HIGHLIGHTS I cannot believe that we are halfway through the summer! Crazy how time flies when you have busy weeks at camp. Monday morning started off like a regular morning. But in the afternoon we joined the camp for their Aliyah Assembly, where they honor all staff and campers who are making aliyah or joining the Israeli Army this year. Then for snack we gave out blue and white cupcakes to the entire camp.On Tuesday morning we got to take a break from our normal jobs to learn how to make our own ferris wheels out of Legos. With the help of a little battery power they even went around! On Wednesday afternoon we worked to get ready for the staff night activity. Then once all the campers cleared out we ran a Cupcake war for all who stayed. We explained the rules, gave them time to plan and create, then finally we judged the cupcakes everyone had made. Thursday morning we helped the Chinuch staff out with a scavenger hunt for all the campers. We acted as prophets, Plishtim soldiers and even explained to them the winnowing process they used to use to make flour. Then to finish off our busy week and take a little break, we went out Friday afternoon for a treat–ice cream!! Hope everyone has a very restful Shabbas!

 

DVAR TORAH: PARSHAT MATOT-MASSEI By Yosef Taubes There are a lot of examples of hidden depth in the passukim (sentences) of the Torah. A great example of this is in one of this week’s Parshiot, Parshat Massei. The Kotzker Rebbe quotes the first pasuk of Massei that says, “These are the journeys of Bnei Yisrael”. He explains that although the pasuk seems to be referring to the various journeys that Bnei Yisrael had in the past, it also refers to events that would happen in the future. One example of this is when the torah describes Bnei Yisrael going to a place called Chasmonah. Sound familiar? It reminds us of the Chashmonaim from the story of Chanukah. And to make it even better, this was the 25th journey that Bnei Yisrael took, which matches the fact that Channukah is on the 25th of the month of Kislev. We can see from here that even the events that seem so mundane in our everyday lives also have a greater depth to them.