Sunday June 21

Today we learned about the Torah valuing everyone in society and how the special mitzvot for the Land of Eretz Yisrael help us, as a society, take care of the poor. There is definitely an overlap between a socialist’s vision and the vision of Torah, and the chanichim learned a little about that and thought about how they are cultivating their empathy and eye for the needy among us. Pretty deep and intense for right after breakfast, but the campers are settling into a groove with their shiur teachers, and their shiur teachers are figuring out when to add in a game or what question to start with that will engage the chanichim. Torah lishma at its best!

A fun day of peulot was rounded out with the first day of chugim – remember the 34 electives that are being offered?  Now everyone is placed in one of their top choices, and the chanichim were enjoying these activities with other campers of different ages.

Bunk night was tonight, and each bunk had a peulah to work on their presentation, which includes a shelet (painted sign with their bunk name  – often in some funny pun manner), along with either a song/dance or a skit. Look at the camp pictures to see each bunk with their shelet. This presentation is always a nice opportunity for the creative and artisitic campers to contribute and be appreciated for their talent. One young girls’ bunk made a sign for their bunk – Rav A.Y. Kook  – which said “If you give a RAV a KOOKie…” and had cookies painted with the girls’ names on them. At the bottom were three glasses of milk with their counselors’ names on them. So cute and creative! That is one example to give you a sense 😉

Kaytana‘s daily shiur topic is up to slavery in Egypt, so they learned about the 10 plagues in shiur today. One of them will be featured and experienced in tomorrow night’s night tochnit, so stay tuned! Their favorite peulah today was AGAM, a chance to be at our lake and enjoy boating, a water slide, the water trampoline or the water climbing wall. They loved all of it!!

Machal spent the day walking a beautiful 7 mile hike in the Allegheny Forest, along a trail called Tracy Ridge. They grilled hamburgers for dinner.  Their shiur topic today was Torah and Avodah, the need for both and the challenge in striking a balance between them.