By Becca Levy, Rosh Eidah of Tiferet
We have had an extraordinary start to Tiferet Bet 2015! On Tuesday, our chanichim (campers) arrived excited and ready to begin a summer of fun and omanut (art)! We began with our opening day lunch of hot dogs and then split up into our tzrifim (cabins) to begin to get to know each other. After lunch, when we first arrived in Tiferet’s Beit Am, our meeting place, the walls were covered in large blank black and white paper. Less than an hour later, after our first Limud (Jewish learning) program the walls were covered with the chanichim’s creations.
This session’s Limud topic is Kohelet, or in English, Ecclesiastes. The chanichim have the opportunity to explore this topic in their individual studios as well as in group Limud sessions. In Tiferet, we apply our Limud topic to almost every part of the day, and in studio the chanichim will dissect Kohelet through the lens of their passions and art. On Tuesday, we began with a group activity, where the chanichim were prompted to free write or draw in their own composition notebooks with the phrase “there is nothing new under the sun,” which is taken directly from Kohelet. Then they explored this phrase by expressing their own interpretations of it on the walls. When finished, the results were breathtaking! It was clear that this is a very special and talented group of chanichim, even from the first moments that we were together! The first night concluded with dinner, our first t’filot (services) together, and a fun evening program lead by the madrichim! Camp was off to a wonderful beginning!
Yesterday, we had our first full day of camp activities! The chanichim woke up after their first night in their tzrifim fresh and ready for a beautiful day here at OSRUI. We began our day with t’filot and breakfast and then went to our first day of studio! The chanichim each participate in one of five specialty areas here in Tiferet- Drama, Dance, Visual Art, Music, and our newest studio, Digital Arts. After studio we joined together for swimming at the pool (we alternated swimming at the pool and lake every day!) then showers and lunch. Today we had an awesome lunch-time pool party with Gesher. The chanichim from both eidot (units) were able to enjoy the afternoon swimming and eating pizza together! After lunch we have menucha, a break in the day for resting, reading, writing letters, and other relaxing activities followed by more studio in the afternoon! From studio, the chanichim go to an additional activity that they have chosen, called chug, where they do anything from horseback riding and waterskiing to improv and creative writing. On some days, we have Ivrit (Hebrew) lessons and on others we have chug.
After chug, we joined together for dinner and t’filot followed by tochnit erev (evening program). We ended our first full day with siyyum (conclusion) where one of our madrichim played guitar and sang a song to the eidah (unit). We then said Lilah Tov (good night) and got plenty of rest before another wonderful day at camp!
The Tiferet chanichim have had a phenomenal start to the summer, and I can’t wait to experience all of camp and Tiferet with them in the coming weeks!