Friday, July 4, 2014

Day In The Life: Cabin, Cabin, Cabin TENT!

I'm back at camp, serving on faculty. People always ask me just what it is that I do all day at camp, so  I'm going to try to give you a snapshot of a day in the life of a faculty member at camp. This was yesterday....

7:45am Tefillah (services) -- this morning led by one of the tzrifim (cabins). We also read a little Torah. All in 14.5 minutes! (Followed by breakfast....scrambled eggs!)

8:40am Shira (song session) and my 3rd cup of coffee...

9:00am Limud (learning) -- Our study theme for this group and this session is the "North American Jewish Experience." Our campers are learning about early Jewish immigration to the United States, and they had an Ellis Island simulation a few days ago. Today they were talking about what it was like to make decisions in the "new world" -- decisions about Jewish identity and how they could be both modern Americans and committed Jews.

10:30am  A little work in my "office" (i.e. my room in the Lodge) while the campers were having swim time

11:45am Ivrit (Hebrew) - a lesson about the Hebrew words of camp. Taught thru a modified game of Duck Duck Goose....tzrif tzrif tzrif....OHEL! (cabin, cabin, cabin....TENT!)

12:30pm Faculty Lunch and discussion. Pizza!

1:45pm Menucha (Rest time)


3:00pm walk to drop the chaverim campers (the little ones, our faculty kids) down at the lake for a boat ride with the babysitters


Then work on tomorrow's and later-on-in-the-session programming on my laptop with other segel (faculty) members

5:00pm - Meeting with a tzrif (cabin) to help them prepare to lead tefillot (services) later in the session. 

6:15pm dinner (stir fry!) followed by a quick change into longs-and-longs (long pants and long sleeves) in readiness for tonight's special event

7:00pm All Camp Tefillah followed by an awesome concert with Rabbi Noam Katz:



Then some late night meetings and a little socializing with the other faculty....

11:55pm off to bed so we can start all over again!

Camp is a lot of work and a lot of fun...doing holy work here in this beautiful setting.

Read more about our work at camp over here on the OSRUI blog, with this really nice post from my friend and colleague, Rabbi David Locketz.

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