Friday, April 30, 2010

Parashat Emor - Shlichim and Shabbat


ג שֵׁשֶׁת יָמִים, תֵּעָשֶׂה מְלָאכָה, וּבַיּוֹם הַשְּׁבִיעִי שַׁבַּת שַׁבָּתוֹן מִקְרָא-קֹדֶשׁ, כָּל-מְלָאכָה לֹא תַעֲשׂוּ:  שַׁבָּת הִוא לַיהוָה, בְּכֹל מוֹשְׁבֹתֵיכֶם.
ויקרא כ"ג: ג

On six days work may be done, but on the seventh day there shall be a sabbath of complete rest, a sacred occasion.  You shall do no work; it shall be a sabbath of the Lord throughout your settlements.    
Leviticus 23:3

Completely drained from jet lag, I made my way down the stairs from my room to the hotel lobby at Kibbutz Shefaim on Israel's Mediterranean coast. The exhaustion dissipated immediately upon my entry into the reception area as I encountered a mass of hundreds of young, excited, energetic Israelis arriving to start the Jewish Agency for Israel's (JAFI) Summer Shlichim Training Program.  Just beneath the surface of all the anticipation, a nervousness permeated the lobby as participants tried to imagine how this week would feel, what they would leave with, and what challenges would lie ahead.

The summer shlichim training seminar is a five day marathon of lectures, activities, meetings, and dialogues all designed to start making individual Israelis into groups of shlichim, representatives, of the State of Israel.  From lectures on the nature of North American Jewry to positive confrontations with their own Jewish identities, participants are challenged to begin seriously considering who they are as Jews, as Israelis, and as shlichim. What Israel do they want to bring with them to North America and with what Israel do they want North Americans to connect?  As the week progresses, so does the process of strengthening the group. It is amazing to see them come together.

On Friday morning, the directors traveled to Nordia, a small community near Herzliya, named for Max Nordau, an early Zionist leader who was a proponent of "Muscular Judaism," focusing on the physical and corporeal in place of the intellectual and perceived physically weak Jew.  There, we met with several of our North American Staff members in Israel for the year as well as our veteran shlichim.  Together, we discussed the meaning of the year in Israel and its impact on them.  I learned about who felt closer to the land of Israel, the people of Israel, or the State of Israel.  The conversation was fascinating.  The opinions ran the gamut of each position and each staff member was passionate about their position while respecting everyone else's position as well.

The best, and most intense part of the Seminar, however, is Shabbat. Along with the Shabbatot of Hanhala Week, Staff week, and the first and the last Shabbatot of camp, this is one of my favorite Shabbatot of the year.  For six days, I travelled, sat in intense conversations, met individually with new shlichim and veterans, got up very early and went to bed very, very late.  Now, Shabbat was arriving, "a complete rest, a sacred occasion..."

The verse in Leviticus instructs us that we are to do no work on Shabbat, that the day is to be one of complete rest.  Our Sages of Blessed Memory interpreted the prohibition against doing work to be a reference to the 39 forms of labor required in the construction of the Portable Tabernacle and not to all kinds of effort.  As a result, the fact that this was a "working Shabbat" for me was perfectly fine.  No laws of Shabbat were violated in the observance of this working seminar...

The Shabbaton is designed to give Israelis a taste of what Shabbat at camp is all about. For the more religious among the group, Friday night tefillot can be very confusing.  On the one hand, the niggunim (tunes) that we use are very familiar.  The seating, however is not.  For many, this is the first time they will attend a mixed seating service.  There is a disconnect between the familiarity of the tunes and the foreignness of the seating.  This dissonance is only reinforced on Shabbat morning, when women actively participate in tefillot.  

For the more secular among the shlichim, the entire Shabbat experience can be overwhelming.  For many, this is the first time that they are attending Kabbalat Shabbat.  The language is somewhat familiar - it is Hebrew after all, albeit Biblical Hebrew - but everything else is foreign.  If that is not enough, Shabbat can really be viewed as: Pray, eat, meet, sleep.  Wake up, pray, eat, meet.  Then: eat, meet, pray again.  Followed by:  meet, eat, pray yet again and then say havdalah.  Often on Friday night, some shlichim leave tefillot overwhelmed, teary-eyed, wondering whether or not Ramah is the right place for them.  It is at those times that the director gets to be involved in some of the most meaningful conversations of the year.  What does it mean to acknowledge a spiritual side?  How can a rich, textual, powerful inheritance that is, in so many ways, perceived to be off limits to all but the most religious, belong to "secular" Jews as well?  How can a shaliach be a role model for North American campers when this is all so foreign to them? As a director, I cherish these conversations because they can have incredible impact on the person and it is our form of dual shlichut: we give Israelis who feel disenfranchised the opportunity to start taking back their heritage.  And for those who feel that the inheritance IS their own, this is an opportunity for the director to begin opening up the world of different approaches to Judaism.

The last time I attended the Seminar, as the director of Camp Ramah Darom, I heard from my Rosh Mishlachat that one of the shlichot left services crying and that she had lots of concerns about whether or not she should come to camp.  She was reluctant to discuss the subject with me and I waited all of Shabbat for her to approach me.  Finally, after Shabbat, the shlicha came to see me and told me the following:

When she left Kabbalat Shabbat at the mid-point of the service, she went to her room and cried.  She called her father, a very secular Israeli, and explained what had happened, her feeling overwhelmed and frightened, and her sense that this was not the right place for her.  At that point, her father apologized to her!  You might think that he was apologizing for encouraging her to be a shlicha; rather, he was apologizing for his own choices.  He grew up very, very religious and due to a crisis at age 17, he completely cut himself off from being religious.  He apologized to her for "denying her the right to choose!"  He never exposed her to what could be positive in our tradition and he was apologizing.  

The shlicha came to camp and Ramah opened up an entire world of spirituality, depth, and soulful nourishment that had not been part of her life prior to that summer.  Here, in living color, was the power of Ramah impacting emerging adults in Israel just as it does in North America.  While there were no such crisis with the shlichim for Camp Ramah in Wisconsin at this seminar, there were very intense conversations that will continue throughout the summer.  

In our parashah, we are taught that we are to observe Shabbat בְּכֹל מוֹשְׁבֹתֵיכֶם , "in all the places where you dwell."  Our dwelling places, be they in Israel or America, in Columbus or Conover, can and are powerful places for building Shabbat community, for enjoying complete rest, for reconnecting with people and with God.  It is one of the most beautiful gifts bequeathed to us by Our Torah, by God.  And it is one of the most powerful experiences that summers at Ramah can provide to each one of us, both in camp and during the year.  I hope that as we enter this Shabbat, that the depth of conversations and connecting that I experienced at Kibbutz Shefaim, will resonate at all of tables, and at all the places in which we now dwell.

Our new shlichim and our veteran shlichim, as well as all of our North American students in Israel for the year and those who have made Aliyah in recent years, are eagerly anticipating their arrival to camp, to Ramah Shabbatot, and to learning and growing with our campers and staff members.  It was a privilege to be able to spend time with them.  They are a great group and we can look forward to fantastic staff members with intense Israel experiences this summer.  To meet our new shlichim, make sure to check into our blog regularly and watch the introductory videos.  And then come to camp and introduce yourselves by name to those whose names and faces you already know. 

Shabbat Shalom.

Thursday, April 15, 2010

Miriam Did Not Have E-Mail: Tazriah-Metzorah


Miriam Did Not Have E-Mail

   ה' הַצִּילָה נַפְשִׁי מִשְּׂפַת-שֶׁקֶר מִלָּשׁוֹן רְמִיָּה.  מַה-יִּתֵּן לְךָ וּמַה-יֹּסִיף לָךְ לָשׁוֹן רְמִיָּה. חִצֵּי גִבּוֹר שְׁנוּנִים    עִם גַּחֲלֵי רְתָמִים 

O Lord, save me from treacherous lips, from deceitful tongue!  What can you profit, what can you gain, O deceitful tongue?  A warrior's sharp arrow, with hot coals of broom-wood.
Psalm 120:2 - 4



Miriam did not have e-mail...or facebook, or twitter, or internet, or a cell phone for that matter.  She had her voice and her judgement and a broad desert to traverse.  She had family and community.  She lived in a world before electronic communication, where information spread by word of mouth, being passed from one person to the next.  It was a slow process but even in the pre-snail mail world, where it took a long time for information to be passed from person to person, it was passed nonetheless. 

Miriam loved her brother and when he was much younger, she helped save him.  But siblings have disagreements and fights.  Feelings are hurt and things are said that will be regretted later.  Miriam is frustrated with her brother, or disappointed, or confused by his choices, and speaks ill of him to Aaron.   And word gets back to God...As a result, Miriam has to spend time outside the camp, outside the community.  This is her consequence.  

As I wrote earlier this year, the Rabbis make a direct connection between the skin disease of Metzorah and being Motzi Shem Ra - speaking ill of another person.  Miriam speaks ill of her brother to another person. She develops this skin disease, this impurity, that requires that she dwell outside the community.  Actions have consequences.  Hurting others has consequences.

. חצי גבור שנונים עם גחלי רתמים כל כלי זיין מכין במקומן וזה מכה מרחוץ

"A warrior's sharp arrows with hot coals of broom-wood..." (Ps. 120:4). Why does the text liken the evil tongue to an arrow rather than to any other weapon? Because all other weapons strike at close quarters, while the arrow strikes from afar. Likewise the evil tongue--something said in Rome can kill in Syria.  
Talmud Yerushalmi Peah 1:1

Imagine, in Miriam's world, how long it must have taken for word to spread, either of what she had said or the resulting Metzorah.  In the ancient world, among so many people spread out in the desert, it must have taken quite a while for her words or their consequences to gain momentum, to pass from wanderer to wanderer, from tent to tent.

We don't have that luxury.  Just as we are taught in the Talmud Yerushalmi about Rome and Syria, today something said in Galena can do damage in Los Angeles in a little over a nanosecond as it is recorded on someone's cell phone and immediately sent via text message to hundreds of people.  Lashon Harah is viral.  Once you type the angry words about another person into your Facebook status and hit "post," there is no taking it back.  If you have 1,000 friends, it appears in their news feed, and then the people they are friends with, but that don't know the subject, see it as well.  It spreads and causes hurt.  

When a ridiculous YouTube video about cats or dogs is viewed by over 25,000,000 people, it means that there is laughter all over the world.  But when one child posts a video that embarrasses a peer on YouTube and it spreads all over the world, then hurt comes to the subject from anonymous people from the four corners of the world for "the evil tongue is likened to an arrow...Because all other weapons strike at close quarters, while the arrow strikes from afar.

Camp is around the corner.  A summer of fun, friends, meaning, and learning is almost here.  As we get closer, children post their excitement about camp.  They count down the days.  And then bunk assignments will arrive and then word about who has which counselor will follow. Now is a good time to remind our campers that facebook, e-mail, etc can be a great way to express their anticipation of the summer.  And it can be a weapon, a long distance tool for bullying, if someone they don't like is in the cabin or if they heard some rumor about a person. 

When I was a camper, you took pictures in the summer and after camp, you had the film developed and you got 3 x 5 prints.  And if you were lucky, you got duplicate copies of each picture and could share one with a friend.  It took time and patience, and your parents usually had to pick them up for you so they would see the pictures.  Today - their is no waiting.  Take a picture on your cell phone or your digital camera, upload it, and broadcast it to your friends, and then they make comments.  The absence of cell coverage does delay the sending of digital pictures until after the summer but it does not limit the distance to which embarrassment can be spread.  Now is a great time to remind our children about the power of images (For a powerful and difficult TED talk about images, watch Jonathan Klein at http://www.ted.com/talks/jonathan_klein_photos_that_changed_the_world.html), and the judgement required in posting images to social networking sites after the summer.

In a world of anonymous blogging, vicious facebook posts, and nasty tweets, our campers and children need us more than ever to teach them the power of words, of images, of posting, and of commenting. Now, more than ever, our children and campers need us to teach them about both the Miriam who dances with her timbrels at The Sea, leading positively and joyously AND the Miram who speaks ill of her brother, who uses the evil tongue, and has to spend time outside the community, outside the camp,  as a result of her lapse in judgement.  Now is the time for all of us to introduce our children to the principle of our Sages, "Life and Death rest in the hand of the Tongue..."  Thank you in advance for partnering with us in making sure that social networking and electronic communication are not sources of pain, bullying and tormenting but are sources of anticipation and excitement.

Shabbat Shalom.