The Night of 40

It is Thursday night in August. It is Thursday night, the first week in Elul. It is Thursday night, the first week in Mercaz HaTorah.

Throughout the week there have been orientations, shiur assignments, new roommates to meet and a new schedule to follow. It is supposed to be the start of the most meaningful year of our lives. The start of a year where we make the transition from high school student to full-fledged adult.

There are 80 first year students, still fighting jet lag and weariness and loniliness, many away from home for the first time. Most looking for a night out. A chance to get away from the rigid structure of Yeshiva.

Have a few beer. Meet some friends. And if things go right, maybe meet a few girls.

Disappearing in small groups of 2 or 3, slowly the Beis Medrash empties out, each group careful not to be seen by anyone, never admitting to another where you were going. There is still distrust. No ones knows who will turn out to be a Mercaz spy, who will have you thrown out of the school for the unwritten crime of talking to a girl.

There are over forty first year Mercaz guys at Ben Yehudah this evening. One genius member decided to count.

The next day the news is all over Mercaz. Over 40 first-year guys left night seder and went to Ben Yehudah. Their are emergency meetings with all the first year students. Rabbi Rotman, who will come to be known as the chief to this class, goes before the student body and declares that forty guys at Ben Yehudah isn't a night out, "it's an orgy."

Rumors abound that Mercaz will be sending out a spy to ben Yehudah on Thursday night's and anyone caught will be expelled.

It is Thursday night again, one week later. I am sitting upstairs at Apple Pizza, clearly in the forbidden zone, enjoying a slice. I look outside, and see Boomer, one of the Mercaz Kollel members, walking through the street.