One חניך (camper), two חניכים, ready חניכים, Jewish חניכים. Excited
חניכים, indicted חניכים (I hope not), old חניכים, new חניכים. I have
been moonlighting as Dr. Seuss–look out for my books on Amazon! I
haven’t sold any yet, but… the breakthrough will come. It has to.
Soon, because I’m getting pretty broke.
Anyways.
This is the blog–a beautiful and confusing corner of the internet where we (Talia & Jeremy) exist as beautiful and confusing writers who create avant-garde and postmodern art forms that coincidentally always explain what happened in the lives of עדת מעלות (the group of Ma’alot, our age group who’s name means “going up”) since the last post. Some of you have been here in the years and month that have passed, and some of you are new. Welcome everyone! So that the second month parents are caught up (and so this writer fulfills their contractual obligations as a ראש עדה (unit head)), we will start with this Thursday.
Thursday! Some of you were here. It was זמריה (our Yavneh singing competition) where we sang our hearts out. Though מעלות came in dead last, the חניכים knew they were first place in their own hearts and that they did not try for perfection, but did give the perfect effort. We all had ice cream and it was really good (this writer had cookies and cream). Afterward מעלות was invited to join כרם (oldest עדה and CITs at camp) for their late night BBQ. We danced, we ate, we laughed, it was better than Cats! Then, we took a nap for the whole
night until the morning.
7:30 קימה (wakeup) followed by עיון תפילה (literally “subjects in prayer,” where we have prayer-based discussions) did not slow down our momentum. We had a big ניקיון (cleanup) of the צריפים (bunks) before starting to pack our bags. All the while, we began prep for one of the most exciting days of the קיץ (summer): Ma’alot Mania! The חניכים
created stations in pairs, and all 212 חניכים younger than מעלות went around to the stations all afternoon! Guessing ice pop and ice cream flavors, basketball shooting contests, digging in ice buckets for prizes, shaving balloons, and water balloon dodgeball/capture the water balloon were just a few of the exciting stations made available.
As the warmth of Friday’s energy began to slightly temper, we found ourselves once again at שבת (Shabbat). The palace in time (shoutout to Abraham Joshua Heschel) that is שבת is so difficult to put into words that it is not really possible to describe in this
blog. Let’s compromise by suggesting that this שבת was out of this world, a taste of the world to come, a moment of bonding that transcended all other אחדות (unity). It was amazing and a great way to say להתראות (goodbye) to first month, and as שבת came to a close the חניכים had their כרם stay in the צריפים to get closer to them.
Sunday was changeover day. It was also י״ז בתמוז (the 17th of the Jewish month of Tammuz, the anniversary of the beginning of the Roman siege beginning around Jerusalem and a minor fast day), a day perfect for welcoming in the second monthers and breaking down our personal barriers! With כוונה (intention) we went through our day, having some bonding games and sports before מפקד (camp-wide assembly at the תורן (flagpole) in the morning and evening daily). For פעולת ערב (evening activity) we had LARP-themed (Live Action Role Playing) Capture the Flag. It was fantastic (this is a pun take note parents)! The חניכים had their bunk meetings afterwards, establishing bunk rules and more.
This morning we are getting into our normal morning schedule of כיתה (class), מעלות פעולה (Ma’alot activity where we do fun games/leadership development as an עדה), and חוג (elective)! STAY TUNED FOR MORE FUN PARENTS!
