Camp YavnehCamp Yavneh
August 04, 2017

Na’aleh – Another Busy Week of Adventures.

Author - Camp Yavneh

Shabbat shalom, Machaneh Yavneh,

Good shabbos, Machaneh Yavneh,

Last Shabbat was spent at Moshav Nechusha, where we infiltrated our host families’ homes. Some families spoke more English than others, but everyone got through the weekend fine. Saturday was filled with sleeping and services. Parsha players did on the spot improv.

Sunday morning we went on a brief downhill hike where we crawled through a water tunnel, getting splashed by Money and Shai. Later in the day, we crossed the green line to talk with a journalist about the role of settlements in the Israeli-Palestinian conflict. We had lunch at an authentic hole-in-the-wall hummus place. After going back to the hotel, we had the pleasure of listening to a yelling match between radical left wing and right ring speakers. Sunday night, we emulated the loudness of the speakers during a food minute-to-win-it competition, where we got shushed by hotel officials.

Monday we went to Yad Vashem and later listened to a LGBTQ activist speaker. In the evening, we did eicha in a park, where we got to play with clay.

Ari made an omelette monster which was later left in a fridge.

On Tisha B’av, we were so inspired by eicha that we decided to do our own recreation of the destruction with a major shilshul attack. The survivors of the initial shilsh toured the Jewish quarter, while the victims slept on the toilet. Later in the day, we spoke with Rabbi Dov Lipman, a Haredi Jew who believes that the religious and secular can live together. We all managed to survive the fast. 

On shilsh day two (aka Wednesday), we went ice skating and sang happy birthday to Feldman even though it was Money’s birthday. After waffling down our food at the waffle factory, we spent an hour waiting for everyone to be out of the bathroom. Later on, we went to a Bedouin women’s empowerment speaker and bought camel soap. That night, we slept in the Bedouin concrete structure that was supposed to be a tent.

On shilsh day three (aka Thursday) we woke up at 3:57 and got on the bus to hike Masada. We watched the sunrise from the top, then toured a bit. Some of us wanted to take the snake path down, but couldn’t because our security guard, Or, revealed that had contracted our shilsh disease. So, we all took the cable car.

After Masada, we bussed to the Dead Sea and swam in order to locate our hidden cuts in a process known as immense pain. After sleeping on the bus back to the hotel, we washed up, and headed out for a very loud four hour concert. By the time we got back to the hotel, we had been up for 21 hours, and everyone passed out immediately.

On shilsh day four (aka Friday) we started work on out final projects. You heard that right, Na’aleh has finals. You’ll never believe what we did later: more project work!

Now we are preparing for our final Shabbat in Israel and in Jerusalem. Although we’re all sad to leave, we’re excited to spread our love and shilsh to all of you next Thursday

Shabbat Shalom and we’ll see you soon.

From,

Fox, Kayla, and Na’aleh 2017’s non letter writers

 

Shoutouts:

Machaneh Yavneh.