Wednesday June 18
“Boker Toooooov Sugar Grove!!” – how we have missed that wake-up over the loudspeaker 🙂
Daily Kima is 7:30 followed by mifkad-by-eidah to start the day with a roll call, some exercises/stretches and the Bnei Akiva anthem. We have five minyanim each morning so the chanichim can have an age-appropriate tefilah and as much chance to participate as possible – 1) Kaytana, Alef and Vav 2) Bet and Gimmel 3) Daled 4) Machal (usually off-site) and 5) an early minyan for some kitchen staff and plugah workers (our maintenance staff).
Our first shiur today focused on the longing and yearning for Eretz Yisrael that our nation has felt for thousands of years. Our morim are a combination of our Beit Midrash tzevet, along with tzevet from all the anafim. We have a total of nearly 50 morim, so that we can divide bunks into small groups for more meaningful and interactive learning. This is one example of the leadership training happening here! Our Roshei Beit Midrash Elza Koslowe and Beni Romm write the shiur and teach it to the morim, who then tailor it for the chanichim they will be teaching. Today’s shiur centered around two chapters of tehillim that express this longing and love for our Homeland: 126 and 137.
Every bunk looks forward to seeing which peulot they have been assigned for the day! Our Roshei Sport Alex Wolf and Eliana Linsider create a schedule that will often grant bunks the peulot they request and ensure the day is a mix of sports, swimming, creative art (ceramics, cooking etc) and favorites like climbing wall and susim (horseback riding). They keep track of what every bunk has, so they don’t have the same peulot repeated too many times. There are 6 peulot per day, after shiur and nikayon (time to clean the bunk each morning), and before pre-dinner shower time and free time. The night activity was done by eidah tonight. Each Rosh Eidah chose party-games to play with their bunks to help the chanichim get to know each other better and enjoy themselves.
More about bunk names tomorrow – start thinking about movements, leaders and places that are famous from the 1880’s through 1947…
Kaytana, our youngest campers, led and nurtured by Noam Barenholtz and Eliana Saibel, kicked off their day with a shiur, also in small groups, about Avraham and Hachnasat Orchim. They had a peulah today for baking cookies and shared them with each other (no one could eat his or her own) thereby emulating the generosity of their great great great….grandfather Zaidy Avraham Avinu! The Kaytana boys had fun in music today, and the girls really enjoyed beach volleyball. The after-dinner night activity was Capture the Flag – always a big hit!
Machal headed out on buses early this morning and spent the day on a 10-mile hike to the Buckaloons, a State Park in Pennsylvania. They enjoyed setting up tents, roasting hotdogs and having their first of many camping overnights. Each morning they have shiur too. This summer we are piloting a new curriculum created in collaboration with Noa Berkowitz, long time Camp Stone tzevet member and Rosh Mosh. Machal will use shiur time to learn about the idealogy of Bnei Akiva, specifically the concept of Torah v’Avodah, in addition to ideals such as leadership, courage, and communal responsibilty. Today, in the first shiur, they discussed the meta issue of daily learning and the charge to Yehoshua that “the Torah shall not cease from your lips – recite it day and night” (Yehoshua 1:8)
So much more to talk about, explain, and share. Come back tomorrow for more updates, live from Moshevet Shivat Zion!
