Tuesday July 11 – CW Day 1

Color War Day 1 –  Reporting live:

Here in Machane Stone there are only two places/times one does not feel Color War: during tefilah (focus is on our relationship with Hashem) and in the bunk (where everyobe should feel comfortable and help one another). Otheriwse, game on!!

Our two teams this year are SHINUN (blue and green) and SVARA (black and orange). Let me explain:

We have been learning about the development of Mishna, Talmud and the halachik process, following the destruction of the first beit haMikdash. A tension arose between different styles of learning. One side of this split favored committing many teachings to memory and knowing them very well. This allowed them to be more easily passed from generation to generation, ensuring our ancient traditions remained perfectly intact. The other side focused on deeply understanding the logic of a specific issue and its reasons. This allowed for much creativity in Torah study and to continue to allow the Torah to adapt with each generation.

Shinun is the word for repetition – to the point of memorization. Svara is the word for logic and is all about analysis and creativity.   Shinun is best reflected by Rabbi Eliezer ben Hyrcanus, Rabbi Yishmael and Rav Yosef (nicknamed “Sinai” sometimes) and Svara is best represented by Rabbi Yehoshua, Rabbi Akiva and Rabbah (“Uprooter of Mountains”).

We appreciate and need both of course, but in this modern-day version of the battle, there will have to be a winner!!

After our regular morning routine of mifkad, tefilah, breakfast and shiur (today we focused on shinun and actually tried to memorize books in tanach, masechtot in talmud etc ),  there were team meetings followed by two peulot of sporting events.  Each eidah by gender had its own competition on a field, at the lake, in the pool, at the climbing wall or on the court.  Points are being tallied until Wednesday night. Team marches followed mincha, and each team sang and cheered to impress the Roshei Eidah. More competitions took place in the afternoon, including a camp-wide game of machanayim (similar to dodgeball).  Tonight, after team meetings, more marches, dinner and maariv, we enjoyed (and laughed a lot) at an Olympiada in Indoor World, where there were relay races and funny minute-to-win-it challenges.

All day, campers were getting involved in the projects and presentations that will be shown tomorrow night. These two days are a great opportunity for everyone’s creativity and talent to be showcased!!

Go, go, go, go, go, go.

Fight, fight, fight, fight, fight, fight.

Win, win, win, win, win, win,

Go, Fight, Win!!