Monday Aug 8
Feels like the beginning of the week here… And we do not take a good meal for granted 😉 After filling up on breakfast, we had shiur about the travels Jews were doing during this time period we are studying – they traveled for business or to visit relatives or to see other communities or […]
Sunday – Tisha B’av
We are on the other side of this national mourning day and we can look back and share how we spent the day in such a meaningful way. When Shabbat was over, we all said ברוך מבדיל בין קודש לחול and went to our cabins to change into non-leather shoes. We all walked back to […]
Thursday August 4
In shiur today, we learned the painful history about Nicholas Donin, a convert from Judaism to Christianity, who brought a list of 35 charges against the Talmud to the Pope in 1236. Pope Gregory then sent an edict to all the kings in Europe to confiscate the books from the Jews and burn them. The […]
Wednesday Aug 3
Today’s shiur was about the 10th century Ashkenazi Rabbi nicknamed Me’or haGolah – The Light of the Exile, Rabbi Gershom ben Yehuda. He taught the man that later became Rashi’s Rebbe!! While staying firmly rooted in the Beit Midrash, “Rabbeinu Gershom” was also actively involved in communal leadership, and famously created many takanot (communal rules) […]
Tuesday Aug 3
In shiur today, the chanichim learned about the Cairo Genizah -a cache of roughly 400,000 pages of manuscript (and some printed) material that accumulated in the worn text repository (Hebrew: geniza) of the Ben Ezra Synagogue  in Cairo between the eleventh century and the late nineteenth. In 1896, Solomon Shechter, a professor in Cambridge University, […]
Monday Aug 1
Each eidah had an amazing time at their lina (overnight) site last night (yes, even Kaytana!!!) …a yummy dinner followed by sleeping out under the stars, and it was actually a pretty warm night! Tefillah was back in machane this morning. In shiur today, we learned about Ramba”m and his Mishneh Torah – a 14 […]
Sunday July 31
“Sha-sha-shavua tov!” (as they sing/chant/cheer here) Shabbat was awesome! The hadracha and tzevet were full of ruach which, of course, creates a whole vibe here that the chanichim go along with 🙂 The tefillah Friday night was beautiful and fun, the zemirot and dancing at both meals had so many children participating: yakov told the […]
Friday July 29
Chodesh Tov! Every Friday is Hike Day here in machane! After a shiur on zemirot-shabbat (many of which were written during the Golden Age of Spain!), each eidah gathered together at their morning mifkad site and left for their trip/hike/picnic lunch, while the tzevet (specialty staff) stayed back to clean up the camp l’chvod shabbat […]
Thursday July 28
Our second full day in camp began, like always, with our 3 minyanim (4, if you include Machal, out at their campsite!) We have one minyan for Eidot Kaytana, Aleph and Vav, another for Eidot Bet and Gimmel and a third for Eidah Daled. Each eidah has lots of camper participation, singing and fun explanations […]
Wednesday July 27
Our first full day!! It was busy and fun and exciting! We woke up at 7:30 and had our morning mifkad by eidah (division). Each age group gathers at a designated place, before going to Shacharit. They do some morning stretches, talk about the day ahead and sing the Bnei Akiva song “yad achim” and […]