Nitzanim and Olim led our Shabbat services this Friday night and Saturday morning. They both did a wonderful job touching on their themes of Ahavat Ger, loving the stranger, and journeys through time. This Shabbat campers and staff dressed in white and blue to show our support for Israel during this time of need.
By Tess, Karenna, Allie, and Rebecca
Tess: Ahavat ger means loving the stranger.
This mitzvah means that we accept people that we may not know.
Karenna: Even if someone comes from a different country, practices a different religion, or looks very different than you do- you can welcome them into your community.
Allie: We do this at Crane Lake each summer- welcoming campers and staff from all over the world.
Rebecca: Our art project shows lots of different looking people- standing together- all over the world. They show how we can all perform the mitzvah of Ahavat Ger.
By Maureen, Margit, Rachie, Gigi, Shain
Shain: The next prayer is Hashkiveinu. This is a prayer about protection throughout the night. This means that you’re asking God to make sure nothing goes wrong throughout the night. It also helps to make sure we are safe in our surroundings.
Maureen: Ahavat Ger is about trusting strangers and not just loving them. For example, on the first day of camp, everyone is a stranger, but by closing day, everyone is a friend. By loving each other, trusting each other and protecting each other, we go from being strangers to being friends.
Gigi: When I’m at camp, I feel protected from the outside world. And the outside world holds everything I want to get way from. So I’m thankful for that protection by being in the CLC bubble.
Margit: Every night when I sing the Hashkiveinu with my unit and put my arms around my friends, I feel safe because I’m with my camp family. Those people who were once strangers are now friends.
Rachie: When I leave camp on Sunday, I’ll get home and before I go to sleep, I’ll recite the Hashkiveinu and remember Nitzanim (oo-haha). I’ll remember how safe I felt in the CLC bubble. Just like the protection I feel when I sing the Hashkiveinu.
By Hannah, Joseph, Aaron and Jenna
Hannah: V’shamru is about keeping Shabbat in 2 ways. The 2 ways are resting on the 7th day like God did, and seeing Shabbat as a sign of our important relationship with God.
Joseph: On Shabbat, we get to sleep in late and at freeplay you can sit on a hill and read a book if you want.
Aaron: One of the ways we celebrate our important relationship with God is through the mitzvah of ahavat ger which means loving the stranger.
Jenna: An example on Shabbat is that we can sit with anyone we want to including people you don’t know and saying “Shabbat Shalom” to them is a very kind thing to do.
By Sam
The Bar’chu opens our minds to prayer, allowing us to begin the service so we can praise God. For a long time, I said prayers half-heartedly if at all. I wasn’t entirely comfortable with the language and wasn’t sure what I believed. However, in this, my last session as a camper, I’ve come to realize that you don’t necessary have to believe in an all-powerful creator in order to praise God. Praising God is a personal experience. No matter what you believe or don’t believe, sing the Bar’chu loudly today, thinking about how blessed you are to be able to spend your summer in a place as amazing as Crane Lake Camp.
By Max, Aaron, and Becca
Max: In “Yotzeir Or”, we repeatedly thank God for the light He provides us with and we pray that He continues to shine His light on all of us. In it, we also thank God for creation and pray that He continues to renew the cycle of creation.
Rebecca: This “cycle of creation” brings up another topic: routine, and how our lives are filled with cycles and routines. Every day, we fall into the routine of waking up, eating, doing activities and falling asleep. Every year we fall into the routine of going to school, going to camp and coming home. In this way, our lives are a series of loops.
Aaron: Even though it may seem like our lives are a bunch of cycles that keep looping around, it is better to think of it as our lives are all spiral staircases. We do indeed loop around a lot, but with every loop we get a bit higher. The three of us all started in Nitzanim, where we began our journey at the bottom of the staircase and every year we have looped around, until now, as Olimers, we are reaching the top of the staircase. However, instead of seeing it as leaving the staircase forever, we see it as getting off and entering a brand new floor.