Sunday June 29
Shavua Tov! Another beautiful Shabbat full of tefilah, song, dance, learning and lots of time with friends. We have a slightly later wake-up Sunday morning – at 8:00 instead of 7:30, since Shabbat is over so late here and many bunks have night activities after Shabbat. This morning our shiur was entitled “Chassidus 101” and […]
Thursday June 27
We had a great full day here – Baruch Hashem for a regular routine that ran smoothly. A day of peulot, to review, means: kima, mifkad-by-eidah, tefilah, breakfast, nikayon, shiur, 3 peulot, mincha, lunch, menucha, 2 peulot, shekem, a peulah (today it was chugim!!), showers, hachanot erev, camp-wide mifkad, dinner, maariv, night tochnit, layla tov! […]
Wednesday June 25
Our topic for today was Mashiach! Back in the day, when Jewish life in galut was so stressful and uncomfortable and even scary, Jews kept hoping Mashiach was “right around the corner”. They thought maybe Shabtai Tzvi was HIM! The chanichim discussed the psukim in Yeshayahu that describe the idyllic times of “a wolf lying […]
Tuesday June 24
In the 1500’s, Jewish thinkers had to figure out how to respond to new ideas about science and history that were spreading across Europe. Is there such a thing as wisdom that exists outside of Torah? How are we supposed to integrate it/relate to it in our daily lives? These are the ideas and questions […]
Monday June 23
Today we learned about how we define Am Yisrael: more of religion or more of a political entity? What do you think? Our morim brought sources to support both sides. The morim are 17-20 year olds, by the way…did you know that? Our Beit Midrash staff is our core group of morim, but since we […]
Fri-Shabbat-Sun
Shavua Tov to all parents and friends, Friday was so busy, but let me catch you up. Friday morning breakfast is a pretty big deal here at Machane Stone. Music plays (loudly!!) in our Chadar Ochel as everyone prepares their sandwiches for the hike. Each week spontaneous dancing breaks out and, with that, the pre-Shabbos […]
Thursday June 19
Day 2: We woke up to some light mist here in Sugar Grove, but that doesn’t stop us. We have places to be and friends to make. Just to be sure that our plans don’t get rained out, each day’s schedule has a second side with a rainy day schedule “just in case”. IF we […]
Wed June 18
Today in Machane, at 7:30 am, we had our first “Boker Tov Sugar Grove” kima (wake up). By 8:00 everyone was at their mifkad site, with their Roshei Eidah, for a little wake up routine and shmooze, with some strecthes! 8:15 is Shacharit. We have five minyanim daily here (!!) at Machane Stone: the early 7:oo […]
Tuesday June 17 – Opening Day
Tuesday, June 17 Welcome to Machane Stone 2025 Session 1: Moshevet Tnu’ot Yisrael where we will be studying Jewish history from 1492 – 1880’s. We are so thrilled to be here in Sugar Grove, offering our precious chanichim a Summer filled with happiness., friendship, learning and growth. Our hadracha and tzevet have been here a […]
Tuesday August 20/ 16 Menachem Av
We had a backup here in camp and it looks like all of the blogs from the last few days are being uploaded now. Machal won all of the basketball games! During halftime of the boys game, the male counselors played a short game, it was very cute. Today will be a regular morning here […]