VaYakhel - Bringing us Together - The Torah and Jewish Camp

I am amazed by how often the weekly Torah portion - the פרשת השבוע - coincides so perfectly with issues and events arising during the week preceding its reading (what we refer to in Aramaic as ענייני דיומא - current events or topics of the day).  While there are weeks where we clearly stretch to make such connections, there are more weeks where it is beyond just coincidence that there is a correlation between what is going on in the world and what is going on in the parashat hashavua.  This week falls into the latter category.  Let me explain.

This week, we read parashat VaYakhel whose opening verse teaches us:

וַיַּקְהֵל מֹשֶׁה, אֶת-כָּל-עֲדַת בְּנֵי יִשְׂרָאֵל--וַיֹּאמֶר אֲלֵהֶם

Moses then convened the whole Israelite community and said to them:

Exodus 35: 1

The majority of the parashah deals with Moses telling the Israelites what needs to be included in the building of the Mishkan, the portable Tabernacle, as instructed by God.  This is followed by the Torah recording that the Israelites carried out Moses directions in exacting fashion. In between the first verse of VaYakhel and the people carrying out Moses’  instructions, however, are three important directions about how the work is to be done:

1.  The Israelites are told that they can work on the project for six days a week but must have complete rest - Shabbat - on the seventh day. Exodus 35: 2 - 3

2.  To the extent that their hearts are moved to contribute, our ancestors are instructed that everyone should bring gifts for the construction of the Mishkan. Exodus 35: 4 - 9

3.  Skilled artisans and craftspeople are directed to come forward and  build the Mishkan. Exodus 35:10 - ff

In other words, before the instructions for what is to be done can be told to the people, they need a set of core principles and work rules:  You have to take a break, you have to imitate God and rest and recharge on Shabbat; everyone has a portion in the project, in this case the building of God’s dwelling place in this world, and as such, everyone needs to  contribute materials for the project to the level that they are able and at the level they are moved to give; and finally, people with special skills have an added  responsibility to actualize the vision, to make it happen.  Once these principles are made explicit, the Torah returns to the telling of the actual construction of the Mishkan.

This past week, I had the privilege of attending a הקהל - a convening - for the entire world of Jewish camping, The Foundation for Jewish Camp’s (FJC)  2012 Leaders Assembly.  The largest gathering in the history of the field, over 650 professional and lay leaders, funders and friends of not-for-profit Jewish overnight camping met in New Brunswick, New Jersey to celebrate our field and to dream about where we might go in the future.  From a small start up organization started by FJC founders Rob Bildner and Elisa Spungen Bildner and led by Rabbi Ramie Arian to a mature thirteen year-old organization led until recently by one of my mentors,  Jerry Silverman, now President and CEO of The Jewish Federations of North America, honoring its most recent President, the exceptional and visionary Dr. Skip Vichness, FJC has helped put Jewish overnight camping on the agenda of the broader Jewish community.  As a result, the Jewish world now knows and recognizes what those of us in the field have known for decades:  

• The more summers spent at high impact Jewish overnight camp is one of, if not the best guarantors of continued involvement in and lifelong commitment to Jewish community, Jewish living, and Jewish learning.  

• Jewish camp is a key investment in the future of North American Jewry and merits significant financial support from the Jewish world to make it possible for every Jewish child to attend camp, regardless of their family’s ability to pay.

• New programmatic initiatives at individual camps and camping movements are worthy investments because they work and can often be replicable in other Jewish educational settings.

• Graduates of Jewish overnight camp are disproportionately represented at every level of  professional and lay leadership in the organized Jewish community.

• Graduates of Jewish overnight camp are among the most innovative and creative contributors to new initiatives in the Jewish community.

In other words, Jewish overnight camp works.

Of the many takeaways from Leaders Assembly 2012, a few stand above the rest. First, Jewish camp must be built around and embody Torah, broadly defined and in all of its forms.  Just as Torah stands at the center of the Mishkan, the portable Tabernacle in the Beit HaMikdash, The Temple in Jerusalem, Torah must be at the heart of the Jewish camping experience.  For Jewish camp to have the type of impact it can have on individuals now and on Jewish  Peoplehood in the future, experiencing fun, meaningful Jewish living and learning must be at the center of the experience. Shabbat is one of the best examples of how this happens in every Jewish camp.  We each observe Shabbat differently but that observance dictates the rhythm of life at camp, enhances the nature of friendships and connections within the camp community and brings us closer to The Divine.

Second, increasing the number of Jewish camps, supporting new programs at existing camps, and increasing the number of scholarships and incentive grants that make it possible for every child to attend a Jewish overnight camp should be an obligation of the entire North American Jewish community.  Each community should contribute to the level it is moved to contribute.  Given the high return on the investment communities receive from Jewish camp in the form of energized, knowledgeable, committed Jewish children and adults, however, it is reasonable to expect that all communities will be inspired to contribute at the highest possible levels.  It must be understood today that Jewish camp is not a luxury for the few or a scholarship gift to those in need; rather, it is a required experience for and investment in the future of North American Jewry.  Every Jewish child merits such an  investment.

Finally, the field of Jewish camp requires outstanding, visionary professionals to design and build our camp communities anew every summer just as skilled artisans were required to design and build the Mishkan.  FJC investments in professional development programs like ELI: the Executive Leadership Institute for senior camp directors and Yitro for assistant directors are advancing the profession of camp director by exposing senior professionals to best practices in everything from customer satisfaction to development and implementation  of institutional vision.  Returning from New Brunswick, I am invigorated by the conversations I had with fellow directors and by their visions not only of individual camps but of the Jewish future as well.  Moreover, I am inspired by the  many emerging adults involved in the most innovative, transformational, new projects in the Jewish world, all of whom grew up in and are still deeply involved with the Jewish overnight camp they attended.

As the field continues to grow, as Jewish camp becomes more and more central to insuring the vibrancy of the Jewish future in North America, a few challenges remain.  To secure the future impact of Jewish camp on the broadest possible audience,  I believe we must  focus our attention on the following:

Make Jewish overnight camp affordable for families who are already investing in their children’s Jewish education by sending them to Jewish Day School.  Jewish overnight camp is as important for students of Jewish Day Schools as it is for every other Jewish child.  It is at Jewish camp where Day School students get to make Judaism their own just as it is for their peers who attend supplementary Jewish educational programs.  The financial investment these families make is substantial, often exceeding $60,000 to $80,000 or more annually for a family of three children.  Such families should not be penalized for making this investment; rather, they should be equally if not more supported and incentivized.

Celebrate brand diversity within the field of Jewish overnight camp.  Every camping movement is different and every Jewish camp is different.  We have different goals and intended outcomes.  We meet different needs.  In a Jewish world committed to pluralism, we need to celebrate difference rather than attempt to homogenize it away.  Every camp is not going to be right for every child or family and every camp does not seek to accomplish the same things.   I hope celebration of brand diversity becomes a core value for the entire field of Jewish camping, from our individual camps and movements to individual funders and foundations to our central voice in the Jewish community.  

invest in those camps that serve as the research and development (R & D) camps for the entire field. Certain camps throughout North America unofficially serve as  R & D laboratories for the rest of the field.  Camp directors share generously programs and approaches developed at our camps and benefit from those developed at other camps.  Financial support from beyond individual camp boards is as required for the research and development function in camp as it is for the adoption and replication of such programs at other camps.  We need increased support for this crucial aspect of our work, research and development, to insure long-term vibrancy not only for Jewish camping but for other Jewish educational settings as well.

Thank you to the FJC for a great Leaders Assembly 2012, for helping put Jewish overnight camp on the agenda of the entire Jewish world, for helping make it possible for all of us to “Reach Beyond the Bunk” and touch an ever increasing number of Jewish souls, and to the CEO of the Foundation for Jewish Camp, Jeremy Fingerman, who was the counselor-in-training for my cabin during my first summer as a camper at Camp Ramah in Wisconsin in 1977 for being among those who helped me make it through that first summer, and for his leadership today.

Shabbat Shalom.

כל דבר מזכיר לי - “Every Thing Reminds Me...” Thoughts on Parashat Tetzaveh - Shabbat Zachor

Annually, one of my last  stops in Israel is at the duty-free music store in Ben Gurion Airport.  I like to pick up a new recording of Israeli or Jewish music or at least listen to the new options they are playing for other shoppers.  This time, my mission was to buy the first season of “S’rugim” which translates as “Crocheted” and is a reference to young religious Israelis and their daily life experiences.  The salesman helped me find what I was looking for and started suggesting additional options. He clearly had me sized up and pegged to my age cohort and brought me new and classic recordings of Shlomo Artzi, Shalom Chanoch, Sarit Haddad and Arik Einstein.  He paused, looked at me again and said, “I bet you would love this new recording from Yehuda Poliker.”  How did this guy know?  Was it the bit of gray showing up in my hair?  

The fact is, I love the music of Yehuda Poliker.  I first heard it in 1990-1991 when I studied in Israel during my rabbinical school year.  Poliker’s music was a soothing balm during the stresses of the first Gulf War.  They served as  the uplifting tones that energized me while working with recently arrived members of the second aliyah from Ethiopia.  The only rock concert I ever attended in my life was Yehuda Poliker live at the Roman Amphitheater on Mt. Scopus at the Hebrew University of Jerusalem.  Poliker’s music is haunting, inspiring, energizing.  Drawing on his family roots from Saloniki, Greece, Poliker weaves together rhythms and tones, as well as lyrics, from Greece, the Mediterranean and the Middle East.  His music touches my soul in a very deep way.

The salesman brought over the new recording.  Titled כל דבר מזכיר לי, “Every Thing Reminds Me...” the CD is a combination of love songs and life songs.  On almost all of Poliker’s recordings, at least one title is sung in Greek.  This new CD begins with the title song in Greek and ends with the same song translated into Hebrew.  כל דבר מזכיר לי is a powerful, sad song of longing.  In everything - every moment, every image, every place -  the singer sees and feels and longs for a lover who is no longer.  It is not clear if the lover is dead or just gone but she is definitely no longer there.  The power of זכרון, of memory, is so intense you can feel and hear it in the singer’s voice.  What is not clear is whether or not the strength of memory is holding the singer back from moving forward with his life or if there is just an intense sadness as he navigates the tasks of daily living.  When is memory a blessing and when is it a curse?

Memory is at the heart of this Shabbat, the Shabbat before Purim.  On Shabbat Zakhor, the Shabbat of Remembrance, the maftir aliyah is read from a second Torah scroll and is taken from Deuteronomy 25:17-19:

זָכוֹר אֵת אֲשֶׁר-עָשָׂה לְךָ עֲמָלֵק בַּדֶּרֶךְ בְּצֵאתְכֶם מִמִּצְרָיִם.  אֲשֶׁר קָרְךָ בַּדֶּרֶךְ וַיְזַנֵּב בְּךָ כָּל-הַנֶּחֱשָׁלִים אַחֲרֶיך -וְאַתָּה, עָיֵף וְיָגֵעַ וְלֹא יָרֵא, אֱלֹקים. וְהָיָה בְּהָנִיחַ היְ אֱלֹקֶיךָ לְךָ מִכָּל-אֹיְבֶיךָ מִסָּבִיב בָּאָרֶץ אֲשֶׁר הי-אֱלֹקֶיךָ נֹתֵן לְךָ נַחֲלָה לְרִשְׁתָּהּ--תִּמְחֶה אֶת-זֵכֶר עֲמָלֵק מִתַּחַת הַשָּׁמָיִם לֹא, תִּשְׁכָּח

Remember What Amalek did to you on your journey, after you left Egypt.  How, undeterred by fear of God, he surprised you on the march, when you were famished and weary, and cut down all the stragglers in your rear.  Therefore, when the Lord your God grants you safety from all your enemies around you, in the land that the Lord your God is giving you as a hereditary portion, you shall blot out the memory of Amalek from under Heaven.  Do not forget!

As we prepare to remember and blot out Haman and Zeresh, and to remember joyously our ancestors Esther and Mordechai, the special reading for Shabbat Zachor with its admonition to blot out the memory of our historical enemy, Amalek, serves as the context-setter for Haman as Amalek’s midrashic descendant.  I find the language of this reading confusing.  After all, the Torah commands us to “Remember” what Amalek did to our ancestors while simultaneously commanding us to erase or “blot out” the memory of Amalek from under Heaven.  Is it possible to remember and blot out at the same time?  If so, how? Finally, what role does the phrase ”...when the Lord your God grants you safety from all your enemies around you...” play in explaining the apparent contradiction between commanding memory and commanding the blotting out of memory?

One possible explanation is that until such time as the Jewish People lives in complete safety from all enemies in all places, when ultimate Peace is granted from the Heavens, that we are obligated to remember that there are ongoing threats to our existence.  Perhaps by being cognizant of these threats, we will work harder to create conditions favorable to achieving the Messianic Era and the World Peace that comes with it.  At that time, we will blot out the memory of hatred for it will be irrelevant for all eternity.  According to this explanation, memory serves as a motivator not to achieve the negative of slaughter but to bring about the positive condition of Peace in the world.  The retaining of the memory of a national homeland in The Promised Land ultimately led to the positive outcome of the establishment of the modern State of Israel.  Remembering Gilad Shalit while in captivity provided the energy and motivation to achieve his release even at the highest of prices.  Memory of this sort can link people together across cities and countries and ideologies in order to reach achievements that might have seemed impossible otherwise.

If the above explanation provides me with an understanding of the positive power of memory, however, I am still left with the question of its negative consequences.  Memory preserving hatred leads to ethnic cleansing, to vengeance on the individual and national level.  Memory in the form of longing for that which is lost and never to return, be it love or a loved one, can paralyze a person, preventing them from moving forward into a new and more positive phase of life, to finding love anew, to find new motivation for purpose in life.  Finally, the power of Memory can prevent innovation and change.  “We have always done it this way”, if more than just a sweet recalling of prior experience, serves to block change when it is demanded because the world changes or required because certain conditions change.  When memory serves to stagnate and stifle, it leads to whithering and extinction.

Salo Baron z”l, the dean of modern Jewish historians, argued against what he referred to as the “lachrymose conception of Jewish history,” a scholarly viewpoint that he believed was mistaken as it looked only at the various periods of persecution of the Jewish people while ignoring any and all positive periods or events in Jewish life, thought and culture.  For Baron and his disciples, remembrance of Jewish history must be far more than the book “Every Day Remembrance Day,” a work that lists all of the tragedies that befell Jews on each and every day of the year.  Jewish memory has to include positive achievements in economics, in theology, in art, in science, etc throughout history.  On this Shabbat, as we remember what Amalek did to us, as we keep fresh in our mind what the modern descendants of Amalek, in all of their forms, attempt to do to the Jewish People and to the world, I also encourage each of us to remember and be motivated by our positive history and memories, by positive achievements and accomplishments, and that these memories help us to discover new inner strengths to change the world and ourselves in positive ways.

As I prepare for Shabbat, the music of Yehuda Poliker plays from my iPhone and yes,        כל דבר מזכיר לד “Everything reminds me.”  The sounds and the smells, the tastes and the tasks of getting ready for Shabbat remind me of what I love about Shabbat.  They remind me of sweet Shabbatot in the past.  And they stir thoughts about the sweet Shabbatot to come - those in Chicago, those on Lake Buckatabon, and those in our Jewish national homeland, Israel.

Shabbat Shalom.

Mishpatim: Jewish Inclusion Awareness Month

Each year I travel to Israel for staff interviews, I am amazed by the quality of people I meet -  their interests, skills, passions, and commitments.  This is true of the veteran staff members in Israel for gap year programs, junior year abroad programs, and post-graduate studies.  Regardless of whether or not they end up coming to work at camp, every conversation is interesting and covers a wide-range of topics.  This year, I was particularly struck by the number of Israeli candidates I met who were working in their spare time with children or adults with special needs.  Here are two of their stories:

Tamar is a Yerushalmi - she grew up in Jerusalem - and came to the interview with a typical Jerusalemite background.  She attended an open, Orthodox, highly-thought-of-high school for girls (one that many of our staff members attended over the years).  She was very involved in a youth group not only as a participant but as counselor.  She now serves in the IAF, the Israeli Air Force, where she is an officer.  She has tremendous responsibilities.  Yet, somehow in her very spare free time, she volunteers to work with children with autism.  She could take all of the free time she gets just for herself.  Instead, she volunteers and works with children and not just any children but those on the median of the autism spectrum.  These children may not speak, may have other challenges that accompany their diagnosis, not to mention that many come from challenging homes.  Why does Tamar do it? Because she feels an obligation to give back, because she wants to contribute, and because she believes it is the right thing to do.  And, as is so often the case, Tamar feels that she gets back much more than she gives.

Meirav has been out of the army for a few years now.  She lives in Rishon LeTzion, comes from a mizrahi background and while not “religious” is committed to masoret - tradition.  After her army service, Meirav went back to Rishon LeTzion and was bothered by the state of education in her community.  She noticed that there were many kids who were no longer in school.  They had either been cast out or had chosen not to attend.  Many of the children she met came from difficult homes where parents were either unequipped to take care of their children, were involved with drugs, abuse, etc.  Many children had special learning needs that the school system claimed they could not handle.  For the past three years, Meirav made it her job to help these children, to keep them in school and off the streets.  She believes that education is the key to changing society and is compelled to work at bringing about change.  In listening to Meirav, it became clear to me that she saw herself as the last line of defense of a child’s future, that she was called to do this work, and that she too was contributing back to society.

These are just two of the incredible stories I heard during my Israel trip.  There were countless others and, as I mentioned earlier, so many of the stories involved people volunteering their time with special needs populations, with individuals and groups that are often easily overlooked by general society.  

The obligation to be aware of and to include those in our community with special needs is echoed in this week’s parashah.  Among all the laws discussed in Parashat Mishpatim, we are taught the mitzvah of not taking advantage of the stranger, the widow and the orphan:

וְגֵר לֹא-תוֹנֶה, וְלֹא תִלְחָצֶנּוּ:  כִּי-גֵרִים הֱיִיתֶם, בְּאֶרֶץ מִצְרָיִם. כָּל-אַלְמָנָה וְיָתוֹם, לֹא תְעַנּוּן

And you will not wrong or oppress a stranger; for you were strangers in the land of Egypt.  You shall not wrong any widow or orphan.

Exodus 22:20-21

This mitzvah is one of the negative commandments - the “Thou Shalt Not’s” - of the Torah.  The midrashim on these verses, however, read an implicit positive obligation into the explicit negative commandment.  The Mechilta, a set of midrashei halakha on the Book of Exodus, Bamidbar Rabbah and the Pesikta Zuta all address the question of why God loves these three groups in such a special way.  By extension, since we are to strive to imitate God, we too should extend special care for and love of these three categories of people - the stranger, the widow and the orphan.  What unites these three kinds of people? Based on the language of the negative commandment, strangers, widows and orphans can easily be taken advantage of, be oppressed or be ignored.  You can imagine the conversation: “It is too expensive to care for these people, let someone else take care of them” or “We are really sorry but we are just not equipped to help” or “You are not welcome here.  Your child makes too many strange noises during services or during class.”

If the Torah’s call to not take advantage, to not oppress, to not ignore the stranger, the widow and the orphan resonates in today’s world, if the mitzvah of אהבת הגר, היתום והאלמנה - loving the stranger, the widow, and the orphan - as extrapolated from Exodus 22: 20-21 by the midrashim - is embodied by a population in our world not explicitly included in these three groups it is the community of children and adults with special needs.  February is Jewish Disability Awareness Month, also referred to as Jewish Inclusion Awareness Month.  During this month, we call special attention to the need for the Jewish world to do more to include members of our community with special needs, to make them feel at home, to make them feel welcome, to make them feel loved by people as they are loved by God.  Throughout the community, Jewish organizations are making extra efforts to educate their participants in how they can be more welcoming and helpful to those with special needs.  I ask you to look in your community to see what is being done in honor of Jewish Inclusion Awareness Month and to get involved.

For decades, the Ramah Camps have been a model of אהבה for the special needs community through our Tikvah programs.  Whether it is the Tikvah Program or the Atzmayim Independent Living Skills Program at Camp Ramah in Wisconsin or the Breirah program at Camp Ramah in the Berkshires; Camp Yofi: Family Camp for Jewish Families with Children with Autism at Ramah Darom or Camp Ohr Lanu at Camp Ramah in California, Ramah has been teaching thousands of typical campers and staff members the importance of inclusion for many years.  Moreover, thousands of Jewish special needs children have found a Jewish home at Ramah camps through these programs.  As each of the Tikvah programs is slightly different in population and approach, we now recruit nationally for the programs and work with families to find the right match for their child.  Ramah is constantly striving to improve our programs and skills to better serve and include Jewish children and young adults with special needs. To that end, Ramah started a national network of Tikvah staff members thereby increasing our capacity to learn about best practices nationally and in our camps for including Jews with special needs.  A number of years ago we initiated the Koach birthright Israel special needs trip. And, most important, we have created an atmosphere where everyone’s gifts are seen as Divine, as the reflection of God in this world.  As a result, many of our campers and staff members have learned about, become involved with, become passionate advocates for, have become professionals in the field,  and have been deeply touched by the Jewish special needs community.

Tamar and Meirav; Ralph Schwartz - the director of special needs programming at Camp Ramah in Wisconsin; Margaret Silverman, the chair of our Tikvah committee; and the countless staff members, Roshei Aidah or Division Heads, and Tikvah Chaverim or Friends are just a few examples of people who live the mitzvah of אהבה for Jews with special needs.  During Jewish Inclusion Awareness Month, I hope that we not only find other incredible role models but that each of us, in our own way, become more aware of the importance of inclusion and find ways to actively reach out to families and individuals with special needs children who might not be Jewishly involved now and welcome them into our loving, caring, Divine embrace.

Shabbat Shalom.

For more information on the Tikvah and Atzmayim programs at Camp Ramah in Wisconsin, please follow this link:

http://www.ramahwisconsin.com/site/epage/53780_697.htm

For more information, follow this link to the National Ramah Website on Special Needs Programs: http://www.campramah.org/content/specialneeds.php

Parashat Bo – Breakfast in Jerusalem

Walking up to Bagel Bite, a restaurant on the corner of Derekh Bet Lekhem and Yehudah Street, I noticed two things.  First, the restaurant was refurbished presumably for the first time since I ate there nearly twenty years ago.  Second, there were no tables available for inside seating.  The sun was still out and the wind not too intense so I thought to myself: “It’s much colder in Chicago than it is here.  What could be bad?” I chose one of the many empty tables and sat down to enjoy a breakfast of bagel, coffee and the Middle Eastern equivalent of the skillet breakfast known as shakshuka, two eggs cooked in a steaming skillet of tomato sauce, peppers, and onion.  Yochi, the waitress, brought me the newspaper to read while I enjoyed breakfast.  I sat, taking in the entire scene, breathing the Jerusalem air, and feeling at Peace.

Opening up the paper, I read an article about International Holocaust Rememberance Day.  I had not realized that the commemoration was today, January 27, set by the UN according to the date of the liberation of the death camp at Auschwitz – Birkenau.  After all, we commemorate the Holocaust on Yom HaShoah so I never paid much attention to the recently declared official UN remembrance. Nevertheless, here I sat at a corner café in Jerusalem, in the heart of the Jewish State, at a moment of an amazing confluence of events:  It was International Holocaust Remembrance Day, erev Shabbat of Parashat Bo, and I, a committed Jew, was sitting having shakshuka in Israel. 

In Parashat Bo, we read the continuing saga of a recalcitrant Pharoah refusing to free the Israelites from slavery.  We are taught the mitzvot of the Passover Sacrifice, the Korban Pesah, the prohibition against eating leavened bread, and learn the reason for eating Matzot.  At the climactic moment of the parashah, after the final plagues of darkness and death of the first born of the Egyptians, our ancestors are liberated from slavery, from the torture of Pharoah and his minions, from starvation, deprivation, physical abuse and death.  Adonai is the liberator who brings B’nai Israel to freedom with “a strong hand and an outstretched arm.”  The symmetry between this week’s Parashah, the beginning of the Exodus and freedom, and the liberation of the death camp at Auschwitz commemorated by the international community on this date is as inescapable as it is powerful.

Last night, I stood in the dining room at the Fuchsberg Center on Agron Street with a combination of shlichim, Israeli staff members, from the 2011 camp season, North Americans who have made Aliya, and camp staff members here for the year on Nativ - USY’s gap year program -  Kivvunim, another program, as well as those who are working in internships through the MASA program.  I listened to the North American’s stories of the first half of their year in Israel.  I learned about how the experience of being shlichim impacted the shaliach just as much as she or he impacted North Americans.  I heard about everything from studying for exams to relatively spontaneous trips to Rome to joint theater projects of Israeli Jews and Palestinians trying to create more positive dialogue between the two groups.  From updates to everyone about the 2012 camp season to news from the Chicago office, the discussions ranged from the mundane to the sacred, from the superficial to the most soulful.  At the time, I was unaware of the impending International Holocaust Remembrance Day.  I was just enjoying time with Israelis and Americans in Israel while being reinvigorated by the palpable if unarticulated Zionist energy in the room.

Putting it all together this morning over coffee, a bagel and shakshuka, however, I realized the much deeper power of the meeting the night before, of the parashat haShavua, of the international commemoration of the Holocaust, and of the location of my breakfast.  In exile in Egypt, one half of the promise to Abraham and Sarah was fulfilled: a mass of descendants almost impossible to count.  Yet, these descendants suffered horrible torture by Pharoah until they were redeemed, saved by God.  While they would not reach their desired destination for ages, they were on their way to receiving the second of the two promises to Abraham: a homeland.  While the Holocaust did not bring about the immediate establishment of the State of Israel (there is a modern scholarly and political argument about this position – some argue that the groundwork done by the early Zionist, by David Ben Gurion and others, would have come to fruition regardless and that the Holocaust actually made it more difficult while others argue that the shame of the Shoah on the international community accelerated the establishment of Israel and make a direct linkage between the two), many survivors emerged to freedom,  found a home with the yishuv and fought for the land promised to our ancestors.  Their actions led to the successful establishment of a national state for the Jewish People in our ancestral homeland.  And here I sat, a free Jew sipping coffee at a Jewishly owned coffee shop in the Jewish State, preparing for a week of work dedicated to hiring the best Americans and Israelis to inspire the next generation of Ramah campers to become committed, observant, knowledgeable Jews.

In the week to come, I will be sending blog updates of my trip, of my meetings, and of the exciting conversations I have throughout Israel.  As we leave the suffering of Egypt and as the international community remembers the Holocaust, let us all remember the beauty and power of our tradition, of our unique relationship with The Divine, of the beauty of Torah and Mitzvot, of Peoplehood and of God.  I pray that our knowledge, our values, and our way of living is a source of blessing and freedom for all of us.

Shabbat Shalom.

Parashat Shemot: Roses and Thorns

Roses and Thorns

Just as this bush produces both thorns and roses, so too does the Jewish people produce those who are tzaddikim and those who are rotten.

Shemot Rabbah

Our sages were very close readers of text.  According to several schools of thought, there is not a single superfluous word or letter in the entire Torah. When something appeared to be superfluous, an opportunity arose to interpret the word or letter in order to learn either an ethical or halachic lesson.  The most famous of such interpreters was Rabbi Akiva who was reported to learn pillars of halachot from a single letter.  Close, careful reading of text can lead to some of the most fascinating lessons and conclusions.  This week’s parashah gives us an excellent example of this approach and, in so doing, teaches a powerful lesson about our people and about ourselves.

During his first Divine encounter, Moses meets God in a secluded place, alone on top of a mountain. There, as we know, God speaks to Moses from a bush that burns but is not consumed.  Moses is curious but does not look directly at the bush:

“ וַיַּרְא ה’ כִּי סָר לִרְאוֹת וַיִּקְרָא אֵלָיו אֱלֹקים מִתּוֹךְ הַסְּנֶה וַיֹּאמֶר “מֹשֶׁה מֹשֶׁה”-וַיֹּאמֶר “הִנֵּנִי

And when God saw that he turned aside, God called out to him from within the bush and said: Moses, Moses.  And Moses said: Here am I.

Shemot 3:4

There are many aspects of the verse that are curious.  For example, why does Moshe refrain from looking directly at the burning bush?  Why does God repeat Moshe’s name?  Why doesn’t Moshe just say, “Yes”? These and other more obvious questions are the subjects of much rabbinic commentary.

The rabbis, however, are particularly intrigued by one word in the verse –“מִתּוֹךְ” meaning “from within” – wondering why the Torah tells us that the Divine voice came from within the bush rather than just saying that it came from the bush.  What can we learn from this apparently extra word in the Torah?  Shemot Rabbah, a collection of midrashim, provides us with a rabbinic flourish of answers:

The bush is full of thorns and when birds fly into it, they get injured slowly by each of the thorns teaching that the era of slavery was one of multitudes of painful strikes.

Because of the way the thorns grow, a person can put their hand in easily and without injury but when they go to pull out their hand, they get cut and caught up in the thorns.  Similarly, our ancestors were generously welcomed into Egypt but when they wanted to leave, the Egyptians bound them up in their thorns.

These are just a few examples of how the rabbis explain the extra word.  Most of the midrashim on this verse fall into two categories: either they refer to Egypt and the pain it causes our ancestors or they refer to the greatness of Israel.  In discussing the nature of the bush that was burning, however, one explanation, provides an interesting, frank and balanced assessment of the Jewish people collectively and individually:  

Just as this bush produces both thorns and roses, so too does the Jewish people produce those who are tzaddikim and those who are rotten.

While we may be “עם אחד בכול הארץ” or singular nation, a light unto the nations or an עם סגולה, we are not completely perfect either as individuals or as a collective.  There are good people, there are lousy people and we all contain both a good and an evil inclination in our souls.  In the Torah, God refers to us as a treasured people but Adonai also refers to us as a stiff-necked people.  What happens, though, when people within a certain group behave in awful, hateful, biased ways?  Do we blame the collective?  Do we shun them?  Or do we give rebuke in a thoughtful and respectful way?  

What about ourselves?  When we make mistakes, it is possible for people to begin to view themselves as wholly rotten or somehow unworthy or good.  Yet, acknowledging only our positive characteristics leads to haughtiness and hubris.  In our daily, individual lives, we have to seek and find balance, to admit to both aspects of our souls, and to work to spend more of our time being tzadikim with the understanding that there will be times when we fall short.  And when members of our community behave in unacceptable ways, we need to call them out for it, to provide loving rebuke while avoiding demonization.

When we acknowledge both aspects of ourselves and our people, we emulate the humility of the bush, the humble shrub into which God puts the Divine Voice and shares it, for the first time, with Moshe who will be God’s partner in leading B’nai Yisrael to salvation and freedom.  Today, the need to lead, the need to partner in bringing about Divine salvation must begin with our own souls.  At the same time, we must work as a People to lead those who decrease God’s presence in the world to realize what true piousness and religiosity is, what true love of Israel and humanity is, to actually live it and not hide behind the trappings of religiosity from habit or from devotion to political ideology.  When we see that, we will know that the days of redemption are truly near.

Shabbat Shalom.

Parashat VaYechi - The Bert B. Weinstein z”l National Ramah Winter Staff Training Institute

Standing in a circle on the emerald grass of the kikar, in front of the chadar ochel, we were warmed by the beautiful, shining sun and joyed by the Wedgewood blue sky.  Arm in arm, shoulder to shoulder, we stood with eyes open or closed, rocking to the beautiful singing:

טז הַמַּלְאָךְ הַגֹּאֵל אֹתִי מִכָּל-רָע, יְבָרֵךְ אֶת-הַנְּעָרִים, וְיִקָּרֵא בָהֶם שְׁמִי, וְשֵׁם אֲבֹתַי אַבְרָהָם וְיִצְחָק; וְיִדְגּוּ לָרֹב, בְּקֶרֶב הָאָרֶץ.

בראשית מ”ח: ט”ז

The Angel who redeemed me from all evil, bless the children, and let my name be named in them, and the name of my fathers, Abraham and Isaac; and let them grow into a multitude in the midst of the earth.

If we were at Camp Ramah in Wisconsin, you would understandably think that we were singing in the chadar ochel at seudah shlisheet, the third meal that comes at the end of Shabbat, during the summer.  We were not, however, in Conover.  Instead, we were at  Camp Ramah in California for the annual Bert B. Weinstein z”l Winter Staff Training Institute.  The circle included staff members from all of our camps and we were winding down a fantastic week of learning and growing together. 

The seudah shlisheet song, very popular at camp, comes directly from this week’s parashah as part of the blessing that Jacob gives his grandsons, Ephraim and Menashe.  As far as I know, this is the only reference to an interaction between three generations -  parent, child and grandparent - in the same scene in the Torah.  It is rare that a group of Ramah staff members can be together in camp to sing a favorite song taken from one of the winter parshiot during the actual winter.  What is more extraordinary was the strong feeling of the Divine Presence - the Shekhinah, or the Malach, the angel mentioned by Jacob - resting above the entire group, casting a warm, safe presence of love upon us as we brought to a conclusion this powerful week.

Over four days, different cohorts of Ramah staff members met, shared program ideas, strengthened skills in their respective areas, and gained deeper knowledge of and appreciation for the greater Ramah Movement.  The core group attending the Weinstein Institute consists of second and third year madrichim who commit to returning to camp in the upcoming summer.  Taking time from winter vacation is a statement about their commitment to Ramah and to growing professionally in order to more effectively mold the campers in their tzrifim.  In sessions devoted to serving as effective mentors for junior counselors, eliminating bullying in camp, Torah study, program sharing and more, madrichim get into the mindset of the summer, becoming spark plugs for others -  directors included -  with new ideas for the upcoming camp season.

This year, we added a track for Daber Fellows, staff members who commit to increasing the excitement for and use of Hebrew at camp.  Ramah continues to be one of the most effective settings to inspire people to want to learn Hebrew and Daber is designed to make sure that Hebrew is alive in camp outside of the formal study.  By grouping madrichim in aidot to work on Ivrit, ownership for strengthening Hebrew usage expands beyond the Hebrew department and the senior leadership.   Our three veteran Daber Fellows strengthened their own leadership skills in this area by running activities in the chadar ochel and a Peulat Erev for the entire Weinstein Institute.  Ramah’s ability to inspire a desire to learn Hebrew is embodied by all of our fellows but I want to share the brief story of one Fellow in particular.  Following her first summer on staff, this Fellow committed herself to learning Hebrew during her gap year in Israel.  When we met in February of last year, we carried on entire conversations “רק בעיברית” or only in Hebrew.  We did the same during the summer.  This staff member did not attend day school.  Her passion for Hebrew was the result of her summers at Ramah. 

The third cohort, also meeting for the first time at Weinstein, was for Tikvah Staff members.  I cannot fully describe how excited this group was to be getting together to share ideas and programs, challenges and opportunities with one another.  Tikvah literally brings hope to countless families with children with special needs across North America by creating space for children and families that are too often excluded from Jewish educational institutions.  Tikvah inspires staff members to become future Jewish special needs educators.  It provides opportunities for learning independent living skills.  Ultimately, it also opens the eyes of members of the “typical” Jewish community to the gifts that every soul brings to the world, regardless of a diagnosis or a challenge.  Tikvah is, in so many ways, one of the crown jewels of Ramah and it is a blessing that we now have funding to bring together Tikvah staff members for greater professional development.

Finally, several participants in the nascent Ramah Service Corps cohort attended the Weinstein Institute.  This National Ramah Commission program is making it possible for Ramah-style experiential education to be imported to congregations that want it.  The development of the Ramah Service Corp is one more way in which the impact of Ramah is reaching deeper into the Jewish world expanding beyond the summer and our own facilities into the broader Jewish world.  We look forward to seeing how this program grows, creating year-round opportunities for our Ramah graduates, and impacting ever growing circles of people of all ages.

One of the overarching messages of the week, emphasized over and over again by our National Director, Rabbi Mitch Cohen and Assistant National Director/Director of Ramah Nyack, is that Ramah seeks not to create a bubble of Jewishness limited to the summer.  We work to create a lifetime possession, an אחוזת עולם, for learning and living Torah.  We start as a setting that is a “blessing for the children” a ברכה לנערים who grow into adults who are proud to be called by our ancestors name, to be called Yehudim, Jews, and who increase the number of Jews and the amount of Torah in the world.  This week, I was blessed to see the next generation of emerging leaders and I know two things:  they will continue to grow in their commitments and will inspire the generation that follows them to do the same.  That is truly a blessing

Kol HaKavod to our Weinstein Institute Participants:

Madrichim and Madrichim Miktzoiim:

Debra Linfield

Ilana Lupovitch

Natlie Salzman

Judah Schvimer

Aliza Small

Daber Fellows:

Rena Forester

Elana Horwitz

Aviva Schwartz

Tikvah:

Ralph Schwartz - Director of Special Needs Programming

Scott Rosen - Atzmayim Director

Nate Gottleib

Alex Kahn

Navah Kantor

Daniel Olson

Shabbat Shalom. 

Jacob's Ladder, Balance and The Jewish Future

וַיַּחֲלֹם וְהִנֵּה סֻלָּם מֻצָּב אַרְצָה וְרֹאשׁוֹ מַגִּיעַ הַשָּׁמָיְמָה וְהִנֵּה מַלְאֲכֵי אֱלֹהִים עֹלִים וְיֹרְדִים בּוֹ

He had a dream; a ladder was set on the ground and its top reached the Heavens and the angels of God were going up and down it.  Genesis 28:12

In his book Getting Things Done (GTD), David Allen, a work-flow guru, talks about different areas of focus in work and life using imagery from air travel, specifically delineating things in 10,000 foot increments.  There are the things we have to focus on at 3,000 feet, the minutiae of the day to day, the logistics, the concrete next actions to move something along.  He describes the twenty to thirty thousand foot levels as broader visions of projects.  Forty to fifty thousand feet is the big picture of life and work, our aspirations for ourselves, for others.  In Allen’s system, we are constantly moving between levels of focus depending on our energy levels, the context in which we find ourselves, how we prioritize, etc.  When we are at our best according to David Allen, we are as though we are moving smoothly across water, we are working at a seamless black belt level.  Of course, we still need to be aware of what level we are working at and why.  We have to constantly challenge ourselves to insure that we avoid neglecting one level in favor of another.  

The opening verses of our parashah present a similar idea far earlier than David Allen.  Jacob, while fleeing his brother Esau, settles down to sleep and dreams of a ladder, one firmly established on earth but reaching for the Sky.  Along the ladder, Divine Beings move both up and down.  There is constant motion.  God stands beside the ladder and beside Jacob, makes a covenant of protection and reviews the promises made to Abraham of descendants and a homeland.  God reminds Jacob that there is a larger goal at hand, that of Peoplehood. Implicit in the promise is that its fulfillment will take time and that there will be many steps and challenges along the way.  Until the goal is achieved, God promises to be with Jacob, never to leave.  In other words, there are 50,000 foot goals:  growing a people, being in constant Divine-Human relationship, and establishing a homeland.  Along the way, there will be lots of 3,000 to 10,000 foot details that have to be handled.  Proper work-flow and proper levels of focus are concepts that predate the modern period and, it seems, emanate from Torah.

In thinking about the work we do, that of strengthening the Jewish People and creating more love for and commitment to Torah, I wonder if we are working at the right levels, focusing on the right things and giving sufficient attention to all levels, from the 3,000 to the 50,000 plus foot levels.  Are we focusing too much on finding “Big Ideas” or the next “Great Jewish Idea”?  Are we focusing our attention too low by giving too much attention to symptoms and tactics when we should be focusing on whether or not we are moving in the right direction in the first place?  Do we worry too much about those on the periphery and ignore the core or is it the other way around?  Are we too focused on our own silos and turf thereby ignoring the power of networks to lift us up the ladder or help us learn from the experiences of other networks when they focused on details?  Maimonides reminds us that we should strive to pursue the “Golden Path,” that of moderation, and his exhortation applies here as well.  Finding the balance between focusing on the 50,000 foot vision challenges of the Jewish People and our 10,00 foot tactical/ operational challenges is the course we should be pursuing to insure a vibrant future for Judaism.  

In the silo in which I spend the most time, that of camp, the challenge presents itself in the following ways.  How do we balance recruiting campers and hiring staff with developing new programs to keep camp fresh while also focusing attention on what our vision of success looks like?  How do we energize our network of campers, staff members, parents, board members, alumni and funders to help keep camp viable financially and increase the role we play as a significant Jewish touch point in the lives of those same groups?  How do we balance fun and friendship with real health/safety concerns and meaningful Jewish learning and living experiences?  Trying to find the balance between these different areas of focus is where I spend much of my own time.

The image of the ladder, the movement of the angels, Jacob and God being near to one another and the greater goals of land, people, and relationship serve as reminders for us of the power of networks, the importance of Big Hairy Audacious Goals, and the importance of balance in focusing on broad agendas and on operations.  As we grapple with the serious challenges that face the Jewish People and Judaism in this period, from the gap in dialogue between Jews of different practice and ideology to questions of inclusion to the challenges of understanding between American Jews and Israel to how we engage Jewish teens in a more effective way (http://www.brandeis.edu/cmjs/pdfs/EngagingJewishTeens/EngagingJewishTeens111011.pdf), it will be more important than ever to make sure that we are balanced in our focus, to pay attention to the broader questions and to the details and to avoid spending “all of our time planning” and no time actually executing those plans.

Shabbat Shalom.