Wow! What an amazing first day to start off what is sure to be an incredible summer! This summer, we are focusing our attention on The Ten Commandments. We will be dealing with the vast topics of “Thou Shalt Not Kill,” “Guard Thy Shabbos,” and “Thou Shalt Not Covet,” (pardon the ancient english!). After an inspiring first day of learning, Rabbi Green explained the ‘Camp Sports Rules’ for sports, gave out the teams, and we were on our way. In classic Baltimore fashion, the darkened clouds signaled trouble towards the end of the games, and just at the final whistle, a torrential downpour began. Of course, the storm passed just as we were finishing up dinner, allowing 2 hours of open sports. To finish off our action packed first day, we had our first Mishmar of the summer. Every Thursday night during camp, we have special learning followed by a raffle for super cool prizes. To close out the program, there was a BBQ for all the participants! What a way to kick off our 40th year! Looking forward to our first Shabbos!

Rabbi Cooper just made this montage of pictures from the summer, enjoy

Today’s Chaburah spotlight is on Yaakov Abramovitz’s Chaburah.

Yaakov (Queens, NY) is spending his second summer as an advisor for Camp Sports after spending one summer in the camp’s Kollel. After spending a year and a half at Yeshivat Sha’alvim, Yaakov currently attends Yeshiva University.

The NCSYers in Yaakov’s Chaburah are Seth Mintz (Elizabeth. NJ), Micha Richmond (Setauket, NY), and Michael Sarasohn (Elizabeth. NJ).

Together they learn Sefer HaChinuch, the Book of Mitzvos, which counts, describes, and explains each of the 613 Mitzvos. The group mainly focuses on the underlying purpose for each Mitzvah, in an attempt to get a better understanding of why we do what we do and how we can make Mitzvos most meaningful in our daily lives.

One of the sefer’s most famous ideas is that a persons attitude is influenced by the actions that he does. It is for this reason that most Mitzvos contain a physical action, which is meant to impart a specific underlying message that directly relates to the action being performed. For each mitzvah, Sefer HaChinuch explains its underlying purpose giving us a greater understanding of what we are trying to accomplish in our lifelong quest of Torah and Mitzvah observance.

Our 4th and final Shabbos in camp was very powerful. Every week, Rabbi Green speaks about how Shabbos influences your week and your week influences Shabbos.
This week was a powerful week, highlighted by Tisha B’Av on Tuesday. On Thursday, we had our camp-wide Sukkah building competition, which was won by Daniel Feldman, Yehudah Weitz, and Seth Mintz. As we near the playoffs, the league games have intensified, and by the time we arrived at Shabbos, everybody was exhausted.
Kabbalas Shabbos was extra inspiring this week, as Rabbi Green pointed out, we need this inspiration to last us 11 months until next summer. There was a buzz the whole shabbos, with everyone realizing it was the last one, and everyone made sure to make the most out of it.

Yesterday we went to Ski Roundtop resort for an option of either Paintball, a ropes course, or Mountain Adventure. In Mountain Adventure, there is a ride called OGO Ball, which is basically a giant ball that someone rides down the mountain inside of, while sitting in water. There was also bumper boats and other rides which the campers who chose Mountain Adventure were able to go on.
The ropes course included massive climbs and intense challenges, well above the ground. If you have a fear of heights, this course was not for you.
The rest of the campers chose to play paintball. Each camper was given 400 paintballs and played for over 4 hours!
After an exhausting day, we BBQ’d (again) as we played football and frisbee. A great day was had by all, as we begin the post-9 days part of camp.

Yesterday in Camp was Tisha B’Av, the national day of mourning for the Jewish people. Special programming was provided throughout Tisha B’Av, geared to giving High Schoolers a meaningful experience of our sufferings. After maariv, in which Rabbi Green gave a powerful speech, and Rabbi Zucker showed a video helping us to understand the miracle of the continued existence of the Jewish people, the Kollel had a Kumzitz and Jonathan Shyman gave a shiur about the Beis Hamikdash. The next morning we sat on the floor as we read Kinnos. Each Kinna we read was introduced by a staff member, detailing its importance and making it meaningful to us. There were educational videos playing all afternoon for those who were interested, with a break for Mincha at 730.
We broke our fast to delicious Dunkin’ Donuts and there were open sports until 1130, capping a long, but meaningful day.

Chaburah Spotlight: Benjy Dennis

Today’s Chaburah spotlight is on Benjy Dennis’s Chaburah.

Benjy is spending his first summer as an advisor for Camp Sports after spending the previous summer in the camp’s Kollel. After finishing his third year at Yeshivat Sha’alvim, Benjy currently attends Lander College for Men. Benjy lives in North Miami Beach, FL and was previously involved in NCSY throughout high school, including being his region’s Vice President in his Junior year.

The NCSYers in Benjy’s Chaburah are Moshe Ostreicker (Toronto, CA) and Ezra Zimble (Boston, MA).

The Chaburah is currently learning Rambam Hilchos Dey’os. It deals with how to improve one’s character traits and gives a lot of interesting health advice.

Topics that have been discussed are how to improve one’s diet and refraining from speaking Lashon Hara.

The Chaburah is very interactive and everyone takes a part in reading and translating the words of the Rambam. Questions often arise and each member attempts to give an answer that satisfies everyone. Through these exciting topics, a great summer experience is guaranteed.