Shabbat at Solelim

We had a great weekend visiting with our son at  Camp Solelim in Sudbury - yes, you read it right, there is a Jewish camp in Sudbury!  I have so much to write about the weekend that you'll be hearing about it for a couple of posts.  This is our 4th Visitor's Weekend and we have at least two more to go as youngest daughter will be there next summer and the summer after. Oldest daughter may end up being staff there - do you see the pattern?  This was actually my 11th Visitor's day weekend and I have to say - I love it!  It brings back so many fond memories of my summers spent at Solelim as a camper and a counsellor.

My son teaching me some
new moves.

These pictures and the layout I'm working on (but I'm too tired to finish) are a little taste of Friday night traditions.
I remember it like it was yesterday. Cleaning up the camp site, cleaning our tents, showering, dressing up, taking pictures with friends, services on the beach or the rock, chicken soup, roast chicken, challah, shira (singing) and rikud (dancing).  Things have changed so little - the camp site is a lot prettier, the songs and dances are a little different - but the ruach (spirit) is the same and that is what makes it so special. Fourteen and Fifteen year old teens engaged in the spirit of Shabbat (the Sabbath/day of rest), it is so hard to describe the feeling and the closeness - they will remember it and carry it with them forever.  I get so much joy out of watching my children continue the traditions.  The amazing thing about it is that so many of the people that I went to camp with and worked with, or were my counsellors, are there visiting their children too.
As my hubby would say - "It warm the cockles of my heart. And there's nothing like hot cockles!"

Leading Services

The Solelim Shabbat kind of day...