Tuesday 5th August

This morning at Camp Gad we looked in the Torah at the way Avraham treated his guests when they came to visit him just after he had had his Brit Milah. We looked carefully at the text and discussed his actions.

After that, we went to the beautiful grounds outside and, in teams, made a 21^st century hospitality experience for our guest – Simon (the head of camp) – taking inspiration from the actions of Avraham. This competition saw the team could give Simon the best experience saw our groups providing foot spas, massages, gymnastic displays, flowers, choirs, bands, dances and even a wifi station on top of one tent! One group provided entertainment with a hula hoop display, and another with yo-yo’s.

After lunch we studied the story of Kamtza and Bar Kamtza which is written in the Talmud and which we are told led to the destruction of the Second Temple. In their groups the children put on amazing productions of this true story, with hidden words in each play. We had a modern day version of the story where the participants dressed up and acted, we have some fabulous actors here at camp. Each play contained a hidden word which the audience had to guess. At the end all the hidden words made the sentence 'Love your neighbour as yourself'', which is the antidote to the baseless hatred which happened in the story of Kamtza and Bar Kamtza.

After the plays we had a station rotation actiivty with five activities linked to the idea of chesed as the opposite of sinat chinam (baseless hatred). The participants made a spider's web of string through giving and receiving compliments, passing the ball of string each time they did so. It was amazing to see the smiles spread across each participants face as they gave compliments to one another. This was followed by other activities following the same theme. 

The participants had a really tasty dinner before gathering round a bonfire with Rabbi Binstock and had a beautiful singing session of slow songs, accompanied by guitar and banjo! Stories were also told, including a special story about the shema prayer. As it got dark and the fast went out, the tempo went from sombre and slow, to fast, happy songs with dancing. 

After a long day, everyone went to bed on a high, excited for what the next day would have in store!

Until tomorrow,

The Tribe Team