Monday June 22
Today in Machane, we learned about the idea of yishuv haAretz, the concept that we should settle the land that Hashem gave to Avraham’s family, promised to Bnei Yisrael in Egypt and commanded Yehoshua to conquer. The concept of Yishuv Eretz Yisrael is a foundational mitzvah in that way; it sets a stage for us to then be the nation that lives in a way that is inspiring, instructive and reflective of Torah values. We discussed other mitzvot that one might consider a foundational mitzvah – like learning Torah, Shabbat and tzedaka – and then we talked about how Yishuv Eretz Yisrael has both these parts – the taking ownership of the land AND the building of a just society.
We had some rain today, and we have a great system for dealing with that. Every day (no matter how blue the sky is) our Roshei Sport, who create the schedule, put a “rainy day schedule” on the back of the sheet with the schedule. Every bunk gets a schedule and knows that IF rain starts, you just “turn to the other side” and go to your rainy day activity at that hour. Smooth and convenient!
There was a skit before mincha today to experience the debate between Ahad haAm (Asher Zvi Hirsch Ginzberg, a well-known essayist back then) and Theodor Herzl about the nature of Zionism. Whereas Herzl viewed Zionism through a political, secular lens, Ahad haAm argued that before building a physical state, the Zionist movement had to revive Jewish culture, ethics, and the Hebrew language. He famously advocated for “a Jewish state and not merely a state of Jews”. He thought Herzl’s secular, political focus was superficial and detached from deep-rooted Jewish heritage. Two Roshei Eidah played the parts of these two great thinkers and presented their ideas “shark-tank style” to judges. The campers enjoyed and laughed at the way the Roshei Eidah played the parts of the actual investors on Shark Tank. Hard to forget something like that!
The night tochnit tonight was a bunk vs. bunk camp-wide panoply, created and run by our tzevet Beit Midrash with questions that asked them to name the 24 books of Tanach, the 6 sedarim of mishnah, previous Israeli prime ministers, the 12 tribes, the stones on the priest’s breastplate, etc. etc. Let’s see which bunk wins with their Jewish and Biblical knowledge!
Kaytana learned about the Exodus from Egypt today and celebrated with a seder of their own tonight: four cups of grape juice, flat leaven-free bread that they baked in the camp village brick oven (more about activities in the village tomorrow), and even a “korban pesach” meat, prepared by our mitbach staff, especially for Kaytana! They played a game of panoply with many Pesach related trivia-style questions to test their knowledge of this milestone moment in Jewish History and the eternal holiday commanded in order to commemorate it each year. The boys also had ultimate frisbee, gaga and baseball today, and the girls enjoyed a karaoke peulah, a volleyball game and Gaga.
Machal hiked 6.7 miles of the North Country Trail. This hiking trail covers 4,000 miles across America and goes through 8 states! The trail Machal did is in the Allegheny Forest. They returned to camp for dinner (chicken!!!) due to some rain and then had a fun night activity of bowling and a trip to Walmart.
