Tisha B’av on the Agam (waterfront)

On Tish B’av at Machaneh Ramah we do not swim. However, each edah still has its perek (time slot) at the agam (waterfront). We are blessed to have an extremely creative and flexible tzevet agam, and today they came up with alternate programming that took place on the beach section of the agam. There were three choices of activities that there chanichim could choose from. The first was they could make a bracelet that said in Hebrew “Lashon Hara Lo Midaber Ali- please do not speak to me about things that would be hurtful to others.” The idea behind these bracelets with this important phrase is that we are taught that the main reason that the Holy Temple in Jerusalem was destroyed was because of people behaving unkindly to each other, The second choice was the chanichim could “rebuild” the temple out of sand or stones. The third activity was a large map of Israel that was drawn in the sand and the chanichim had to try to identify the geographic locations of certain major cities in Israel on the blank map. The day was meaningful in every aspect and it was special to see how every tzevet in their own way contributed the making the day a significant experience for all of our chanichim.