Thursday June 22

Feels like we’ve been here for 5 days!

Day Two began with shiur about the centrality of the Mikdash to Jewish life in Jerusalem, by learning about the different rooms in the mikdash and the various jobs and overall routine of Kohanim. Each shiur group is about 1/2 – 1/3 of a bunk (between 6 and 10 kids) and is taught by either a member of the Beit Midrash group (17-19 year olds who spend the month learning, giving shiur and running all the various educational moments in camp throughout the day) or a staff member (sports counselor, art counselor etc) who volunteered to give shiur. These morim (teachers) meet daily and receive the shiur (lesson) from our Roshei chinuch this month and then work out details, how to make it relevant, add a trigger, an activity etc for their specific age group/gender. 

The day was filled with fun camp activities (sports, ropes course, ceramics, archery, water trampoline) – with a short rainstorm before lunch – and ended with a sicha (bunk discussion) before dinner about the political, religious and cultural aspects of Jerusalem. Each eidah had its own night tochnit (activity). 

Kaytana learned about Yitzchak and Rivkah today. In shiur, they discussed Yitzchak’s trait of gevurah (determination and persistance) and Rivkah’s trait of chessed. After learning about the midrash that Rivkah made challah just like Sarah used to bake, the Kaytana campers worked on a special art project today that they will be taking home. Hint: something for your shabbat table. For tonight’s night tochnit, they played a game boys vs. girls: who knows their counselors best? They tied after correctly answering many questions about their new counselors!! These little kids look like fish in water here, comfortable with the routine, loving their counselors and enjoying the meaningful activities and projects – not to mention the ice cream break every day at 4:30 🙂

Machal continued their adventure outside camp with another hike trail, “Heart’s Content” in the Allegheny national forest. They arrived at the Machal chutz site for another night of sleep outdoors and had a shiur and discussion about what it means to be a chalutz, a pioneer, who sees what needs to be done and rises to the occasion and fills that need.

Tomorrow, Erev Shabbat, will be hike day for each eidah and a chance for Machal to use the ropes courses. Stay tuned for details…