Sunday July 9

Shavua Tov from Sugar Grove!

Our third shabbat was perfect – everyone is familar now with all of our songs and tunes in tefilah, in the chadar ochel during zemirot and during the shira at seudah shlshit. The danicng is all coming together beautifully by now as well, with everyone familar with the steps and the rythm. It was a beautiful Shabbat from mifkad through havdalah, and all chavrutot after lunch had beautiful dry sunny weather so everyone sat on the grass. Many chavrutot take from the sheets that are provided each Shabbat  – Pirkei Avot, a chapter from Sefer Yona (never to early to prepare for YK!), delving into a tefilah, mitzvah or character trait and many many more fun options.  Towards the end of Shabbat, we heard a powerful story from Rav Binny Freedman,  Rosh Yeshiva of Orayta, who visited our staff this Shabbat. Ask your children about the white bird that showed the Israeli army the way in the Lebanon war 🙂

Today our shiur was about sanctifying time through a special mitzvah we have of kiddush haChodesh. We are able to literally create holy time by declaring the new moon (after two witnesses come to Jerusalem to testify that they saw it) and then determining when our holidays fall out. The campers talked about the privilege and responsibility of being masters of our time and what sanctifying time means for us. During shekem today, the chanichim watched a skit about this mitzvah and even had “the new moon” (creative costume!!) join them at their pre-dinner mifkad.  Eidot Aleph and Vav had “layla tov” after maariv tonight, but the older eidot had a chance to play a huge camp-wide game of Capture-The-Flag, with the flag being the new moon that they had to catch a glimpse of!

Peulot (activities) and Chugim (evening electives) ran smoothly – don’t forget to check out Yakov Fleischmann’s camp stone instagram page for some pics and videos, from a different POV.

We are all just waiting for the fourth week Color War Breakout…When will it be already? What will the teams be? Something related to Torah sheB’al Peh, for sure …hmm… Any guesses?

Machal headed out last night for their big canoeing trip in Virgina. This challenging and super fun trip is such an impactful, bonding, meaningful few days, and we cannot wait to see them back here and hear all about it! They were so excited and spent the whole day Friday packing their bags and all of their snacks and equipment, so they could leave right after havdalah.