Appreciating the natural miracles in God’s world

All of HAFTR High School was asked to gather on the front lawn on Feb. 24, and the voice of Associate Principal Dr. Josh Wyner rang out over speakers. Everyone gazed upwards to see him standing on the top of the building, and a banner with the words Color War dropped from the roof.

The theme of this year’s Color War, which was held on Rosh Chodesh Adar, the beginning of the Hebrew month of Adar, was God’s involvement in the physical world. The blue team, Team Teva, teva meaning nature, represented the miracles that are masked or hidden in nature and not as apparent to us in our everyday lives. The red team, Team Nes, nes meaning miracles, represented overt, open miracles that defied nature.

As individuals and as a nation, we need to find inspirational moments and recognize the times in our history where we saw the open hand of God through miracles. It is also necessary for us to acknowledge and appreciate God’s presence in nature, and the everyday things that we take for granted. The goal of this Color War competition was to merge these two different aspects of God and appreciate the nes in teva together — the miracles in nature.

The next day, HAFTR High students and buildings were sporting blue and red “apparel,” in the spirit of color war. Students competed against their classmates in events such as gaga, musical chairs, relay races, basketball, Torah Bowl, and a Brachot Bee. In the afternoon, students volunteered to compete in the “Minute to Win It” event, while their teams watched and cheered them on. In this competition, students performed unusual and tricky tasks in under a minute, with the first team to finish winning.

On the last day of Color War, teams competed in football, soccer, knee hockey, human anagrams, dodge ball, and HAFTRopoly, a trivia competition with auditory and visual challenges. Students also competed in Cake Wars. Each team was challenged to thoughtfully decorate two sheet cakes to reflect their team’s theme. The last activity before the grand finale was the Amazing Race, where teams complete a list of tasks and games all around school. This fun competition allowed for a large number of participants that could contribute to the outcome of the race.

Then it was time for the most awaited competitions in the grand finale event. Each team presented both the alma mater and Hebrew theme songs that they had been preparing. The songs were heartfelt and related to the students’ experiences at HAFTR High School as well as their team’s theme. As each team sang, they displayed the immense achdut — unity — of all the HAFTR High students. The teams also presented their banners, boys’ dances, cakes from Cake Wars, STEM projects and trailer videos, all of which reflected the tremendous effort and creativity that students put into this year’s Color War.

The judges had extremely difficult decisions to make, as all of the final presentations were spectacular. Nevertheless, Blue Team Teva came out victorious. Overall, Color War 2020 was a huge success with tons of fun and allowed for students to hone in on their individual talents to uniquely contribute to their team.