Sunday June 30

Shavua Tov!

Machal headed out last night for their few days in Algonquin!! This is the experience chanichim here talk about for years before, anticipating this fun, bonding and challenging week. We know they will do great and can’t wait to hear from them when they come out on Thursday. Each group of 20 kids has 3-4 madrichim and a professional guide for the few days they are there. Let the hiking, sleeping out, canoeing, cooking, mosquito bites and no showering begin 🙂 The Machal campers were sooooo excited after havdalah last night as they boarded the buses, headed for the Canadian border.

Kaytana needed to send their spies into Eretz Canaan, as the nation gets ready to enter The Promised Land. No better place to scout out than… Midway amusement park, located a half hour away on the Chautauqua Lake!! The chanichim/ot had a beautiful day going on rides, bumper boats, a train, a huge slide, a pirate ship and a (small) roller coaster. They ate lunch by the lake and had so much fun spending their last “real” day together (Tomorrow will definitely include some packing time)

Eidot Aleph through Daled are learning about the Six-day war in Tochnit and spent shiur time speaking about “Ruach Tzahal” – the very strict moral code the army follows in terms of “Tohar Neshek”, purity of weapons, i.e. the ethical way they use weapons. Each shiur group talked about the responsibility of the IDF and how the Jewish army grapples with ethics and morals as they defend the Jewish nation.

Tonight’s camp-wide memorable night tochnit was an exciting recreation of the IDF’s capturing of Har Habayit. Each Eidah tried to make its way to the (new, huge and very well-lit) Dining Deck, our Har HaBayit/destination tonight, BUT they were stopped by Jordanians – with water balloons and water guns… You can imagine the scene 🙂 Eidah Aleph and Vav were scouts and map makers and training as military soldiers, coming from the direction of our Indoor Beit Knesset, while Eidah Bet and Gimmel were made their way via the forest. Eidah Daled, our paratroopers, tried to knock down the barrier to let the Eidah Bet and Gimmel chanichim through. It was a lot of fast-action, quick-paced and well-planned moves that had every Eidah reach Har haBayit together (and a lot of coordinating over the walkie talkies by Roshei Eidah.) When they all got close, they saw our “bearded” (we have quite the costume closet, in case you wondered!) Rav Goren (a.k.a. Shim, Rosh Eidah bet) holding a Torah and a shofar while the famous 1967 recording was played over the loudspeaker: “har HaBayit b’yadenu” !!

And then the celebration began, with an erev shira outside on the deck!! Everyone’s favorite Israeli songs (old and new) were played by live musicians from tzevet who kept it “leibidik” and fun for as long as the chanichim wanted to sing.

SheHecheyanu V’KeyManu V’HeeGiyanu l’zman haZeh! What a victory!!

p.s. The rest of the day was packed, of course, with the regular peulot around camp including ceramics, archery, music, football, jam making, horse-back riding and hockey – and all the activities in the Village. Since this is the second full week of camp, we just know they will be announcing/breaking out the Chutz soon…hmmm… Will it be a Mon/Tues/Wed Chutz this summer or a Tues/Wed/Thurs Chutz….Stay Tuned!!