And on The Sabbath Day

The laundry truck is pulling into camp.  Groups of shrink-wrapped laundry will be picked up and carried to the tzrifim.  Cabins will be cleaned even more than normal.   The various activity areas are finishing up earlier than usual.  In a few minutes, music will pour out onto the kikar and campers will race from all corners to join rikud al hakikar - dancing on the kikar.  The atmosphere of camp is changing.  The shift from the mundane, the regular to the kadosh, the sanctified, is palpable.  In just a few hours, Shabbat with her sense of The Divine Presence will arrive at Camp.

Late in the afternoon, Chanichim and Madrichim will gather by aidah to prepare as a group to enter our outdoor synagogue on the lake. They will sing, exchange shabbat-o-grams, hugs and high-fives.  After that, we take our places along the shores of Lake Buckatabon and pray together, singing and dancing the various prayers of Kabbalat Shabbat.  We are led by campers from Tikvah and Atzmayim, including a d’var Torah by Ari Schneider-Gans.  As the sun sets and tefillot end, a collective  Shabbat embrace takes place, brothers and sisters finding one another for Shabbat hugs, friends embracing, hand shakes exchanged.  Slowly, the camp makes its way up to the chadarei ochel for Shabbat dinner, for more singing and dancing, talking and enjoying. There will be short evening programs for the aidot, an energizing tisch for the Nivonim, and a talk by Rabbi Michael Seigel of Anshe Emet Synagogue on the question: “Does Conservative Judaism Still Matter?”

The morning brings tefillot, more discussion, more time for friends and fun.  Lunch, time to rest, friends walking around camp, talking about issues of import and of the day.  Softball games, free swim, more discussions and a strong sense of community.  As the sun goes down we gather on the kikar to be serenaded by the “Ramah-capella,” our very own a capella group.  After seudah shlisheet, the third meal of the day, many campers and staff members choose to sing the songs of seudah shlisheet.  This is perhaps the most moving and powerful part of the day.  The melodies and harmonies are beautiful and powerful.  The sense of the departure of Shabbat is apparent.  Outside the chadar ochel, the activity level is rising as the younger aidot enjoy peulot erev - evening activities - before Havdalah. Then, standing in the middle of the kikar, I will hear havdalah coming from every corner of the camp, the collective ending of Shabbat in the Northwoods.

Ask most members of our sacred camp community what their favorite day of the week is and they will, most likely, tell you that it is Shabbat.  The ebb and flow of the week is built around Shabbat, anticipation of its arrival and sadness at its departure, the ever-present hope that this will be the Shabbat that brings the advent of the Messianic era. Each successive Shabbat of the summer is one of joy tinged with just a little bit of sadness that comes from knowing that the eighth Shabbat will arrive and we will have to leave the kind of Shabbat community we wish we could live in all year long.  

Yet, Camp Ramah is dedicated to being a place where Shabbat is modeled not just for the summer but as a demonstration of what powerful Shabbat community can feel like all year long.  Sure, we can’t have Lake Buckatabon with us every Shabbat nor can we be surrounded by sixty of our closest friends and mentors when it is time for Havdalah.  We can, however, take the skills learned at and the experiences felt at camp and use them as inspiration to build and join similar communities during the months between camp.  This is part of Ramah’s approach to all things Jewish, from learning Torah to speaking Hebrew to living righteous and just lives: camp is a model for living Jewishly all year long.  

As the sun begins to set and we gather on the shores of Lake Buckatabon for Kabbalat Shabbat and as you prepare for Shabbat wherever you are, I hope that we are all inspired to make our summer Shabbat a living model for our non-camp Shabbatot.  The rest and renewal, the reconnection to family to community and to God will do us all a world of good.

We look forward to seeing those of you who are coming up for Visitors’ Days on Sunday and Monday.  We will miss those who will not be here for those days as well.  Thank you for entrusting us with your magnificent children for the summer.

Finally, the topic of this letter was inspired by an article written by Rabbi Gerald Skolnik, President of the Rabbinical Assembly and Rabbi of the Forest Hills Jewish Center in Queens.  A long time Ramahnik, Rabbi Skolnik describes Shabbat at camp as an inspiration for revitalizing Conservative Judaism.  I fully agree with his assessment and appreciate the inspiration I received personally from his writing and for this edition of the Director’s Letter. You can read Rabbi Skolnik's article in the Jewish Week at
http://www.thejewishweek.com/features/rabbis-world/what-doctor-ordered-shabbat-camp-ramah

Shabbat Shalom!

Balak, Ramah and The Lookingglass

This week’s parashah, Balak, reads like a script for a play. We meet a wide variety of characters like Balak, King of Moav and Bilaam ben Beor, a prophet-like character, and watch as they develop throughout the story. There are stage directions, talking donkeys and Heavenly Beings. We have narration, dialogue, poetry and even high drama. Threatened by the other, in this case, the Israelites, Balak seeks out Bilaam and requests that he curse our ancestors. Before any interaction with the Israelites, the others, Balak is frightened. Rather than meet and discover, Balak seeks to destroy. Ultimately, Bilaam is unable to curse Israel and instead proclaims the famous blessing:
 

מַה-טֹּבוּ אֹהָלֶיךָ, יַעֲקֹב; מִשְׁכְּנֹתֶיךָ, יִשְׂרָאֵל

How Goodly are your tents, Jacob; your dwelling places, O Israel...

Numbers 24:5

The story ends with Balak and Bilaam parting ways and with Israel being blessed. The script-like narrative of the parashah mirrors our emphasis on theater in camp this week. This coincidence extends beyond just the theatrical nature of things and includes an encounter withthe other that serves as a blessing for all involved (I will have more to say about that later).

Theater season opened in camp this week! In the span of five days, we saw performances by the Nivonim English Play Company, The Lookingglass Theater Lab Company, Aidat HaShoafim, The Northwoods Ramah Theater Company Camper Workshop and The Tikvah Arts Festival Lunch Theater. Shoafim wowed us with their production of Beauty and the Beastin Hebrew. Campers worked so hard during the first few weeks of camp and the effort paid off in the form of an outstanding production. The Tikvah Arts Festival Lunch Theater just concluded with a variety of short plays written, directed and performed by members of our Tikvah program. They cast the shows to include not only themselves but their chaverim from Machon and their CITs from Nivonim. The enthusiasm of the Tikvah campers was infectious and the cheering was incredibly loud at the end of the performance. Campers from a variety of aidot worked with members of our Northwoods Ramah Theater Company to write, direct and produce their own short theater pieces and performed them for each aidah throughout Thursday morning. The amount of imagination was just astounding.

The crown jewels of the week, however, came from the Nivonim English Play Company and The Lookingglass Theater Lab Company. Each group, working completely independently, wrote powerful, thoughtful shows about religion. They developed complex narratives, characters and themes. Nivonim created a show called The Museum of Religion about a future where all religions were banned, where everything required some basis in rational, factual knowledge and where, in the name of unity, no difference regarding faith and belief was tolerated. Along the way, the high school student characters encounter tableaux that force them to reconsider whether or not they believe in a Divine Being. While the intent of the museum visit is to strengthen commitment to rational knowledge and the banning of religious particularism and faith, the outcome of the visit is the exact opposite. In arguing against religion, the campers from Nivonim end up reaffirming their faith. Writing and performing from the depths of their souls, Nivonimers shared with us a religious journey and set of struggles that each of us encounters throughout life. Their show was a work of beauty, creativity, faith and honesty.

For the first time ever, the Lookingglass Theater Lab Company, a program for 14 - 19 year old teens living in Chicago, visited a summer camp. If you are not familiar with The Lookingglass Theater, here are a few things worth noting. They perform in a theater space on Michigan Avenue in Chicago that used to be part of the old Water Tower pumping facility. Second, they won this year’s Tony Award for Best Regional Theater. Most important for us, however, is the fact that their Executive Director, Rachel Kraft, is an alumna of Camp Ramah in Wisconsin (Nivonim 1980). The group from Lookingglass was incredible. Their performance, titledTainted Beauty: A Spiritual Journey, was created through a process almost identical to that of our Nivonimers. The show was developed by the participants. Their self-created mission statement said:

Religion creates unity as well as separation, so individuals must question to find what is beauty or tainted about their own faith.

While using different techniques, creating different characters and approaching the subject from a very different perspective, Lookingglass cast members created a show that struggled with nearly identical themes as those of our own Nivonim. Their show was also a work of beauty, creativity, faith and honesty.

Prior to their arrival, there was both excitement and trepidation about a visit from theater students who were outside the Ramah bubble. None of us knew exactly what would take place, if the groups would blend and bond, or if this would be an experience more akin to Balak, Bilaam and the Israelites. Many of the participants in Lookingglass had never left their own neighborhoods let alone the city of Chicago. They had never been to overnight camp or to the Northwoods. Many had never been in a canoe and most live in neighborhoods where meeting Jews is not very likely. Our Nivonimers were writing their first show and were doing so in camp. Would their work rise to the level of those participating in a lab from a professional theater company?  Would the groups be able to give honest, open feedback to one another? From the moment they arrived, however, the encounter with the other was positive and powerful. It was the antithesis of the Balak, Bilaam, Israelite experience.

The joint venture between The Lookingglass Theater and Camp Ramah in Wisconsin was a total success, as were the rest of the theater experiences at camp this week. Like so many encounters, participants often learn more about themselves than they do about those they encounter. The questions Lookingglass Lab members asked about camp, about Judaism and about the process of developing The Museum of Religion caused campers to be reflective about their own experiences and beliefs and to appreciate camp even more. Lookingglass members learned about themselves and their faiths and grew in knowledge about Jews and Judaism. All in all, it was proof that we can all meet in the beautiful tents of Jacob and there encounter God.

Special thanks to Charlotte and Michael Newberger for their ongoing support of the Northwoods Ramah Theater. Special thanks to Rachel Kraft, Executive Director of The Lookingglass Theater Company, to David Kersnar and Emilio Robles, directors, and to Lizzie Perkins, Director of Education and Community Programs for partnering with us to make the joint experience a reality. Special thanks to Jonathan Adam Ross who was our liaison to the project and to Lynda Bachman for working with our Nivonimers to create one of the most powerful pieces of theater I have seen.

Shabbat Shalom,

Rabbi Loren Sykes

On (No) Pork & (Yes) Beans & Jewish Camp

 “It’s so nice to be in a place where you don’t have to ask if there is pork in the beans!”

                                                                                                         Geoff Rice

The Northwoods Ramah Theater Company

This week, members of the Northwoods Ramah Theater Company arrived at camp for the start of their annual workshop.  After dinner on the first night, Jonathan Adam Ross, known as JAR in camp, came to share the above quote about beans with me.  We could not stop laughing!  Being at camp for the summer, it is easy to forget that we take for granted that which cannot be assumed outside of our Jewish summer bubble. In the midst of all of the great friendships we build at camp, with all of the incredible fun we have, we live full Jewish lives and experiences in such natural ways that we sometimes forget to even notice they are happening.

Take a few glances at the photos on the website and you will see a week full of fun.  We had inter-aidah basketball and softball games, as well as a fantastic Zimriyah.  On Wednesday, it was so hot that we had an all-camp water battle on the lower kikar.  Our first group of Kochavim chanichim went home until next summer and our second group arrived on Wednesday.  There were friends walking arm-in-arm.  There was laughter. There were smiles everywhere throughout the week. There was all this and even more fun.  Plus, there was so much Jewish learning that just happened all week long.

Here is an example of how we weave Judaism into the camp experience in a way that pays dividends for life.  My wife, Rebecca, teaches a Yahadut (Judaics) class to campers in Machon on Kabbalah and the Body.  Becca takes the practice of Yoga and combines it with classical concepts from Kabbalah, including the 10 Sefirot, to help campers discover the power of personal practice while exploring Jewish mysticism. Because Becca was out of camp for a few days visiting other camps on behalf of the Foundation for Jewish Camp, I was the substitute teacher.

Yoga is not part of my personal daily life and I was not going to be teaching campers how “Warrior II” speaks to concepts like Tiferet and Netzach.  Instead, it was my job to teach campers about a different approach to Jewish mysticism, one from the Talmud.  Oy!  How can I, who cannot even do downward dog for more than three seconds, compete with handstands and arm balances and Lurianic Kabbalah taught by my entertaining, thoughtful, talented and energetic wife?  Even worse, in a world that tells us that teens are not interested in actually studying Jewish text, in a world where people are saying that “all toys now have to have some electronic gadgetry or kids won’t be interested,” is it possible to make a text like Hagigah 14b and the story of Rabbi Akiva, Ben Zoma, Ben Azzai and Acher come to life?  

But here’s something we can’t take for granted – our campers actually are interested in engaging with challenging Jewish texts.  Many of them will sit for 45 minutes and explore the implications of an obscure aggadah from the Talmud on life and, yes, even on their yoga practice.  So, I had the privilege of sharing a different kind of Jewish mysticism, Ma’aseh HaMerkava and other Talmudic mystical ideas, with a group of campers.  Together, we struggled to understand how Rabbi Akiva could exit the journey in Peace yet come to such an awful end in a later aggadah.  Today, the same campers studied with Dr. Rebecca Schorsch about the Kotzker Rebbe and the concept of Hitboddedut, self-seclusion or meditation.  I am certain that Dr. Schorsch was equally impressed with the campers, with their depth of thought, and their interest in the topic.  

The preciousness of the gift of learning in camp, the importance of not taking it for granted, even appears in this week’s parashah.  At the end of Hukkat, there is a short passage about the Israelites wandering in the desert that mentions three different locations as stops along the way:

           

וּמִמַּתָּנָה, נַחֲלִיאֵל; וּמִנַּחֲלִיאֵל בָּמוֹת

And from Matanah to Nahaliel and from Nahaliel to Bamot. Numbers 21:19

These three names are dripping in meaning in Hebrew, a fact the midrash does not fail to notice.  Matanah means a gift.  Nahaliel is an inheritance from God.  Bamot means high places.  The Mechilta notes that there are four places referred to as inheritances: The Temple in Jerusalem; the land of
Israel; the Torah; and the People of Israel.  

Another way to understand these names is that they represent a progression of learning:  A gift that is given, in our case Torah, becomes an inheritance when it is thoroughly studied and digested, thereby raising us to higher and higher places of understanding of self and relationship with God.  This is exactly what I see happening at camp all the time.  Parents give children the gift of a Ramah experience, the gift living Torah in a vibrant community of peers. Campers learn Torah in every possible setting, from formal classes to activities, from Israeli music on the radio to doing tzedakah in active ways.  Campers make Torah and Judaism their own.  Then, they discover more about themselves, about their friends, about their People and about God.

At camp, we can’t take fun for granted.  We can’t take friends for granted.  And...we cannot take living Judaism for granted either. If challenged in an authentic and compelling way at their own intellectual and spiritual level – at camp and throughout the year - our campers come to own their Jewishness in a deep and meaningful way.  Torah becomes their inheritance - one that you have given them – and they will take that inheritance to an even higher level. That is the incredible gift that you have given them.  Now we have to make sure that none of us take it for granted.

And, finally, we can’t take for granted that all summer long we live in a place where we don’t have to worry about finding pork in our beans!

Shabbat Shalom,

Rabbi
Loren Sykes

P.S.  A very special welcome to camp to Jeremy Fingerman, CEO of the Foundation for Jewish Camp, and his wife, Gail.  Jeremy is an alumnus (Nivonim 1977) and was my CIT during my first summer at Ramah Wisconsin in Sollelim 1977.  It is a privilege and a pleasure to have you both here for Shabbat!

On Names and Beginnings

Shabbat Shalom, 

The building blocks of creating community begin with names. This is true for camp and for life in general.

The first days of camp are filled with learning new names. Chanichim (campers) learn the names of new friends. Madrichim (counselors) learn the names of chanichim. Roshei Aidah (division heads) learn the names of all of the chanichim in the aidah. Specialty and education counselors, as well as department heads, learn the names of all the campers they see during the day. Every person has a name with a meaning. 

Walking around camp on arrival day, I saw circles of happy young campers playing name games. Their madrichim created all kinds of fun, silly, energetic games to help campers meet one another, learn names and make first friendships. These games build strong esprit d’corps in the tzrif (cabin) and make it a safe place for everyone to be himself or herself, to belong and to feel included.  Every person has a name they like to be called. Now, for the first time, they get to choose what name they want to be known by in camp.  

During these first days of camp, the limudei Yahadut (Jewish learning) staff, led by our new, fantastic rosh, Tamar Cytryn, initiated a creative program for campers to learn about their own names. Based on a work by the Hebrew poet, Zelda, the new program is titled, "L’kol ish yesh shem," "Every Person Has a Name". Over these first days, campers are discussing BIG, name-related questions. Big questions, in distinction to hard questions, are those that lead to conversation and storytelling; require no expertise in order to join the conversation; and have no right answer. Some of the questions campers are thinking about during Yahadut classes at the start of camp include:

What is the meaning of your birth name?

How did you get that name?  

How does a person “earn” a name?

Are there names that you are called that you really like?

Strongly dislike?

By what name do you want to be known this summer?

What name do you want to earn for yourself this summer? 

What kind of person will you need to be in order to earn that name?

Today, when campers met in their limmudei yahadut classes, they created name collages that will become large murals in their chadarei ochel (dining halls). I have not yet seen the paper quilts they are creating but I know that they will be incredible to examine. On the wall, we will see the initial ways that campers view themselves at the start of the summer. We will see images of how they want to contribute to the camp community. We will see in pictures and words their personal goals for the summer.

On Friday of each week during limmudei Yahadut, campers will engage in what we call Cheshbon Nefesh, personal reckoning or accounting. They will think about how they did the previous week in achieving their goals, whether or not the person they were during the week matched up with the person they wanted to be, and they will create a new paper image of the name they want to earn for the quilt. At the end of the summer, I believe we will see a magnificent quilt of personal reflection and achievement, of growth and soulful beauty, of the reflection of God’s image in each member of the Camp Ramah in Wisconsin community.

The beginning of our parashah, Shlach Lekha, deals with names, some infamous and some famous. The opening narrative is about the spies that Moshe sends to investigate the Promised Land. Most of the names become infamous because they are spies who return, present a beautiful image of the land, and an incredibly pessimistic outlook about the ability of the Israelites to conquer the land. Only two spies, Joshua and Caleb, become famous in a positive way for they represent the opinion that the Israelites, with God’s help, will conquer the land of Israel. The Torah does not tell us anything about the mindset of the spies as they set out on their mission. The Zohar speculates that the princes were concerned about their own standing in the future, that they would be replaced once the land was conquered, so they came back with a negative report in order to preserve their own power. The Midrash HaGadol believes that Joshua and Caleb did not travel together with the other spies because they believed from the outset that the mission was achievable and did not need to see the land at all. Regardless of their goals for the week, all but two of the spies ended their trip with negative names. Joshua and Caleb, on the other hand, came out of the experience viewed as better people.

The concept of doing a weekly Cheshbon Nefesh, taking a weekly reckoning of the names that we earned and the names we want to earn, is a process that all of us can and should do. As our children are thinking about what names the want to be known by at camp, Hannah the Brave, David the Kind, etc, we can do that for ourselves. We can ask our children at home what names they want to earn in the coming week, and, at the end of the summer, we can ask our children what names they hoped to acquire during the summer and hear the stories of their achieving success.

Shabbat Shalom.

To read the poem by Zelda in English, go to http://www.hebrewsongs.com/song-lecholishyeshshem.htm

To read the poem in Hebrew, go to http://info.oranim.ac.il/home/home.exe/50302/50303

To Give and To Take

אדם צריך שתיהי לו מילה

קצת מקום בעולם

אהבה לא נשכחת

וקול אמיתי לתפילה

ורגע מושלם

כדי לתת ולקחת

...ולא

לפחד מהפחד.

A person needs to have a word,
A little place in the world,
Unforgettable Love,
A real voice for prayer
And a moment of completeness
In order to give and to take,
And to not be afraid of fear.

Shlomo Artzi, To Give and To Take

Sitting at a picnic table in front of my house, under the bright blue sky, the bald eagle soars overhead as I listened to music with three roshei aidah.  We hear the words of Shlomo Artzi’s song לתת ולקחת, To Give and To Take.  The refrain lists five things a person needs - a word or voice, a place, unforgettable love, a real, prayerful voice, and a sense of completeness or integrity - in order to truly give and receive and to face fear without being afraid.  We listened a second time to the refrain and then entered into a conversation about tefilah, prayer.  Among the questions raised were:

• How do we balance individual needs in prayer with communal needs?
• Can every text be viewed as a prayer or is there something about liturgical poetry that puts some things within the realm of prayer and some things outside that realm?
• What is the meaning of a real or truthful voice for prayer?
• What does it mean that a person needs a word or a voice in the context of prayer?  Is that a reference to fixed liturgy or to the need for personal prayer?

As the conversation proceeded, as we went deeper trying to answer one question, we arrived at more questions than answers.

Daniel Olson, rosh aidah for our Atzmayim program, pointed out that the five precursors for successful giving, receiving, and confronting fear are, in many ways, the same things we needed to have successful, powerful tefillot in camp and in life:

אדם צריך שתיהי לו מילה
A person needs a word...

The traditional language of the siddur provides us with words, with a language for conversation with God and with ourselves.  They give us poetry and imagery that link us to our history and to the worldwide Jewish community.  At the same time, each one of us needs our own words to convey wants and desires, hopes and aspirations, thoughts and feelings.  As educators, we constantly struggle with the balance between the creative and the traditional, the communal and the individual, as we think about tefillah in camp and for ourselves.  What words do we need? Halakhically? Personally?

קצת מקום בעולם
A little place in the world
 
What is the setting for prayer, individual and communal?  How do we make our prayerful places, our מקדשי מעט , appropriate settings for tefillah. In camp, most davvening places are multipurpose spaces transitioning quickly from tefillot into stages for theater, into studios for dance, into practice rooms for music, etc.  The atmosphere of the place can help put us in the right mood for intimate conversation with God and with self or it can convey a sense of “get this over with quickly” because someone needs the room for another activity.  Our job is to insure that where we pray is conducive to prayer, that it is warm, that it inspires us to take our time in self-reflection and connection with The Divine.  And then, as we learn from the beginning of this week’s parasha, Naso,  just as was the case with moving the portable Tabernacle, the Mishkan, we need to break the room down in a respectful and careful way, treating all of the ritual objects with kavod, with respect.

אהבה לא נשכחת
Unforgettable Love

I asked the shlichim to translate this phrase for me and they said that the best translation was “unforgettable love.”  In the context of tefillah, I think Shlomo Artzi is talking about unconditional love or אהבה שלא תלויה בדבר, love that is not dependent on anything.  In tefillah, no matter what we say in our hearts, we need to remember that we are loved, somewhere, somehow, unconditionally, be that God’s love, parental love, etc.  Camp is a place where everyone needs to know that they are valued and respected.  Tefillah, with its language of thanks, provides us with the opportunity to be reminded of the sources of love and hope and blessing in our lives.



וקול אמיתי לתפילה
A real voice of prayer

For many people, camp is the place where they first discover their own prayerful voice.  Encountering the siddur, struggling with the literal and personal meaning of the prayers, helps us find our voice for talking with God and with our souls.  From the moments when we pray with our internal voice to the times we sing out with our peers, camp can be the place where people first enter conversation with God or the place where they start to discover who they are.  How do we create the atmosphere, the trust, required for campers and staff members to feel safe exploring these aspects of self?  What is a real voice of prayer?  Is there a difference between communal singing and prayer?  If so, how do we know when we are doing one and not the other?

ורגע מושלם
A moment of completeness

A personal sense of integrity, a sense of wholeness, of authenticity helps bring people to deeply prayerful moments.  Recognizing who we truly are, what we truly believe, helps motivate us to act, to give genuinely and to receive genuinely.  Walking around camp with other people, you often get gifts that open up parts of your soul, that lead to deeper understanding and that lead you to be able to face challenges and moments without fear, without worry of the “if only I...”  I often hear people say that camp is the only place where they can truly be themselves.  Tefillah can be a time for feeling this sense of completeness, of integrity, of perfection which prepares you to give and to receive.

As the staff builds over the course of the week to come, we will continue the conversation about tefillah in camp.  We will seek to build an inspiring community that is steeped in our traditional siddur.  We will work to maintain the proper balance between the voice of the community and the voice of the individual in the conversations that take place at camp between us and God.  At moments, our prayers and our souls will soar without fear, like the eagle, to the Heavens.  At others, they will be the still small voice in our souls reminding us that we are loved.  They will remind us that to give and to receive, we must be authentic in our voices, in our words, in our actions.  Finally, we will be blessed to achieve all of this in our מקום בעולם, on the shores of Lake Buckatabon at Camp Ramah in Wisconsin.

Shabbat Shalom.

On The Value of a Soul

דַּבֵּר אֶל-בְּנֵי יִשְׂרָאֵל, וְאָמַרְתָּ אֲלֵהֶם, אִישׁ, כִּי יַפְלִא נֶדֶר--בְּעֶרְכְּךָ נְפָשֹׁת, לַהי

Speak to the Children of Israel and say to them: When anyone explicitly vows to The Lord the equivalent for a human being...” Leviticus 27:2

This Shabbat, we come to the end of Sefer VaYikra, the Book of Leviticus.  In Parashat Behar, the penultimate parashah, we learn the obligations of the seven-year agricultural cycle and the JubileeYear that comes at the end of seven cycles of seven years. Bekhukotai, the ultimate parashah of Vayikra, presents us with a detailed picture of the rewards for observing the mitzvot and following God’s ways, as well as the consequences for failure to so do, all of which are presented in great and terrifying detail.  The message is clearly conveyed.  The end of the parashah raises the complex question of how to determine the financial value of a vow that is the equivalent of a human being or soul.  Following the reading of the final verse of the Book, we cry out together:

חזק חזק ונתחזק!

Be Strong, Be Strong and together we will be Strengthened!

At first glance, the question of determining value for fulfillment of vows based on a promise of the equivalent of a human being is simple. After all, chapter 27 of Sefer Vayikra provides a detailed list of valuations for human beings based on age, gender and other factors.  The answer appears to be clear cut but, as is the case with virtually everything in Torah, such is not the case.  Valuation is so complex that it develops into its own field of actuarial science.  How to determine the financial value or equivalent of a vow on anything, be it a human life, an animal, etc is so complicated that an entire section of the Mishnah and Gemarah, Masekhet Arachin, is dedicated to the topic. This is such a crucial question because the person who makes the vow is not just trying to fulfill any promise; rather, they are fulfilling a promise to God. The consequences for making a mistake or undervaluing the amount of the promise are nothing short of cosmic.

One might think this is an irrelevant question as neither the portable Tabernacle nor the Temple in Jerusalem are in existence today.  We know, however, that the question of how we fulfill promises, whether they are to another person or to God, as well as how we determine the value of human life, is just as relevant today as it was in the time of our ancient ancestors.  When we look at another person, how do we see them?   How do we determine their inherent value?  How do we determine our own value?  These are questions we struggle with every single day, in every human encounter, from the person we physically bump into while walking somewhere to the strengths and weaknesses we see in the depths of our own souls.

Chapter 27 of Leviticus provides us with both a challenge and a method for understanding human value. The challenge to our modern sensitivities and values grows from the fact that Torah does assess different financial values to categories of people precisely in those areas of difference where today's societal values demand complete equality.  There is no question that multiple valuations are problematic at best.  That, however, is the topic of a future d'var Torah.  At this moment, what I find interesting is the overarching value we can learn even from the fact that the financial valuations are based on some sort of hierarchy.  Given that in each class, there is complete equality between the values of souls, we can extrapolate the principle that all souls are intrinsically valuable.  We can look at the text and, in classic rabbinic fashion, learn the general rule and then place the differences into historical context.  That is, our values are different today.  We value every human on an equal basis or at least we strive to achieve such equality.  It is fair to say that both here and across the world, we have not yet achieved that goal.  Yet, we continue to work toward it.

On the personal level, we are often challenged to recognize our own intrinsic value.  Do we value ourselves too high?  Too low?  Not at all?  The potential character threats in any of these approaches are clear: from ego and hubris to depression to self-harm.  Finding healthy self-value is as crucial as it is challenging.  Often times, the ability to accurately perceive self-worth does emerge from within the sovereign self. At other times, the ability to accurately estimate self-value evolves from interactions with others, it emerges from conversation and interaction with other souls.  When we receive gifts from unexpected places, other souls, that potentially lead to greater self-valuation and understanding, to accepting what is truly the human inheritance, the Babylonian Talmud, in the section known as Ketubot, teaches that we do have the opportunity to reject those inheritances, to refuse them as ways to achieve greater self-understanding and self-respect:

דאמר רב כהנא נחלה הבאה לאדם ממקום אחר אדם מתנה עליה שלא יירשנה

For Rav Kahana said: An inheritance that comes to a person from a different place, a person can make a condition that he will not inherit it...   (כתובות פ”ג ע”א)

Yet, when we do accept such gifts, especially when they come from unexpected times or sources, they can lead to the lifting of burdens, to opening windows into the soul, to greater self-understanding, to creating space to be fully one’s self.  If you have ever experienced such gifts, you know that you discover, with clarity and understanding, that your own soul is as precious and valuable as all other souls.  What is equally remarkable is that the sender of such a gift may never even know the impact that they had in your discovery, they may never know that they sent you the gift in the first place.

At Camp Ramah in Wisconsin, from the kitchen staff to the cabin counselors, from the roshei aidah to the heads of maintenance and housekeeping, from the newest to the most veteran campers, we recognize the inherent and equal value in each individual person.  Every camper and staff member, each soul, is precious and a reflection of The Divine in this world.  The different ways in which we connect to each soul, the variety of ways that we convey our understanding of the equal and inherent value of each soul may vary but one of our ultimate goals is that every member of the Ramah community feel that recognition.  Like the rest of the world, we may have room to strengthen the ways that we convey that message to each person but the value itself is inherent in all that is Camp Ramah in Wisconsin.

In just a over a week-and-a-half, our first group of shlichim - the camping staff - as well as our commissary staff and the senior leadership team of Camp Ramah in Wisconsin will arrive at our summer home.  We will wind down the road to the front gate of camp.  We will catch the first glimpse of beautiful Lake Buckatabon.  From the very outset,  even the senior year-round leadership will be meeting people for the first time. While we will all start with the knowledge of the equal valuation of every soul, we will also dedicate ourselves to discovering the uniqueness of each individual.  The following week, the rest of the staff will arive at camp and we will repeat the process, all in the spirit of modeling what needs to happen the following week, when your children get off the buses.  When this process, all three levels - senior leadership, staff and campers, is complete, we will have built our community and initiated the process of transformation Jewish lives.  At that point, we will once again cry out together

חזק חזק ונתחזק!

Be Strong, Be Strong and together we will be Strengthened!

Shabbat Shalom!

Moadim - Gatherings

אלה מועדי יהוה מקראי קדש אשר-תקראו אתם במועדם: These are the gatherings of the Lord, holy gatherings, which you shall proclaim in their seasons. Leviticus 23:4 Note: In the US, you are going to be reading parshiot Acharei Mot - Kedoshim. Here in Israel, we are going to read Parashat Emor. This d'var Torah refers to parashat Emor. On Thursday, sitting on the soft grass of Kibbutz Shefayim, under the rich, sapphire blue Mediterranean sky, I was approached by Eliana and Naveh, two first year shlichim. They had questions about the previous meeting, part of the training seminar for the shlichim, which was designed to give all the Ramah shlichim the opportunity to hear about Judaism in camp and about the reactions of veteran shlichim to that experience. The Israelis had three groups to choose from: religious shlichim, secular shlichim, and those who were somewhere in the middle. Eliana and Naveh, who were on their own religious journeys, wanted to know what Conservative Judaism believed about revelation, faith, and Halakha - Jewish Law. For the next twenty minutes, I was part of a fascinating conversation where the more questions I answered, the more questions there seemed to be. I had a wonderful time explaining to them the various approaches to these topics in our Movement and I know that they appreciated the nuanced approach that we take to these central questions. Next to us, the national bird of Israel, the Duchifat, pecked the ground, ants crawled, and people passed by, unaware of the weighty conversation taking place on the grass. This is just one example of intense meetings, conversations and gatherings I had the privilege of joining during this week. The Training Seminar for Summer Shlichim is a truly incredible experience. Starting on Wednesday, 600 young, vibrant, committed Israelis arrived at Kibbutz Shefayim to prepare for their summer mission to Jewish summer camps throughout North American. During the course of the week, they attend sessions about the role of the shaliach as well as the role of the madrich - the staff member. They learn about North American Jewry. They engage in a variety of activities that serve as samples of the kind of things they can do at camp. When they get to Shefayim, they arrive as individuals. By the end of the week, they leave as a group of shlichim and as shagririm - as delegates and ambassadors - of The State of Israel both to the United States in general and to their specific camps. This week, they are part of a purposeful gathering, one that prepares them to strengthen the relationship between Jewish youth in North America and Israel. Over lunch today, I sat with our Rosh Chinuch, Dr. Gabi Shetrit to discuss this week's parasha, Emor. The second half of the parashah focuses on what we call the chagim, the holidays. The Torah refers to these times as moadim, which comes from the root, yud-ayin-daled, or goal. Moadim are purposeful gatherings and the Jewish year is built around them. These gatherings are not just about people doing rituals or observances that could be done at home as individuals; rather, they are about communal experiencing of the human-Divine relationship. Passover, Shavuot, Sukkot, the Yamim Nora'im, bring the Jewish people together to consider and reconsider, to commit and to rededicate ourselves to turning the world into a place that is appropriate to be God's dwelling place. The world of Jewish camping has its own calendar, its own cycle of Moadim, of purposeful gatherings that mark the passing of the year from one camp season to the next. There is the season of evaluation and rest which arrives when camp ends. After the end of the High Holydays and the Sukkot, the next Moed arrives, the season of recruitment and retention, where we experience meaningful gatherings throughout our region, from Des Moines to Kansas City, from Lakeview to Columbus. Winter break marks the transition to the Moed of staffing when we travel the country meeting staff members, learning about their Jewish lives on campus and talking about the role camp plays for them. This also marks the Moed of general, but detailed planning. The training seminar for the shlichim marks the beginning of the Moed of the camp season. Annually, I leave this seminar with a full charge of energy and excitement about getting up to the Northwoods. And then...there is the summer, our central Moed, the time of our great joy, when camp directors get to watch all of the purposeful planning come together, when we get to see the lives of staff members and campers grow Jewishly in exponential fashion, when nearly 700 people come together for an extended gathering with the ultimate purpose is to build Jewish community, to see the future and to see God. In a few hours here in Israel, the sun will start to set and we will begin the Shabbaton Ramah of the seminar. If this year is like every previous seminar, we will feel the Shekhina, God's Divine Presence, descend on the community we have created here. The intensity of Ramah tefilot will overwhelm some. There will be conversations about Judaism in camp late into the night. Before we know it, camp will be here. Thank you to the Jewish Agency for Israel's (JAFI) Summer Shlichim Program for making this meaningful week such a success, and thank you specifically to all of those that work at JAFI in the Summer Shlichim Department for all of your hard work on our behalf and behalf of the entire Jewish People. Shabbat Shalom.