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 volume work that transformed the learning of daily halacha. This kind of learning and the commitment to halacha it strengthened was a main element of the Judaism being practiced in the Galut communities we are studying this session.

Today was the second day of peulot in the Village!!  “The Village” is a magical place here in Camp Stone. Set off in the forest, across from our Indoor Beit Knesset is a small…well, village, actually, that brings to life some of the olden-day arts, like blacksmithing, glass-blowing, baking in a brick oven, and pressing olives in an olive press. In addition we have a planetarium (the only stand-alone planetarium in America, i.e. not in a science museum/center) and a place where we can spin wool. The chanichim do all of these activities and make projects in the workshops, as if they are back in the Middle Ages that they are learning about. The Village is called Gerona this session, in keeping with tochnit. In the 12th century, the Jewish community flourished in this city in Spain – and this is where Ramba”n lived and served as Rabbi of city. Later he was appointed Great Rabbi of Catalonia (the northeastern region of Spain). You will see pictures of chanichim in the village…and seeing is believing!! What they do there is so interesting and fun and creative! Really, the best experiential education around : )

Tonight’s night tochnit after dinner was…layla tov!! As in “go, get a good night sleep”, after last night’s lina on the ground outdoors!

Kaytana had a day where they learned about slavery in Egypt and even had a peulah called Boot Camp where they had some (fun and kind of funny) tasks to do while being timed. They had “agam” today which means they were able to have fun on our lake with the trampoline and slide etc. The girls had a talent show before dinner and the boys were given clues to places around camp where they had to go and find the item being described and mark on the map where they found it. This tested their knowledge of the lay-out of Camp Stone…they passed!!

Machal had another beautiful gorge hike today – this time 6 miles – followed by a fun evening of roller skating and a trip to Walmart! They are sleeping back in camp tonight!