SAC 2017 Shabbat #2
Queridos Madres y Padres!
Today’s blog comes from Margot Botwinick, our Director of Jewish Experience. Here’s what she had to say!
We just came off of our second and final shabbat at SAC!
We were joined by special guests Rabbi and Mrs. Hassan and their family, from the SBH community. We were also privileged to be joined by Quinn’s family! We were not surprised to see that Quinn’s whole family knew the words to the pizmonim 🙂
Tefillah over shabbat was filled with singing and ruach. The girls had a candle lighting ceremony where Carol, Mrs. Hassan and Chana’s mother, Mrs. Adatto, spoke beautifully about what candle lighting means to them. We sang vezakeini, the words many women say after they light, and made the beracha together. Josh told a story about the uniqueness of Shabbat, and we were treated to a Morroccan-style Kabbalat shabbat, led by Arieh Levy from Spain.
Friday morning sessions/shiurim had been spent learning pizmonim so that over shabbat the campers would know the words and tunes, including ki eshmera shabbat, yoducha r’ayonai and dror yikra. Sure enough, we had a very spirited friday night meal, filled with delicious food and plenty of pizmonim and dancing, often led by Isaac Levy and crew. Big Gedalia Goomber played a key role!
After the meal, each bunk had an oneg with a different staff member where they played games and some had philosophical conversations that carried over until the next day.
To help engage the campers during Tefillah Shabbat day, Josh orchestrated Perasha skits interspersed throughout Torah reading. Particularly memorable was Shuey Mirkin’s rendition of boiling down the SAC handbook into Ten Commandments.
After lunch, the day followed with Perasha shiurim for each bunk led by staff and guests. We had a special shiur for staff given by Josh, so that they could learn as well. The CIT’s led games during menucha, and there was an “Ask the Rabbi” session with Haham Aryeh Greenberg and the Hassans after Mincha. We then split into our “Shabbat Buddies” when every camper is paired up with a staff member to learn or discuss a topic of their choice.
Shabbat ended strong with an energetic and meaningful seuda shlishit with campers and counselors starting their favorite songs and everyone joining in. We were treated to an on-the-spot “Shabchi” Hazzanut solo by Eli Assouline, and several “Shema Yisrael” outbursts by Ariel Sassoon. Chana topped it off with a beautiful story with a message encouraging the campers to take those inspiring moments with them into their own families and shabbat tables.
After Arvit and Havdallah, the younger campers headed to bed while the older campers had a bonfire with singing and s’mores!
Looking forward to an amazing last week of camp!
Margot Botwinick
Director of Sephardic Jewish Experience
