Wednesday, August 16
MESORAH and HASKALAH went at it all day here! Great sportsmanship all around and the eidah daled captains have been including as many chanichim as want to be involved. There are so many ways for everyone to contribute.
Today, after mifkad, and tefillah, campers entered a bat mitzvah party for breakfast! Streamers, music, dim lighting, signing board, dancing, and a beautifully frosted cake. The tzevet team for Color War was Bar/Bat Mitzvah.
Shiur was a special round robin experience. Campers “met” five different personalities from within the Mesorah camp (such as the Hasam Sofer, Chofetz Chaim, Rav Akiva Yosef Schlesinger). Each rabbi introduced themselves, told the campers what they care about, and then taught a passage from one of their famous books. Yesterday, shiur met five personalities from the Haskalah camp. This is what Machane Stone is all about: learning coming to life!
After spirited team meetings, the morning consisted of two peulot for the sports competitions and games: soccer, b-ball, kickball, races in the pool, ultimate frisbee, dodgeball, agam and more!
In the afternoon, we had a Chidon with questions reviewing shiur topics from this session and a fantastic apache race that included so many tasks. Each team had people in place at different sites around the machane, ready to do their part when the baton got to them. For example, someone had to shoot 5 foul shots, someone had to shoot an arrow at the target in our archery field, a swimmer had to swim across the pool, and someone had to zipline across the agam. The last stage of the race (after an hour…) was to run a mile to the finish line! HASKALAH crossed the finish line first, but MESORAH earned some of the points along the way, too.
Tonight’s final presentations were fun and so creative: a boys’ dance, a girls’ glow stick dance, a song by the whole team, a skit, a daglanut (israeli-flag dance), and some art projects! Each team kept cheering and supporting their team. A highlight was the decorated lifeguard chairs which featured a combined theme of HASKALAH and MESORAH. As the chanichim said, we want Color Peace, not Color War! Look at the pictures that will be uploaded. You will be so proud of all the hard work that went into it all!
At the end of the night, the points were tallied and the winner for our 2023 Session Two was….HASKALAH (pink/blue)!!!!!! In true Machane Stone fashion, the camp was dancing and singing with so much spirit that the announcement of the winner barely impacted the shared ruach.
We are so proud of the whole eidah daled for leading the camp through two really great days, where everyone contributed and had fun! They are all winners to us!