summer-2013

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.

Today’s Chaburah spotlight is on Binyomin Barman.

Binyomin is from North Miami Beach, FL and is spending his first summer as an advisor for NCSY Camp Sports. Binyomin was an avid NCSYer in NCSY Southern region for all four years of high school, including being his region’s Vice President his senior year. After a two year hiatus from NCSY to learn in Yeshivat Sha’alvim in Israel, Binyomin is eager to come back to NCSY with his unique outgoing personality while majoring in psychology in Yeshiva University.

The NCSYers in Binyomin’s Chaburah are Sean Regenbaum (Atlanta, GA), Leib Wiener (Memphis, TN) and Adam Bressler (Rochester, NY).

Binyomin has focused so far on how we all can achieve greatness through the talents Hashem has given us. Binyomin believes that through the lenses of the Piaseczna’s Rebbe in his Sefer Chovas HaTalmidim, one can really connect to his Avodas Hashem. The Rebbe’s writing is such a masterpiece because he writes it in a unique way which allows each person to feel like the Sefer was written directly towards him. This helps enhance the student to tap into his strengths to better his Avodah.

Many teens in our generation have a difficult time connecting to Hashem and his Torah because the effect of western society upon us. Many Mussar classics tell a person what a person should do in life to serve Hashem wholeheartedly, but this Sefer tells us HOW to do so while relating to the person and the type of environment he lives in.

Our second Shabbos in camp was another great one. After our first full week of intense leagues and fun trips, everyone got some much needed rest on Shabbos. Rabbi Granofsky, Rosh Yeshiva of Ohr David in Jerusalem, was with for Shabbos, along with Camp Sports alumnus Jeremy Lavitt. They both gave meaningful speeches to the NCSYers over the course of Shabbos. There were Rita’s ices in the afternoon for anyone who learned a little, and Rabbi Cooper led an inspiring ebbing to end off Shabbos.

After Shabbos, we had open sports for two hours on the fields. Yet another rugby game was played, as we continue to integrate rugby into camp, as well as pickup basketball, football, and ultimate. Afterwards, we had a pizza Melaveh Malka to go along with our first ever video competition. The NCSYers were given time to make a video/commercial showing the power of the Shofar on Rosh Hashanah. The top 3 groups were entered into a raffle for dugout seats at the Baltimore Orioles game, and the winning group won a free meal at Dougie’s. All of the videos were hilarious, but the judges voted Yaakov Abramowitz’s group, consisting of Yehuda Alter and Eyal Abadi, as the best. What a way to close out yet another amazing week at Camp Sports!

If you ask a Camp Sports Alumnus about his most memorable trip at Camp, odds are that the trip to Hagerstown was mentioned. This year the trip was even more epic, with an additional new activity before the annual minor league baseball game.

The new activity was the Boonsboro Family Recreation Center. This complex was packed with cool activities. NCSYers tested their driving skills on one (or both) of the two go-cart tracks. There were also batting cages (for those of us who are slumping during league games). For those who prefer hitting the ball while it isn’t moving, there was a golf driving range. NCSYers and staff worked tirelessly to try and hit the car which was setup as a target. There were also two mini-golf courses, a basketball court, a volleyball court and a horseshoe throwing thing. We finished off at the complex in classic Camp Sports fashion, with a delicious barbecue dinner.

After we ate, we boarded the buses for Municipal Stadium, one of the five oldest baseball stadiums in America. There, we made some noise for our adopted Camp team, the Hagerstown Suns. We came prepared with signs, banners and rally towels. We also adopted a player, Brandon Miller. We were on our feet for “Miller Time”, and went crazy when he made a catch in the outfield.

Rabbi Green kicked off the game with a ceremonial first pitch (a little low and outside). The Suns rallied behind our support to win 3-0.   All of the fans, players, and stadium staff were very appreciative of the fun atmosphere that we brought into the game. After the game we enjoyed a patriotic fireworks display, and headed back to camp. The play of the game was undoubtedly our very own Samy Hecker, in an orange body suit, winning the diaper changing competition (only in minor league baseball) against Elimelech Fried, and as a prize he received  a free meal at a non-kosher steak house.

On Thursday we finally got some nice weather, and we played two intense games of sports. As the season hits its second week, the Laminators (captained by Elimelech Fried) are sitting in first place with a 7-1 record. In the evening we had Mishmar learning, capped off by a fun raffle, and some delicious cholent.