Shabbat Shalom!

Shabbat is here! Today the chanichim woke up to Friday morning muffins and a slightly different morning flag raising (hitkansuit boker). Not only is today the opening ceremony for the 2012 Summer Olympics, but it is the 40th anniversary of the Munich Olympics. To commemorate the Munich Olympics we read a brief description of what happened on that day for the campers (chanichim) that didn’t know. We then had a moment of silence before we raised the flags. Typically, we raise both the American and Israeli flag to the top of the flag pole, but today we only raised the flags half way. We also have different songs for each flag that we raise everyday, but today we sang the Hatikvah for the Israeli flag. 

During the CIT activity (Madatz peula) the Amelim had a peula about their kupa. Kupa for the campers (chanichim) is their communal box of candy they all share. Whenever any of the chanichim recieve any type of candy or food in the mail or on the first day, they give it all to their counselors (madrichim). The chanichim share all of their candy together and today the Amelim made a decision of how they want their kupa of candy to work for the session. During the peula different chanichim recived different amounts of candy which of course did not seem fair to those who recieved less than the others. In the end they all decided it would be best if they shared all of their snacks and they came up with a system of how they would receive it.

This week Shabbat is going to end slightly different than it normally does. Tomorrow night starts the Jewish holiday, Tisha B’av. During this holiday we commemorate the destruction of the second temple by fasting. At Galil we use this holiday as an opportunity to have serious discussions about oppression as well as talking about the destruction. Tomorrow night instead of having our campfire (medurah) as the last activity, we are going to move it earlier in the night so we can start the holiday when the sun sets. We have special activities planned for Tisha B’av on Sunday. 

Shabbat Shalom and check back on Sunday to read about Tisha B’av.