Last evening, as the sun was setting, we lit the Shabbat
candles, blessed our wine and bread, and welcomed in our first Shabbat as a
staff group here at Camp Solelim.
At Solelim we have non-stop, hectic, work-filled weeks,
constantly being pushed to our limits physically and mentally. When Shabbat
comes, we gain complete understanding in the importance of it being a day of
rest. As a chevra we collectively turn off, tune in, and drop out of our week
day routines.
We are here for a short amount of time in our lives. Two
years as campers. Six weeks, forty-two days, one thousand hours, three million
seconds. We manage to fill our days from start to finish with endless
activities. Time flies and we often forget to take a step back and realize that
we are here.
Shabbat gives you that time to reflect on the state of
your existence. It’s a time to calm down
and ease you throughout the summer, a day of zero stress, it puts it all
into perspective.
Last night as a staff chevra we sat outside Beit Herzl,
facing the waterfront and letting our voices carry together as we had our
Shabbat service. It was our blank canvas Shabbat. We as staff know hat we have
an entire summer ahead of us, filled with unforgettable moments of mixed
emotions.
“Right now the summer of 2012 is a blank canvas. There is
nothing on it. The potential is immense, and in order to reach that potential
it rests on our outlook.”
-
Jonathan Rosenbluth, Head of Shabbat
We may have been apart for a year; the songs and dances
having been shoved into the back of our minds, placed in that file that we open
once each year, but we all easily fell back into the groove and had an
incredible Shabbat.
