Sunday July 13
Shavua Tov! We are beginning this week with the fast day of the 17th of Tammuz. This day commemorates 5 things, according to a Mishnah in Masechet Ta’anit. One of which, the most famous, is the Romans breaking through the walls around Jerusalem on the way to destroying the Beit HaMikdash. There are special tefillot, called slichot, about the day and what happened on it. The chanichim had regular tefilah and then shiur, followed by skits put on by our Beit Midrash staff about pogroms in Jewish history. Once all of that was done, we were able to daven mincha early and then spend the rest of the day with a mix of letter writing to chayalim who are Camp Stone alum, buying some of the camp stone swag, shower time and movie-watching time. Our fast days always end with slow shira, a story and then maariv.
Tonight we all watched the annual Daled-Machal basketball game. As the games – girls then boys – played, there were fun carnival-style games to keep the younger kids busy. Tzevet ran ring toss and apple bobbing etc and gave out cotton candy and ice cream. There was even a prize booth 😊 The basketball games were tense: in each game Machal was trailing behind and then they came back and won! As always, it was exciting, fun and a great way for the whole camp to bond on one of our last nights together.
