Wednesday Aug 8 – CHUTZ DAY 2

Great Report about the full day we had at the Chutz! We could NOT have had better weather!!! It was perfect, and the chanichim – and all of their madrichim and tzevet –  could NOT have enjoyed it more!

Everyone woke up and started the day with a beautiful outdoor tefilah; plugah brought all of the benches out to the chutz site yesterday, and the chanichim made a mechitza out of wood. They ate a quick breakfast with cereal and milk and then enjoyed a very entertaining shiur… Our chinuch staff  (led by the talented Zev Roberts) wrote raps (yes, you read that correctly!) about some famous halacha personalities from this time period we are studying:  The Ros”h (Rabbeinu Asher), Rabbi Yaakov son of the Rosh, Rabbi Yitzchak Alfasi (the Ri”f), Rambam, and Beit Yosef (Rabbi Yosef Caro who wrote a commentary on the Tur- the work by Rabbi Yaakov) Each rap was 16-20 lines and was about the torah giant’s biograpy and his halachik work. After the rap a quick recap was given in regular spoken English 🙂 Each eidah had one rapper for a few minutes, as the rappers rotated around the eidot.

A small taste:

Ro”sh

I am a traveler

A real Torah gatherer

Went from Ashkenaz to Sefard

And received an honor guard

 

I studied under Rottenberg’s great Rabbi Meir 

Learned the Tosafist method and became a big-Torah player

But then I fled from persecution in Ashkenaz

Though I was poor and new, the Spanish took a pause

Who is this great and wise Torah scholar?

This new method of learning makes him seem taller

Let’s make him our Rabbi, Put him head of the community

The Jews of Toledo saw an opportunity

 

I had one foot in Ashekenaz, the school of the Tosfists

One foot in Spain, influenced by the Rif

Therefore in my writings, I quote both of them

But I add my own insights in the name of Hashem.

 

Rav Moshe Lichtenstein, our very special Scholar in residence this week, taught two shiurim to tzevet today at the Chutz and had a special session for Yeshivat Har Etzion and Migdal Oz students/alumni. No rap was involved.

After the chanichim finished their fun shiur time, back to the food they went…for hours around the fire pits!  Each group (called a “plugah” at the chutz) received many yummy ingredients – bread, eggs, vegetables, cheese etc and an informal master chef cook-off began. Kids got very creative “in the kitchen” making fancy eggs and french toast and other “brunchy” foods.  They had such a great time and felt so full by the end of it. For the next few hours, they all hung out and played games with frisbees and balls, did art projects in the Melechet Yad tent that has been set up since yesterday, played cards, talked, napped, read, caught up with siblings or walked around collecting more wood for their fire pits. Towards the end of the afternoon, everyone came together again for Mincha.

Dinner was served by the mitbach: already-cooked hamburgers that just needed to be heated up on the grill. The cooking happened again when the smores ingredients were passed around. YUM!!

The night tochnit was some singing, more star-gazing for those interested and, eventually, the movie How To Drain a Dragon Part 2 was set up to continue the drama where we left off last night 🙂

We are so grateful for the fun, the experience in the Great Outdoors, the good food and the relaxed day and a half we have had. A few more hours tomorrow morning, and then back to machane everyone goes!

Machal spent their Day 2 in DC by going to the Holocaust museum in the morning,  having time to walk around and visit the various Smithsonian museums in the afternoon, and then joining together for a meaningful sicha about leadership. They ended the long and intense day with some fun at the local Sky Zone!