Tues Aug 1st
We learned about codification of law today -what rabbi Yosef karo did with the Shulchan Aruch. We also discussed minhag and Jews having slight differences and variations, based on where they live. The Ram”a added his “Ashkenazi notes” to the shulchan aruch to give validation and credibility and encouragement to the Ashkenazim doing things a bit differently. Some groups had different categoriztion activities, since they discussed the four parts of the Shulchan Aruch and what was placed in each one. Fascinating and important!
All of our regular peulot were in session today, and we were actually ahead of schedule a little, since all eidot woke up early at the lina site from the rays of sun 🙂 Tefillah was earlier than usual back at machane for eveyone. We have three minyanim here at machane – Kaytana, Alef and Vav minyan skips a little and sings a lot. The Bet and Gimmel minyan doesn’t skip and sings a bit less and the Daled minyan has a full tefillah but keeps it moving quickly and has the Daled post-Bar mitzvah boys doing all the leading and laining. In each minyan they have a moment of a be’ur tefilah (explanation of a part of the siddur) and a halacha yomit (a relevant daily law that we should know). Our tzevet Beit Midrash, the staff who teaches the shiur every day, gives the minyanim these extra fun skits and inspirational and informative Divrei Torah. We thank them for all of it, and for the parsha packets they produce for our kriat haTorah each Shabbat.
The Roshei Eidah (divison heads) will often perform a pre-lunch skit related to Tochnit, and today was a real doozie!! They acted out the discussion and tension around a huge controversy in Eretz Yisrael that was going on before the shulchan aruch was written: should we reinstate smicha – “real” ordination that would be rabbi to student, in a direct chain. We had lost the one Moshe had started with Yehoshua, but it was suggested that the Jewish community could “start it up again” Not everyone agreed, and the Roshei Eidah explained both sides with….a battle of the rappers. Hamilton-style of course 🙂
This evening, before dinner we had our first CHUGIM take place (the elctives the campers chose to join for this ession) Ask your child what chug he/she is signed up for.
Tonight for night tochnit (night activity), the campers had relay races that were related to what they learned about in shiur today – the codification of law. They had various tasks they had to complete that related to different areas of halcha – hand washing, redeeming the first word, brachot etc. It was fun, funny and educational!!
Kaytana spent the day “in Egypt” which means WORK. Plugah (our tzevet that takes care of cleaning and maintenance” had them doing some of the work with them today 😉 They will tell you all about that…picture little kids filling water igloos for the different sports fields around camp! They worked on another surprise project for you…hint: Jews painted this with blood in Egypt. You’ll see!! They had fun at the agam too and also found time for some ultimate frisbee (boys) and beach volleyball (girls).
Machal had a 5 mile hike today – another gorge hike and then came home to machane to shower for a night out: Walmart and bowling!!! What a treat 🙂
We cannot believe everyone arrived exactly one week ago! So much fun, so much learning and so many new friednships…in only 7 days. Camp is a magical place!!!
