Friday-Shabbat June 23-24

Shavua Tov!

Friday was so busy but so fun, so here is the quick run-down of what Fridays look like in machane.

Although our kima (wake up) is usually at 7:30, Friday mornings we wake up at 7:00 because the day is packed and we want to be davening kabbalat shabbat by 7:00 pm. Tefillah and breakfast are followed by sandwich making, so everyone has a yummy lunch for the hike-picnic later. Shiur is right after breakfast: we learned about Beit Hillel vs. Beit Shamai and what healthy disagreements and machloket looked like in the first and second century CE (in contrast to our Parshat haShavua where we read about Korach and the way he spoke and acted, which was not helpful, respectful or about serving Hashem).

During the mid-day and early afternnon slot, each Eidah had a few hours outside of camp:

Alef  – they hiked to “town” which means the gas station and convenience store corner in Sugar Grove : ) They had their picnic lunch in a big park there and there returned on buses.

Vav – a fun hike we call the “drain hike” where they crawl through a large pipe at the end, only to pop out right here in camp at the Agam!! It is always a “hey, how did we get here” moment and very memorable!

Bet – hike to the “Dollar General” store with time to spend a few dollars buying shabbat snacks and some fun things for camp.

Gimmel – our beloved ” purple mailbox hike” where we pass a …yup, you guessed it!

Daled – a fun water hike that end at a Tops supermarket in a neighborhood nect door. They spent some time there buying some snacks and things for camp.

And Kaytana went…berry picking! We love that they do that because then we all ate fresh sweet strawberries at seudah shlishit, that were picked with love.

Shabbat was beautiful, fun and so inspiring. We begin with picture-taking (our “photo extravaganza”) and a pre-Shabbat Mifkad. We had a very energetic Kabbalat Shabbat followed by dancing during dinner. Chanichim have been waiting all year for this and we did not let them down! During Shabbat day, we have yummy kiddush after tefillah, a shiur on parsha in small groups and then another round of dancing at lunch.

After Mincha is something really special: one-on-one or one-on-two chavrutot between tzevet/hadracha and chanichim. Everyone has 45 minutes to learn – spread out over all of our machane are pairs or small groups learning. They can choose from 10+ different chavruta sheets each week (created for our machane and this special opportunity by Bracha Krohn) that offer text and questions on a part of tefillah (this week: Ashrei), a mitzvah (this week Tzedaka), pirkei avot (this week: a few mishnayot from perek Alef), sefer Yonah, stories from sefer Shoftim, explanations and questions on some of our seudah shlishit songs and many other relevant choices.

The day closes with eidah time to just hang out and talk to friends and then a seudah shlishit with ice cream dessert, fast singing, slow singing (in addition to all of the beautiful usual songs we sing, we sang two favorites this week – our Machane Stone song to the tune of nachamu and Adon Olam) and a story – this week by long-time Machane Stoner Nava Sackett.  Maariv, havdalah and a night activity for the older bunks finsh off the day! No time for a “shabbat nap” so we will all sleep well tonight!

Shavua Tov everyone! We are so excited for our first FULL week of machane.