Sunday July 5 – Yom Tochnit
Shavua Tov! We had a beautiful and fun Shabbat (as always, b”h!) and are still thinking about the story we heard from Rav Binny Freedman at Seudat Shlishit. Rav Binny, Rosh Yeshiva at Orayta, visited and taught our tzevet Friday morning and over Shabbat. In addition, he led the Machal tisch Friday night, joined the tzevet tisch as well, and told the Seudah Shlishit story for the whole camp. He told us two stories about Brigadier General Effi Eitam who had a 29-year military career in the IDF, mostly with the Golani Brigade, and who was a hero both in the Yom Kippur War and during Operation Thunderbolt, the raid on Entebbe. The take-away was that one person really can make a huge difference with one smart, bold move backed with emunah and tefilah.
We woke up at 8 am, a bit later than usual, as is our minhag here Sunday mornings, and after breakfast learned about self-defense in shiur. This week in Tochnit, we are learning about the Machtarot. These were Jewish army-like groups in Israel. With some exceptions, they were the first Jewish armies since the Bar Kokhba revolt. When in exile, the Jewish People were often powerless and subject to the whim of their non-Jewish rulers. Early Zionist thinkers urged Jews not to be passive when faced with persecution. Despite the common historical reality, the right to self-defense is well grounded in the Halakha. It is a fulfillment of the will of the Torah and a Kiddush Hashem when we defend ourselves. At the same time, we must remember that we are not defined by our weapons, and ultimately hope for peace. Afterall, as Yeshayahu shares with us in a prophesy about the Messianic era, “And they shall beat their swords into plowshares and their spears into pruning hooks; nation shall not lift up sword against nation, neither shall they learn war anymore.” (2:4)
We continued with a regular morning: nikayon (cleaninjg the bunk), peulot and aruchat eser… But then they announced that we were eating lunch and only then davening mincha. That seemed weird, since we always daven mincha first. Hmm…. Everyone wondered what was going on and, of course, shouts of “color war fake out” could be heard. After Mincha, our Roshei Moshava, Yaffa and Diddy, told us that we, the Early Zionist youth in Europe, were ready to start planning our Aliyah. Each eidah received t-shirts and string bags with a youth group name and logo: HaShomer HaTza’ir, Beitar, Ezra, Bnei Akiva etc. We were off to train and learn and get ready to go help those who were already settling the Land. Each eidah went to their lina site and did some physical training and some more spiritual planning. Meanwhile, tzevet – dressed as the British, in red t-shirts, kept attacking (playfully, with water guns, of course). Later, after dinner, each Eidah had to take inner tubes across the agam, arriving at the shores of…camp Eretz Yisrael!! A dream come true! But those British were there again, trying to catch us! We ran and dodged them 😊
Ask your children what it was like to sneak into the Promised Land at night from the water! It was an exciting and unforgettable hour. Once again, the best way to teach about Jewish History is to recreate it and live through it ourselves. (Every camper had his/her picture taken for a teudat Aliyah too!) Busy day and really fun! Can’t believe it is just Sunday!
Meanwhile, Machal is off to Virginia! They left after Havdalah last night for a fun, adventurous, challenging-in-the-best-possible-way week in Virginia. They will canoe all day, every day and camp out at night. We look forward to being in touch with them and seeing them Thursday night, when we will greet them with a delicious homemade, fresh barbeque!!
