Week two is in the books. Here’s what the boys learned this week — from choosing the right pleasures to choosing life itself — plus a look at lunchtime on the court.
Not All Pleasure Is Equal
This week we explored how pleasure comes in different levels — some kinds are higher quality than others. Because we’re human beings with sechel, the ability to think, process, and integrate information into our lives, it only makes sense that we actually use that sechel before we act.
So we practiced asking the question before doing something: will this help me become a better version of myself? Is this healthy for me, or not? A small pause, a real question — and a very different kind of choice.
Starting the Day Right — and Showing Up for It
We continued building on how we start the morning. First and foremost: gratitude. Thanking Hashem for the gift of life itself, and for everything we have, instead of taking it for granted.
From there we talked about how to actually show up for the day once it starts — with courage and confidence like a leopard, flexibility and lightness like an eagle, swiftness in self-control like a deer, and the willingness to embrace difficulty and challenge like a lion.
“To choose life is to see things from the right perspective, to choose the good aspect in everything.”
The Four Kinds of Health
This week’s wellness discussion broke down the four areas of health that need real attention: physical, mental, emotional, and spiritual. We talked about how avodas Hashem really means working on ourselves to become the best version of ourselves that we can possibly be — and that starts with taking care of our actual needs.
On the physical side, that means eating healthy, getting a full 8 hours of sleep, and getting in 30 minutes of exercise — the basics, if we want to live our best, happiest, and healthiest life.
Choose Life
This week’s parsha holds one of the most direct instructions in the entire Torah: “Uvacharta bachayim” — choose life. Not a suggestion, a command. Chabad.org’s Rabbi Steinsaltz makes the point that choosing life isn’t really about picking between two options on a list — it’s a perspective you choose, over and over, in the small stuff. Which lines up exactly with what the boys practiced this week in Chassidus: pausing before a choice and asking whether it actually makes you better.
Lunchtime Hoops
Part of the daily rhythm here is sports at lunch — a chance for the boys to unwind, compete, and just be teenagers between sedorim. This week that meant a game of hoops on the court.
