How lucky am I that I get to write our blog, this week out of all weeks? Mah nishtanah hashavua hazeh? (That’s a little belated-Passover joke for you) What’s different about this week from all other weeks? This week, we begin the book of Deuteronomy in our annual reading of the Torah. At the beginning of the portion, the Israelites are right outside of Eretz Yisrael (the Land of Israel) and Moses starts recounting to them their past adventures, before they continue on the new one. What perfect timing! We have just finished one session of adventures and are embarking on another! So, let me do my best impression of Moses and recount some of our recent adventures…
The passage of time at camp can become blurry. In a world where “the days are like weeks and the weeks are like days,” time becomes arrhythmic. The Jewish tradition, however, offers a steady metronome: a persistent, periodic parting of time, according to which we can conduct our lives… Shabbat. Here, in Bruceville, I have oriented myself in the swirling excitement of camp by using the consistency of our customs… I can hear it is Thursday when campers begin coordinating their Shabbat outfits. I can taste it is Friday when “Shabbat Sha-brownies” and schnitzel fill our plates. I can feel Shabbat drift into camp as the breeze from Lake Jake blows through the leaves of Beit Knesset’s massive tree. I can smell the new week beginning with the smoke of our Havdalah campfire.
Just this week, our Session Two campers decorated their Bunk Tallitot, under which they will stand tonight for the first time as we bless them with the Priestly Benediction. Why do I love this so much? Jewish Mysticism teaches us about this week’s Torah portion by saying that whoever speaks in praise of their children must shower them with blessings (Zohar, Bamidbar 1:11). Here at GFC, we cannot say enough positive things about our campers, so I am honored that once a week we get to fulfill this teaching and bless them. Beneath these sukkot shalom (shelters of peace) of the campers’ own design, we can embody the exact mission of GFC: to bless and keep our campers, to show them grace and peace in a safe-space that they help build!
And possibly my favorite part of this whole thing? How does Moses describe the Israelites in the exact same verse about which the Zohar is teaching? The same way we welcome in every new week, around a moonlit campfire: Stars in the sky.
B’chesed,
“J-Life” Jack