“I show love to God by going to T’filah two times a day at camp. I don’t do that at home. It feels special here.” In Kallah we start each day by coming together as a community for “t’filah” or “services”. In Kallah, that means a lot of singing and reflections on the themes of our traditional prayers. Each morning our chanichim (campers) take turns sharing their personal Nissim b’chol Yom (Daily Miracles). We are consistently impressed by the chanichim’s reflections. They share praise for their peers, our environment, their communities at home, and at camp.
In the evenings, we work with one tzrif (cabin) on the themes of one traditional prayer and they write such thoughtful reflections on the themes. Tonight we worked with tzrif on the Hashkiveinu, a prayer that focuses on protection during the night.
Josh wrote: “Even though sleeping in a cabin is different than sleeping at home, I still feel protected by God. We say Hashkiveinu before bed to remind us that we are protected by God.”
David wrote: “The Hashkiveinu makes me feel protected at camp and at home but at camp especially because it is easy to see the stars and sunset very clearly. God is watching over camp more to make sure that everybody in my cabin in Kallah and all of camp is safe and feels protected.”
Sam wrote: “At camp I am specifically thankful for the Hashkivenu. It helps me think that when I am with a bunch of kids in the cabin at night that God is watching over me with protection.”
Last year in Kallah we created a new prayer space, or Beit T’filah. It’s in our unit, right by the cabins and feels like a special and unique space on camp! We created a walkway and entry arch to help make the space special and a little separate from the rest of the unit. This year we are creating a Torah Table for the space so we have something to rest our Torah for our weekly Torah readings (on Mondays, Thursdays, and Shabbat). We are making a table from scratch and have created a mosaic that chanichim will contribute to throughout the summer. We are also adding to the walkway and have planted brushes around the outside border. By building and creating together it really helps us to feel like the space is ours. It helps to bring us together as a community and feel like we are leaving an impact on camp for the future. We also feel closer to God by creating a prayer space that is surrounded by nature and inspired by our chanichim. T’filalh in the morning and evening at camp helps to create reflective bookends to our day; may the words of our chanichim stay with them beyond these two weeks at camp and into their lives at home.
Written by Kallah segel (faculty) members Rabbi Jill Crimmings, Associate Rabbi at Congregation Bet Shalom in Minnetonka, MN, and Laura Perpinyal, Director of Congregational Living at Temple Chai in Long Grove, IL.