Sunday Aug 14

Sha-sha-shavua Tov!! We had such a beautiful Shabbat Nachamu with so many special guests. We continued to enjoy the presence of Rav Moshe and Dr. Michal Lichtenstien, and, in addition,  we welcomed two community leaders from Cleveland: Rabbi Avery Joel and his wife Aliza and Rabbi Binyamin Blau and his wife Faith. Rabbi Joel is the head of school at Fuchs Mizrachi School and Rabbi Blau is the Rabbi at Green Road Synagogue (and current President of the Rabbinical Council of America). They enjoyed seeing their students who are campers as well as the current students and older alumni who are in leadership roles now in camp as hadracha and tzevet. Lots of nachat all around! The chanichim and tzevet were so excited to include all of our guests in their dancing Friday night and at Shabbat lunch, and our guests really enjoyed the beautiful slow shira we had at the end of Shabbat.

Today we learned about the Black Death, a 14th century double disaster for the Jewish people. On the one hand, they faced severe physical suffering from the plague itself, and on the other hand, they were victims of persecution and violence from Christians blaming them for causing the plague. The goal of this shiur was for chanichim to look at how the Jews who lived through this disaster responded to it. Their response assigned religious meaning to the plague in three distinct ways. The first was through accepting that God is the master of the universe and controls everything. The second way was by connecting the presence of the plague to sin. The final way was giving hope that Hashem will forgive them and return to them.  Chanichim discussed and pointed out the strengths and weaknesses of these ways of responding to tragedy.

From there, in true Machane Stone fashion, we went to Aruchat Eser and then a great day of peulot! Somehow, it all makes sense here 😉

Something is definitely weird around here tho’, with tzevet and hadracha acting a little more unruly than usual before tefillah and in the Chadar Ochel. They are not helping to “get sheket” the way they usually do…You know what chanichim are starting to think?! “One two, three, four – we want color war; five, six, seven, eight – we don’t want to wait!!” When things get odd in the third full week of camp, everyone starts checking their wardrobe (i.e. their clean clothes) for which colors they have…

We are looking forward to a busy fun-filled week!!  😉

Machal is on their big trip to Virginia – for a few days of canoeing and camping out. This is the highlight of the month and the culmination of so many sichot about community, leadership, and responsibility.