Thursday, August 18

Color war ended Wednesday night… and it was Chachamei Sefarad (team colors: pink and black) for the win this year! And boy did we need the extra sleep, as color war ended quite late! The morning was just a little shorter with two peulot, not three, which was fine for everyone 🙂

Eidah Daled actually woke up early and headed out for a fun day of bonding – they put Color War behind them and regrouped as one loving eidah 🙂 They spent a beautiful and fun day white-water rafting on the Youghioghieny River! On the way back, they picked up pizza in Pittsburgh and ate it picnic-style along the way. They will get their late wake-up tomorrow!

Eidot aleph – gimmel had shiur today about the great rabbinic figure of Abarbanel. We learned about the life and Torah of this 15th century scholar, who was born and lived in Portugal, but was forced to move quite a few times during his lifetime. Abarbanel wrote powerfully about the experience of exile and about the possibility of the era of Mashiach. The chanichim also studied some of his beautiful and unique commentary on Tanakh.

The day was pretty normal until we arrived at Shekem… when the Roshei Moshava let everyone know that we were  going to Splash Lagoon tonight!! This indoor water park, about an hour away, is the most fun trip and all the chanichim were super excited. We went in shifts: bet and gimmel finished off the day with peulot and left for Splash Lagoon after dinner. But aleph and vav ate an early dinner and left for the “first shift” at the water park. Look at the photo gallery for pics from this very fun night!

Machal is headed home after their memorable week of canoeing and camping on the James River in Virginia! They spent the day at Hershey Park, enjoying the rides and games there, after a hard and challenging week. We cannot wait to hear about it all in person on Shabbat. We are so proud of them!

Our fourth shabbat is here! We cannot believe we have had three already and only 1 left 🙁 We love Shabbat with the singing, dancing and beautiful tefillot. We will make the most of it! First, tomorrow is our day of hikes and picnics.

Shabbat Shalom!