Sunday July 6

Shavua Tov! We all had a beautiful Shabbat #3 – we had even louder voices during tefilah and zemirot and slow shira at seudah shlishit! The chanichim who were never here for Shabbat are catching on to the tunes and the order of songs. Today we began the day with shiur about the dynamic nature of halacha – when things do develop and when we cannot chnage the halacha. The whole idea of Oral Torah and the input/authority of “The Rabbis” is difficult to explain, since there is so much nuance and Jewish history to explain. But, each eidah was taught at a level that was appropriate for that age, and each group understood a little more about what stays the same and where we might see some change, a new “fence”/ Rabbinic law or progress. Pretty deep for a Sunday morning 🙂

The chanichim experienced some of this change in Tefillat Mincha today, when some counselors started to sing some of Ashrei in English to “update” the tefillah and make it more understandable for this English-speaking crowd. Made the kids think about traditions changing 🙂

The chanichim can smell Color War in the air and our Roshei Moshava and all the Roshei Eidah keep teasing with funny things that make everyone think Color War Breakout is happening…but then it doesn’t. They thought the Ashrei-in-English was part of color war breakout!! In the Chadar Ochel at lunch, two roshim had an arguement about a cheer the camp does…and campers starting chanting “1-2-3-4 we know it’s color war!!” But alas, false alarm!

At Shekem, they gave out ONLY York peppermint patties and that got everyone suspicious. But, again, in the end just harmless shtick to keep people on their toes. (It is like Purim fun!)

Then tonight at mifkad, all of the tzevet wore their “first day t-shirts” which had never arrived 3 weeks ago and THAT looked like some shtick that was planned – but again, not related to any breakout. So stay tuned!!  This third full week always has Color War (and to be honest, we have all caught on that it is almost always Tues and Wed!)

The end of the day had Chugim (electives) today, so everyone had a chance to do their favorite activity that they signed up for.

Machal left early for trip-day to Niagara Falls and Buffalo. They return tonight and sleep in Machane.