The Mayanot Blog

The Mayanot Israel Alumni Women's Network gathered on Tuesday May 23rd, for their second meeting. Graciously, Mrs. Rivka Marga Gestetner, the Mayanot Women's Program educational director, offered her home for the gathering. 
It was fitting that the women's reunion occurred the evening of Yom Yerushalayim, celebrating the anniversary of 50 years of the reunification. The city was celebrating a reunion and so were the Mayanot women! It was a wonderful atmosphere, as all of the women who gathered, have made Aliyah themselves, building a life here, in Jerusalem.
The group spanned several years of Mayanot alumni. Some students present had attended the very first year of the program, while others represented the mostrecent graduating class. It was wonderful catching up, and being able to hear what everyone is doing in their life, building families, careers and doing it in Israel.  The new Scholar in residence, Mrs. Freidy Yanover shared Torah relating to Shavuot and was lucky enoug…

Sharing what a Mayanot Women's Program student has learnt about this period of time, between Passover and Shavuot, and how it can impact our lives in a practical way. Written by: Lauren Buckman
We are currently in the period of S'firat Ha'Omer, the Counting of the Omer. The 49 day count starts on the second day of Passover and ends on Shavuot, the holiday celebrating the giving of the Torah. Back in Temple times, the seven weeks were counted from the day the barley offering was brought to the day the wheat offering was given on Shavuot. These 49 days also correspond to the seven expressions of our seven characteristics, which we work to strengthen in order to prepare ourselves to receive the Torah on the holiday of Shavuot.
Why? When we were slaves in Egypt we sank to the 49th level of spirituality (the 50th level being the lowest level of which there is no return). Let’s just say we were not people to be proud of... G-d gave us ten miracles (the Ten Plagues), we saw them,…

Some of the Birthright Israel: Mayanot students (L-R)  Aviel Yashar, Eli Polikar, Shahar Zuckerman, Emily Franklin, and Esther Amram. 
There is something special about Birthright Israel: Mayanot trips to Israel
After many months of anticipation, we were finally on our way on our trip to Israel through Birthright Israel: Mayanot. When word spread that our flight to Israel was delayed about 10 hours, a wave of frustration spread through our group. Israel was having its worst snowstorm in decades-at the very same time as our scheduled flight. There was talk that we'd be stuck at Kennedy airport in New York for those long hours, and that our new flight would be so early we wouldn't even have time to sleep. While the latter was true, Rabbi Chaim Lipskier stood in line for us at a service desk and after a couple of hours managed to get our whole group accommodations for the night, as well as vouchers for the hotel and airport. Seeing our rabbi's sincerity and concern was early proo…

We are very proud to announce that Moishe Chakoff, our Mayanot Men's Program Alumni recently won first place in the Meaningful Life Center MyLife Essay Contest, taking home $10,000 for his incredible and insightful chassidut essay.
We offer him a heartfelt Mazal Tov for this wonderful accomplishment.

We also want to include an honorable shutout to Hadassah Silberstein, our Mayanot Women's Program Alumna who won third place prize and took home $1,000. View her essay here.

Please find Moshe's winning essay below, as seen via: MLC

Trees and Maps: How to Stop Being a People Pleaser
by Moishe Chakoff MyLife Essay Contest 2017

The expression “people-pleaser” may seem like an innocuous phrase to describe a very nice person. In truth, it describes a psychological disorder wherein individuals feel they must say “yes” when they really want to and should say “no”. The Giving-Tree by Shel Silverstein illustrates the mentality of people-pleasing very clearly.  The Giving Tree tells the…