Thursday July 14

We needed that extra sleep and we got it! 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 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-daled had shiur today about the years that Rome ruled over the Jews and Herod became king. We learned about Herod’s projects and his renovation of the Beit haMikdash. Ironically, the more beautiful the building became, the more the Jewish people splintered into factions and lost their true sense of purpose. This led to the destruction of our Beit haMikdash and our exile. Sunday, the fast day of 17th of Tammuz will address that.

The day was pretty normal until we arrived at Shekem…Aliza our Rosh Mosh was dressed as Herod and was talking about all of the new grand ideas “he” had, including…  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 in the Great Outdoors! 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! Have a meaningful fast day on Sunday. We will have special programming all day, as we try to connect the chanichim to the loss of the mikdash.