Sunday July 25

Shavua Tov!

Sunday is Funday here in machane stone. We began with a shiur about  about Rabban Gamliel and his relationship with Rabbi Yehoshua. They sometimes disagreed and Rabban Gamliel was tough and made Rabbi Yehoshua follow his ruling, so the nation would have uniformity in practice. We talked about the role of the nassi in those days and went through the pros and cons of centralized leadership. The chanichim saw this all acted out after Mincha, when some of their Roshei Eidah played the roles of Rabban Gamliel and Rabbi Yehoshua about Rosh Chodesh and when Yom Kippur would be. Our Roshei Eidah have soooo many costumes and can bring to life any character from Jewish history!

Each bunk, among their regular sports, art and water peulot,  had a peulah (activity) today for “Bunk Night” preparation. They made a sign and a presentation (skit, song etc) about their bunk name. Each of the bunk names, this session, comes from the period of jewish History that we are learning about – from 70 to 500 CE, so we have personalities like Rav Ashi and Abaye and we have some cities like Sura and Nehardea. We also have some Roman emporers thrown in, like Vespasian and Theodosius. Looking forward to seeing those presentations tomorrow night! Eidah Daled boys and Eidah Bet girls had “high ropes and zipline” today, a favorite here at camp. The chanichim are challenged to push themselves out of their comfort zone and try new (high) things!

After the afternoon snack time (“canteen” in some camps, “shekem” here in Machane Stone), Rabban Gamliel and Rabbi Yehoshua had it out again and this time Rabban Gamliel yelled at Rabbi Yehoshua to “take a walk” carrying his staff on the day he wanted to declare Yom Kippur, in order NOT to be different than everyone else. The command to take a walk led to the machane all being told they were going to take a walk!! … to their respective cook-out sites for a BBQ dinner over a campfire and a sleep-out!! The rain came, however, and the chanichim returned to camp to eat their food and will have to sleep out another night. (As you can imagine, some were happy and some were disappointed).

Kaytana learned about Yaakov running away from Eisav and making his favorite son a special colored coat. They all had a chance to make their own special colored garments during a tie-dying activity. They each received a white t-shirt and were given the freedom to design their colored shirt however they want. Boys had baseball and swim today and girls had slip n’ slide and music. These young campers look VERY comfortable, happy and proud these days. They are navigating the camp experience like pros by now.

Machal did a long water hike today which brought them to Lake Erie at the end.  They own some cozy waterproof tents and slept out comfortably.