Jewish Education at Camp Ramah

Eliav — Tue, 14 May 2013 02:47:02 +0000

Each summer we pick an educational theme on which to build our program. In past summers, we have chosen themes related to Holy Space—Makom(ot) Kadosh(im), and the basic elements of fire, earth, water and wind. This summer we will be exploring the theme from Pirkei Avot (Ethics of our Fathers) 5:24 of haphoch ba-haphoch ba, d’kolai ba—literally “turn it and turn it for everything is in it.” To fully understand this text it is important to discuss what the object of “it” is. Most commentators understand the statement to refer implicitly to the Torah. They are saying: the more you literally “turn” the Torah by examining its texts, the more you will find in it. The Torah is not just the words written on parchment, but also the myriad of commentaries that have been written since. The Torah includes untold tomes, written and spoken, of the oral Torah that have been written and studied every day around the world since Sinai. The Torah includes our own modern day understandings of what it means to live a Jewish life. In many way, the Torah in itself is also a metaphor—a metaphor for living a committed, passionate and purposeful life. Last week, on our final monthly pre-camp staff-conference call, we introduced this theme to our summer staff. We asked them to begin to reflect on what it means for a community to live with this intense sense of introspection where questions are celebrated and re-interpretations are encouraged. We explored ways in which this theme might play out in our programing throughout the summer. Sarah Shulman, our education director, shared a text with the group from Israeli poet Eliaz Cohen called “Shema Adonai”. In this poem, a modern day Israeli poet challenges the reader to look at the traditional Shema, the most basic of Jewish texts, in a new and provocative way—using the lens of the current political situation in Israel. In reading his poem, one gains a greater appreciation for one of our core Jewish texts, one that many of us recite multiple times each day! While some parents, especially those with teenagers, might think that their child does not need any additional help asking questions and challenging assumptions, we believe that to be a committed Jew means to constantly be in dialogue with oneself and with others about one’s religious beliefs and communal assumptions. Our goal at camp is to create a community of people who are willing to engage in deep and meaningful discussions about Jewish texts and the future of our Jewish community. We do this during our formal limmud (study) sessions, we do this during informal activities throughout the ranch and we do this on shabbat during Torah Reading when the goal is to ask higher level questions about the text. Ultimately, we want to make sure that the discussions lead to productive actions, not just during the summer but also when our campers return home to their own families, schools and communal institutions. On Tuesday, the first night of Shavuot, Jews throughout the world will stay up into the wee hours of the morning engaged in Jewish study. At its core, Jewish study is about learning, challenging, and then doing. Or said more succinctly, “haphoch ba-haphoch ba, d’kolai ba”. Those of us at camp this summer will have a chance to engage in this mitzvah for up to nine weeks straight, beginning in only a few short weeks!

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