hour before Shabbos started, with no chance of getting all the way to Zichron Yaakov. Fortunately, I had previous invitations to the Engelman's who gladly had me at a second's notice. They were so hospitable and I had a fantastic time. The week after, I was with the Coxs in Modiin who were having bar mitzvahs for their triplets. Aside from the fantastic cooking, Mr. Cox (from Baltimore) managed to get into the country for it, really making that shabbos one of the best ones I've had here. The Ulpan and all of the time spent working on Hebrew is paying off. While far from fluent, I'm now capable of understanding and having basic conversations in Hebrew. I spend many hours each day working on Hebrew so it's nice to see that it's having some effect. Now that all of my music applications are complete, I'm waiting to hear from the US colleges before deciding where I'll be for the next few years. JCT is thinking of offering a fourth year devoted to engineering. Currently, JCT is a 3 year program for a degree in CS. I'm not thrilled about a CS degree, but if they end up adding this engineering program it would be a large incentive to stay. All the best! Eliyahu

(EDIT: I have removed the name of the camp from this post solely out of respect for my mother who doesn't believe the public has a right to know the truth about camp ******.) For those of you who have heard my horror inducing recounts of my experience at the Gulag concentration camp, you know that this post does not twist the truth and is entirely objective.* 50 miles away from any form of civilization, the Gulag (or as they like to euphemistically brand themselves: ****** summer camp) is the dying whimpers of the satanic Stalinist movement. Through the use of authoritarian discipline tactics only fully represented by Orwell's dystopian novel 1984, we comrades were taught not to say and embody the idiom "I love big brother", rather the phrase "I love camp ******". Unfortunately, I was one of the very few who managed to resist the everyday indoctrinating and in the case of more resistant campers (I stand proudly amongst that group), the hourly torture sessions. You might be wondering why I'm bringing this up now; after all, it's been 4 years since I've escaped. The answer lies in my C++ midterm I took this past Friday. For some reason, my C++ midterm was inconveniently scheduled for Friday. Because it was such a short day (Shabbos came in right around 4:20), and public transportation is notoriously slow on Friday in Jerusalem, I decided to stay on campus for Shabbos. I had invitations to have dinner with some guys learning in a Kollel next door to JCT and to the Gottesmans in Rachavia for lunch (both were wonderful). I met my Friday night hosts for Mincha at his Kolel which shares premises with a Yeshiva where I have a bunch of friends. About halfway into the excruciatingly long and subpar singing services, my eye was caught by this man (I use that generous term only because at the time it hadn't clicked yet) who looked vaguely familiar. There are some people in this world that can only be described as punchable. This unique attribute is not a virtue of anything that a person says or does, it is simply a consequence of how they look. However unfair that is, nothing would have given me greater pleasure than walking over to the man and socking him in the face. It is very unusual for me to want to hurt anyone, but if I had the chance I would rip this guy's arms off and beat him to death with them. For about 15 minutes I sat and wondered why. After all, I'd already gotten all psychopathic inclinations out of me during my brief middle school experience. After 15 minutes of me staring at him, he finally caught my eye. After seven seconds of me quite awkwardly not breaking eye contact with him, his eyes opened wider than eyes are supposed to open, and proceeded to make an expression that shows up in all of my nightmares. In the span of a short second, deeply traumatic memories I had suppressed (starring stolen canoes, decapitated chickens, and half a dozen or so mattresses pathetically sinking in the lake, just to name a few) broke through the gates of my subconscious and came alive once more. Someone may have just as well slammed me over the head with a cast-iron steel pan as far as my reaction was concerned. In my terrifying surprise, my mouth let slip an embarrassingly long and high-pitched shriek. Fortunately, it fit right in with the Kolel's atrocious singing. In fact, I later overheard some of them wishing they could harmonize the way I did. It's funny how two people can describe an event they experienced together in completely different ways. If you were to ask him at that very moment he would say that he was my counselor at camp ******. I would say that he was guard #YGL609 with a shift from 03:00 - 15:00 (this information provided crucial for my escape). Both of these descriptions are accurate, by only possible through the use of doublespeak; a system that all guards of the gulag were well acquainted with. During that horrific summer, I gained some life-saving reflexes which resurfaced as he started to approach me with a devilishly large smile on his face. Animal instinct is to fight, flight, or freeze in such situations. From past experience, I knew that flight was my best way to get out alive. I'll spare you the details, but the guards were trained to make sure that anything caught pretending to be unconscious (asleep, dead, or otherwise) regretted it. Additionally, there was no point in fighting, the phrase "don't bring a knife to a gunfight" didn't begin to describe my situation. So flight it was. Overturning my chair to stop him from catching me would have worked great, but I carelessly forget that I was still in it. In life or death situations, you tend to forget such trivial details. By the grace of G-d, time moved slower for me than for him. That is the only possible explanation for what happened next. He came right over me extending his hand out about to strike me, but because time was moving slower for me, I was able to reach out, grab his hand and pull myself up. Still grinning at me, he pulls me into what a naive person would call a hug. I knew that this method of attack was similar to how boas and pythons kill their prey: lure them into a hug and then squeeze them to death. After much miscommunication, he ended up conveying to me that he had come to see the light and that he had dropped his previous satanic ways. I mentioned earlier that the Kolel that he was in shared space with a Yeshiva where I had friends. The next day, I met one of my friend's fellow students who happened to be no one other than my greatest comrade in the gulag. He, like me, was a champion of rebellion during that summer. In the span of 24 hours, I had reunited with my greatest friend and greatest foe (turned ally) from an infamous summer. It's certainly been a wild Shabbos. All the best! Eliyahu *What follows I prefer to call "slight embellishment" seeing as "lie" has such a negative connotation attached to it and just doesn't have the same ring to it. Note for those who don't know me and took any of this seriously: The above was written for comedic purposes and in no way reflects the true character of my counselor. While I really did reunite with my counselor and friend from ******, everything apart from the fact that ****** is a satanic worshiping gulag camp is false. My counselor at camp was (and is) a truly wonderful guy. He invited me over for Shabbos meals and I look forward to getting to know him even better.

Thursday night of last week, Aliza Fink (my cousin) and I headed north to spend Shabbos with my the Abrahams (other cousins) in Zichron Yaakov. The Tel Aviv–Jerusalem railway, which weirdly only runs Sunday through Thursday, goes to a city just south of Zichron Yaakov, Binyamina. This was my first time taking the train; I hadn't realized just how deep the train station is buried. We had to go down 4 escalators of similar size to the one in the picture to get to the tracks. Apparently it's easier to bring the passangers down than to bring the train up. Interestingly, the station also serves as a bomb shelter/bunker for 30,000+ people. The plan was to take a train from Jerusalem to Tel Aviv and another train from Tel Aviv to Binyamina. Due to bad timing and poor reception (as one would expect if you are 260 feet underground), we missed our second train and so we took a bus from Tel Aviv to Zichron Yaakov. We were just passing through, of course, but Tel Aviv looked like a really cool city. We left Thursday night in large part because Shabbos came in so early and the train doesn't run on Friday, but also so we could spend Friday exploring Zichron. Friday morning, the Abrahams took us to the beach and a few hours later to a short hike/climb at a retired quarry. The pictures below don't do justice to the extraordinary sight granted from the overlook. You had a 360-degree view ranging from the entire quarry on one side to dozens of coastal cities and the Mediterranean Sea on the other side. Saturday night, we took the bus back to the Jerusalem central station where we met Yosef and a friend of his for dinner. Right by the station, the Chords Bridge was already in the holiday spirit, displaying a neat little animation of a Menorah (see picture). Shortly after, I met up with a friend of mine, Benji, for some late night programming. It would have been very productive had it not been for my discovery that a different website I built was no longer functioning and required my attention. In other news, my Ulpan started (it's going well), midterms are approaching (it's crazy how much time has passed), and more and more people are planning on visiting Israel, which is very exciting. Lots of things are in the works right now, and I'll continue posting updates here, so to ensure you don't miss anything, make sure you've signed up for notifications. All the best! Eliyahu

Shabbos at the Coxs was, as expected, delightful and refreshing. Last week, I went to the Shuk with a few friends, and then some of us made our way to the old city. Although it would be a short walk if you could go in a straight line, it takes a little while to get from the old city gates to the Kotel because you have to go through all these passageways, stairs and turns before getting there. I imagine that it is a security measure; it would be very difficult for vehicles to navigate through the almost maze like passages. A month late, JCT had a "Beginning of Term" event. They had a concert (see picture) as well as a "mentalist" performance. In addition, they gave out all sorts of free stuff, so of course (being a Jewish college and all), the line comprised of most of the student body (and a handful of those who were not students). If you were to stand in line for a good chunk of an hour, they would also give you a free beer and hamburger. Not surprisingly, a college with only one student under the age of 18 does not have the infrastructure in place to ensure they don't commit a misdemeanor offense by serving alcohol to that student. I signed up for a hackathon over Chankukah. My team and I will have 48 hours to complete one of various projects sent from an array of Israeli companies. Time has passed surprisingly quickly, it feels like I just started here, but my midterms are approaching. Most of my time has been spent practicing cello or doing homework. Occasionally I go in to town to work at a cafe in the Ben Yehudah area (it's fairly close to the Old City which is nice). I particularly like working at the coffee bean, it's very nostalgic. All the best! Eliyahu

If you have signed up for notifications you should have received an email with the name of this post and a link to read it. If you did not receive a notification, but want to in the future, go to the notifications tab and submit your email. If you received an email, but don't want to, send me an email from the email address that you don't want notified. If you experience any problems with this feature, please reach out so I can fix it. All the best! Eliyahu

Along with 400 or so other people, I spent this last Shabbas on campus. This was my first Shabbas spent with my fellow students and roommates. We played all sorts of card games during which I made two realizations, or should I say confirmations of what I already knew to be true but hadn't properly tested. Firstly, I have no feasible future in any casino so long as I'm not allowed to handle the cards. Secondly, and very much related to my first insight, you start to do a lot better in poker when you're the dealer and know how to second deal and stack the deck. Those mysteriously fortuitous hands were short-lived, however, after one of the players recalled that I had shown him a card illusion the previous week that made him swear on his life that he would never play cards with me. Needless to say, it's a lot harder to win when you must play by the rules. Just as a reminder to those who may have not read my last post: I'm in the process of getting the notification system working, but in the meantime, feel free to add your email address to the mailing list under the notifications tab. I'm looking forward to spending this upcoming Shabbas with the Coxs in Modiin, who graciously agreed to host me. All the best! Eliyahu

Last night I moved into the new dorms. These dorms are brand new and are far better than the previous dorms on many counts. My apartment has 4 bedrooms and a shared living space/kitchen. We're on the fourth floor out of 7. We have a small courtyard as well. I didn't realize until very recently how large of a college JCT is. They have over 4 and half thousand students and an incredibly large campus (at least for Israel). It takes me about 7 minutes to get from my dorm to where my classes are held. Website update: As you've probably noticed, I've added the notifications feature to the website. As of now, you won't get notifications even after you've submitted your email address but it will be stored for future uses once I deal with my hosting service.

I spent Shabbos with the Shamouilian's in Modi'in. I enjoyed it immensely. Aside from the fabulous food and comfortable quarters, they both majored in math and know the tech world well, so we had what to talk about. I can now move into the new JCT dorms. After weeks of being told that "you can move in tomorrow," today is the day where they weren't wrong. I suppose that if you predict something enough times you're bound to be right eventually. I should clarify that the dorm situation is not due to bad management on the college's end. As you might have guessed, obtaining the necessary permits from unhelpful bureaucrats is an experience that makes you wonder how on earth these creatures managed to send people to the moon. Last week, I met with the head of the international program about double majoring. He suggested that we look into getting some sort of internship (which is usually exclusive to 2nd and 3rd year students) in addition to taking just a few business classes. Gaining real-world experience in a start-up company is not just valuable for acquiring technical skills, it will be a great opportunity to work with others on a large project, something I seldom did in high school. This would be the best of both worlds; I get to take only the interesting/valuable business courses and I have the rare opportunity of interning in my first year. While this is not finalized in any way, I and many others are working on materializing this plan. I'm very grateful to the staff at JCT, who have been nothing but kind, helpful, and accommodating. Today I went to Ramat Beit Shemesh for an orthodontist appointment. I had dinner with a good friend of mine from Baltimore, Yishai Eagle, who is currently studying in Ramat Beit Shemesh (see picture). One of my classes, Digital Systems, has started to become challenging (for those not clear, this is excellent). We're learning about different logic gates and how to represent them using boolean algebra, which is something that I was completely unfamiliar with. What's difficult about it is that you have to forget everything you've previously learned about math. 1+1 does not make 2 (in fact, 2 is a meaningless term in boolean algebra), it makes 1. Multiplication AND addition have the distributive property such that a + (bc) = (a+b)(a+c). Once you satisfy yourself that this does indeed make sense, you are left with the ominous task of switching between these contradictory sets of rules. It's wonderful to be in a class again where I can't program or work on something else and still be certain that I understand what's being taught. I am hopeful that in time all of my classes will be as demanding. Update about the site: I've received quite a few emails about not knowing when to check this website. I am currently working on some sort of notification system that you can expect to be in place within a week or so. While it's simple in theory to create a notification system (I wrote all the necessary code already), getting emails to be sent through the Namecheap server (which is where this website is hosted) is a very irritating task. There is probably some configuration setting I need to change that I'm not aware of. Namecheap has excellent customer service, so when I have an hour or two I'll get in touch with them and they'll help make the necessary changes.

Shabbat at the Abraham's was wonderful! I went on a hike with my cousin, Eitan. On the hike, you could see the Mediterranean Sea. It was hard to tell exactly how much of the Mediterranean you could see, but we were high enough and far enough away that you could almost glimpse the tiniest outline of the earth's curvature. I had a zoom cello lesson with Zack today, which was excellent as always. I'm in contact with a cello teacher in Tel Aviv, but she is out of the country on a tour. My dorm is now at full capacity, I have 4 roommates. One of them knows Baltimore very well, as he worked for the JCC for a month. None of my current roommates will be my permanent roommates, however. As I predicted, the dorms were not ready on Sunday. I was told that we can move into the new dorms on Wednesday or Thursday where I will have new roommates; I remain skeptical. One of my classes has started to become interesting; not difficult, but interesting. We're learning about error-correcting codes and how you can designate just a few bits to be able to fix errors in a string of binary numbers. This is how DVDs and CDs can play perfectly (so long as the damage isn't too bad) even if there is a small scratch on it that destroyed some of the information stored on it. I'm looking into things to do with my spare time. I'm signed up to take a Hebrew ulpan sort of class. It turned out that (despite what I heard) most people in Jerusalem that I've come across do not speak English. It's been fairly difficult to communicate. I'm also looking into double majoring; getting a degree in CS and business. From what I've gathered, JCT is not enthusiastic about this idea. They don't want to mix the two programs. I still have a few contacts I can reach out to that might be able to help me gain permission to double major. Double majoring is entirely dependent on the outcomes of my college applications. If they go well, that is, if I get a scholarship, I will likely come back to the states. If not, and I decide to stay in Israel, then I am certainly going to double major. I'll know by late January. All the best! Eliyahu

On Tuesday, Daddy and I went on a tour of the city of David in the old city. Our tour guide was incredible, navigating us through the city and revealing the ancient history. In Israel, if something isn't older than 300 years old (perhaps older), it has no historical significance here. That is, you can build right over a historical site so long as it's less than 300 years old. 300 years is far longer than America has even been around, Israel wouldn't consider anything in America historical. My emphasis on this is only a result of my initial surprise that "history" here is many hundreds, often thousands, of years old. For instance, on our tour, we went through a massive archeological site where our guide gave us some mosaic floor tiles from the Byzantine time period that were discarded. In the morning we went on a tour of the underground water system and cisterns that collected water for the old city. In the diagram below, the "drainage channel" shows the whereabouts of where we were. It was right under the main road that went up to the temple mount. The tree that we're standing next to in one of the pictures is an olive tree that is over 1000 years old. The life expectancy of an olive tree exceeds 2000 years, so in all likelihood, that tree will have made upwards of half a billion olives before it expires. Assuming an average olive is 1.75 cm^3, one olive tree could fill half of an Olympic swimming pool. In one archeological site, a house was discovered with a toilet (see picture). Naturally, I became incredibly jealous of the people that lived in such luxury. Their bathroom innovation far exceeds even the highest standards in my dorm. I've sent numerous emails to my dorm director asking him to take inspiration from the picture and replace all of our toilets with newer ones, such as the toilet in the archeological site. Yosef joined us in the afternoon. The pictures overlooking the Western Wall were taken from the roof of the Aish building. The picture was taken on the stairs (with the tour guide) is on the southern wall of the Temple. For some reason, nobody prays on that side despite it being the same, original wall as the Western Wall. The new dorms (I've been told, but remain skeptical) are going to be ready this Sunday. If they really are done, then I'll move in on Monday. I'm looking forward to spending this Shabbat with Yosef at my Uncle and Aunt's home in Zichron Yaakov. All the best from Israel! ~Eliyahu

Now that I've gotten through my first week of classes, things are becoming more familiar. I'm now fairly comfortable navigating the bus system and I've got a good feel for my campus. I'm getting the feeling that I'll have a lot of spare time this semester. Most of the classes that I'm taking are going to be very easy for me. For instance, my Digital Systems course is covering math in different base systems. I took number theory in high school which extensively covered this topic. Additionally, we're learning the programming language C++ and even though I don't know it, I could teach myself in just a few hours. I'm looking into taking other courses. I also tested out of my math course so, as of now, I only have classes on Sunday, Monday, and Wednesday. Last night I met my first roommate. He likes to climb up the walls and hide under the bed (see picture). Additionally, I've attached more pictures of a bridge I mentioned in a previous post. I'm working on new features for this website. I'm thinking of creating a search bar to search through the titles of the posts as well as a way of directly contacting me through this website. If you're having any trouble with the website I truly would like to hear about it.

Yesterday, we visited Masada as well as the Dead Sea. You can see the dead sea very clearly from the top of Masada. The system that had for storing water was incredible. They had cisterns capable of holding 10 million gallons of water. It is incredible how much was built on top of that plateau. Much of the material that was used had to be carried up. Aside from the stones they quarried, everything else came from the bottom of the plateau. I believe they also grew some sort of crops because they raised pigeons and used their droppings for fertilizer. Additionally, There were incredible bathhouses as well as simple bathtubs (see picture). Although there was incredible architecture at the top, the ramp the Romans constructed -using Jewish slaves- from the bottom of the valley, all the way to the top was an incredible feat of its own. It's hard to fully make out in the pictures how large of a ramp it actually was. Because it's so close to Masada, we also went to the Dead Sea. It's really quite a wild experience. Due to the immense amount of salt in the Dead Sea, the density of the water is high enough for a person to float. It almost feels like you're in a different gravity. (Physics note: You wouldn't float in ordinary water regardless of the gravity. Although less gravity would make you lighter, gravity would also reduce the buoyancy force. If there was no gravity at all, there would be no buoyancy force and you would certainly not float. If there was more gravity, you would displace more weight of water and so the buoyant force would increase. Archimedes Principle outlines this relationship between weight displaced vs. upwards buoyancy force: "The upward buoyant force that is exerted on a body immersed in a fluid, whether fully or partially, is equal to the weight of the fluid that the body displaces.") On our way back to Jerusalem, we stopped at En Gedi, an oasis in the middle of the large desert. We did an incredible hike along the many waterfalls. You had to walk in the water for most of the trail, leading you through caves and up slippery rocks. There were also all sorts of different animals enjoying the rare water. I hope to be able to go back and do a full day hike, the place was truly incredible.

Today I had my first in-person class. This class was "Intro to Computer Science", which I discovered is going to be primarily just learning C++. C++ is fairly similar to Python (in fact the interpreter for Python is built in C which is a previous version of C++) so it should be a breeze for me. This website was built in Python. Needless to say, I know my way around the block. Most of my classes meet just once or twice a week, but for extended periods of time. The class I took today, for instance, was more than 4 hours long. I'm now fully moved into the dorm, I have my keys and am almost fully unpacked. I went out to dinner with Yosef this evening (see pictures). I took the bus there and back, but my bus driver drove right past my stop so I had to walk a few kilometers to get back to campus. The picture of the lights is a neat bridge. The picture hardly encapsulates the full magnificence of the architecture. The picture isn't great because I saw took it from on a bus; I'll try and take better pictures when I come across it next. Tomorrow I don't have any classes, I'll be going to Masada as well as the Dead Sea. For those interested in cello details: While I was practicing at the apartment where I was quarantining, someone came and knocked on the door. He was a cellist as well, and he's interested in starting an ensemble or a quartet. We have each other's contact info and we'll be working something out in the near future. Stay tuned for more details and possible videos!

Today I moved into the dormitory. The new dormitories JCT constructed are not ready yet, so as of now I'm staying at the neighboring dormitories of Yeshiva University. Currently, I'm the only student in my dorm, but I believe there will be 6-8 students in my area. Pictures 1-3 show the room I'll sleep in, the kitchen area, and the living room. On our way to the dormitory, the president's motorcade was leaving and we were held up at an intersection for a little while by the guy in picture 4.

Today I got notice that my quarantine is over. We took a bus to my campus and did some exploring. Classes are online currently, but they should be moving to in person this week. I plan on moving into the dorms tomorrow morning.

The view from the apartment is incredible! These pictures were taken from the roof, which is just a short climb up from the balcony.

This website is where I will be posting updates about my stay in Israel. Flying with a cello (see picture), although difficult, went smoothly. Once we arrived in Israel, we had to take a test for antibodies as well as a COVID test. They came back positive, and negative respectively, however, we still have to quarantine ¯\_(ツ)_/¯. In the near future I will try and create an alert system for this website, but until then you can expect a post on here once or twice a week. All the best! Eliyahu Note: If you click on an image, it will open on a new page in its full size.