Monday August 10 – Color War breakout!!
Today’s shiur was about King Yeravam, the first King of the Northern Kingdom (after the nation was split) and his leading Bnei Yisrael to do avodah zarah. Campers learned that in addition to serving false gods, there is an additional problem/danger with serving Hashem through graven images and unauthorized sites of worship. Bamot, the altars that were set up around the country, undermined the idea we talked about yesterday: that the Beit Hamikdash is meant to be a place that unites Am Yisrael. Graven images, for example golden calves that Yeravam had made and placed on the road, pose a spiritual danger. Even if they are meant to be used to worship Hashem (and not other gods), they can lead the people to ascribe them too much holiness as if they are a god. Each moreh and morah choose the talking points and sources that they think will be best for their chanichim to learn. They also try to connect it to the lives of the chanichim and play a game or do an activity. Hard job!! We are so proud of the tzevet that choose to be morim, giving themselves this opportunity to inspire our chanichim with daily Torah Lishma.
It is Monday, a week before the end of camp… We all know that means color war is happening soon, so when Yaakov told the chanichim that we need to cut back on costs because the budget is a little tight, there definitely was skepticism. He asked everyone to save their paper cup to be reused at lunch, and although many laughed, many many did actually take their cups to their bunks for later – it was pretty funny to see! Later in the day, everyone was informed that we are going to finish the summer with one Rosh Moshava to shave a few more dollars off the summer costs: Maayan was asked to leave a week early we were told! The skepticism grew! And then when dinner was in the dark (again, to cut the costs!), and we ate by the light of lanterns that were placed on every table, everyone started feeling pretty confident that this was color break out. But you never know…. until after Maariv when there was a little “showdown” between Ephraim, our Rosh Moshava, and Yaakov, arguing about night activities and whether we could have them (since they mean lots of lights on the courts and fields) 😊 It turned into a little war between them, wink wink ….and then “COLOR WAR”
The teams are כהן vs. נביא and everyone is psyched!!! More details about colors and activities in tomorrow’s blog.
Machal left for a trip to DC, stopping first at the site of the Flight 93 crash. They had a meaningful sicha about courage and leadership, as they learned about the heroes on board that flight. Their first stop, once they arrived in DC, was to see the memorials.
