What a whirlwind!
This week was one for the record books. On Tuesday, we had an Achla Yom (trip day). We prepared for Zimriyah after breakfast, and then we were off to the movies. We saw Incredibles 2 – definitely 5 stars from Leviim. We came back to camp for a nice, chill, rest of the day. After our barbeque, we played some rainy dodgeball with our newest aydah, Gefen. We then had our final rehearsal with Benzi (music head) in Beit Am.
The next day, we had a normal morning (thank goodness). During one of the morning peulot though, we got to record our songs. We went to Beit Midrash in front of the mics and sang our hearts out. We killed it. After we had lunch and sha’at menucha (rest hour), we swam in the Agam, and did some normal, fun, sports activities. We arrived back to the bunks to find our beautiful Zim shirts on our beds. With braided hair and sports shor
ts on, we ate dinner, ready for Zim.
Zimriyah 2018 was unreal. We truly had the most fun, coming together as a true, close knit aydah. We got first place for our Shir Yisraeli song “Ani Shuv Mitahev,” and second place for our Shir Aydah which was to the tune of “This is Me/You Will Be Found.” We left the night in second place overall. We could not have asked for anything more. It wasn’t about winning, it was about doing our best, and having FUN, which we did. The night ended with a celebratory camp-wide ice cream party and a boxer/brundy run.
We welcomed in Shabbat on Friday with beautiful weather, singing zemirot with gusto. On Friday night, we got to have our first tisch (when an aydah comes together, singing and telling stories in darkness after Shabbat dinner and zemirot). Maalot and Kerem have tischs every week, but Leviim only gets to do it the last week on every session; it’s definitely a right of passage. All in all, it was beautiful.
On Sunday, we had anoth
er Achla Yom. While the last one was not so active, this one for sure was. We hiked Welsche Dickey in the White Mountains. This is one of our most challenging hikes we do at camp, and every single chanich and chanicha completed it.
All sweaty, we went to the cascades (natural water slides). We swam and had a blast – we even got some delicious ice cream. We came back to camp pooped and starving. A barbecue was waiting for us to devour it, and that is exactly what we did. We went back to the bunk to shower and chill; we had an early night because we were all so exhausted.
The next night we watched the Maalot play. Since it is the nine days, they could not do a musical, so it was a collection in short comedic plays. It was great! We can’t wait for that to be us next year!
And….in the blink of an eye, the session is over! We will miss everyone leaving on Wednesday. It has been an incredible session here at Machaneh Yavneh. We can’t wait for session 2 to start – LET’S GO!!!
B’Ahavah,
-Jonathan Gomolka (Rosh Leviim)
