Shabbat Shalom, Camp! Week 1, 2024
Shalom Camp Interlaken Families,
My name is Molly Beth Kranitz, and I am the Judaics Director for First Session here at camp! This is my second summer at Camp, and I am so excited to be welcoming in Shabbat tonight with our camp kehillah, community!
Tonight, we will welcome Shabbat in with our Kabbalat Shabbat Services led by our Gesher Campers, 11th graders. This will help us set the tone from sundown tonight to sundown tomorrow as we honor and celebrate Shabbat with services, a delicious meal, and lots of ruach (spirit) as we sing, pray and dance.
Tomorrow morning, we will again meet in Makom HaLev (our amphitheater) and join our voices together in prayer. The Ozrim (our staff in training) will lead us through the morning service tomorrow. It is also our tradition at camp to have the Ozrim create a schtick to modernize and bring to life the weekly parasha that we will be reading from the Torah that morning.
This week we will be reading Parashat Beha’alotcha / .בּ הְ עַ לֲֹת ךְ פּ רָ שָׁ תַ
Parashat Beha’alotekha (“When You Raise”) opens with God instructing Moses to inaugurate the Levites for service in the Mishkan (Tabernacle). Also in this Torah portion, the Israelites receive instructions regarding Passover. They journey forth from Sinai, and we learn of the complaints of the Israelites and their punishments.
Shabbat is a very special time at Camp, and we are very intentional and mindful of creating a special space here for us to really explore and experience Shabbat and make it separate and holy. We will enjoy time together, rest and a special Sichot (discussion) program before we move into Havdallah. After Havdallah, which will end shabbat as it separates the holiness of Shabbat from the ordinary week, the two groups that have led services that week, will be invited into the Chadar Ochel to take a few moments to reflect on their time leading and what that particular Shabbat has meant to them. This will be recorded in their personal Siddur, prayer book.
I am eagerly awaiting the evening to begin so that we may enjoy this first Shabbat together!
Shabbat Shalom, Molly Beth