It Was a Dark and Stormy Night...

A couple of Hurricane related thoughts:

• We got lucky with the timing (I don't mean missing three days of school) that it came after open house Shabbos.  See here for halachik guidelines from Rabbi Kenneth Brander (reflecting the decisions of Rabbi Herschel Schachter) for a Shabbos hurricane.
• Hearing all the warnings about how Atlantic City needed to evacuate in anticipation of being wiped out by the waves, the Parsha immediately came to mind.  Were the evacuees told not to look back?  I hope there are no stray pillars of salt along the New Jersey Turnpike.
• With school being cancelled for the third straight day it reminded me of the Gemara (Bava Kama 82a) that when the Torah says that the Jews went three days without water, on a drash level, it is a reference to Torah.  This is one of the reasons why we read the Torah on Mondays and Thursdays - to ensure that we don't go three days without learning.  While I assume that you all have Torah built in to your Shabbos & Sunday schedules (especially this past week at what I heard was a rocking good time at the Sadeks - thanks to Gali &Yocheved  & YK RZP), these "snow days" are a challenge.  I'm sure that Freshmen & Sophomores have been studying for their halacha tests, but for the rest of you, please make use of the links on the side of this blog (or any other Torah source) to keep things on schedule.
• Towards that end, here is Mrs. Schapiro's post on Vayera from last year, and an interesting debate between Rabbi Eitan Mayer and me against Rabbi Shlomo Riskin and (Ma'aynaot alum) Ayala Carl about the akeida.  For more from Rabbi Mayer (and Mrs. Herzog!) on the akeida, see here.