Tuesday July 28
Today in shiur we learned about the corruption and immorality that was rampant across the country since “there was no king – so everyone did what was right in his own eyes.” We learned about the stories at the end of Sefer Shoftim related to avodah zarah, murder, immorality and civil war; Bnei Yisrael were in dire need of a king! The chanichim spoke about how it might be “fun” to have little or no authority (no counselors, no teachers, etc.) but ultimately society breaks down, people get hurt and there is little to no productivity. Next up: Sefer Shmuel and the beginning of monarchy for our nation.
We had a few moments of rain today, and we have a great system for dealing with that. Every day (no matter how blue the sky is when we wake up) our Roshei Sport, who create the schedule, put a “rainy day schedule” on the back of the schedule sheet. Every bunk receives that schedule and knows that IF rain starts, you just “turn to the other side” and go to your rainy day activity at that hour. Smooth and convenient!
The pool and the agam are back in full use after the 9 days, and the chanichim love swimming in the pool and really enjoy all the activities we have for them at the agam. We have a few peulot that take a two hour slot to fully enjoy, and the chanichim love seeing those activities on their schedule for the day: the agam activities (there are so many things to do from boating to water trampoline to the water climbing wall), horse-back riding (we keep the horses down the road and they ride through beautiful forest trails), biking (we have a few different bike paths, of various difficulty levels, all in the woods behind camp), and our ropes course / zipline. We also have a very special corner of camp called The Village, that will be featured in tomorrow’s blog, that is given two peulot when assigned.
At shekem today, as the kids were enjoying their afternoon snack, Ephraim our Rosh Eidah started yelling from the roof about the immoral and corrupt behavior of the Jewish people and how the Tribe of Binyamin watched and did nothing when one of their own perpetrated a heinous act of violence against a woman who was passing through. He declared war against the population of Binyamin and called out that everyone must go “gather the troops for war”…. Every eidah at their lina site!! And that, dear blog readers, is a lina break out! Each eidah went to pack a bag for sleeping out and walked to their assigned site where they enjoyed a cook-out with hot dogs, sang, told stories and enjoyed time together. They will sleep outside under the stars and return for tefilah in the morning.
Kaytana learned about the slavery in Egypt…but more importantly they learned about the transition from Egypt being a home for the Jews during famine to a country that enslaved and persecuted them. They were inspired by the midwives who feared Hashem more than Pharaoh and they thought about how impressive it was that Moshe grew up in the palace but still identified as a Jew and was ready to turn against his homeland to save his people. They had a peulah where they met Pharaoh (costumes really help in situations like this) who gave them orders to pick up trash near the Shekem shack and build a pyramid out of milk crates. The Kaytana chanichim had way more fun than our ancestors, but the point was made and the experience will not be forgotten! They also baked “lechem oni” (poor man’s bread) in the brick oven, located in the Village. They were told they had to retreat to the Jewish section, Eretz Goshen, to get away from the last plague…so off they went to a lina site too 😊
Machal hiked The Little Gorge, a five mile water hike, and then had a fun evening with bowling at a nearby alley and a trip to Walmart! They are sleeping in camp tonight – real beds!! What a treat 🙂
