Saturday, 30 June 2012

Shabbat: Blank Canvas


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. 

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