The last week of Judaica was really fantastic. Youngest Cayuga and Onondaga learned about the bedtime Shema and then decorated pillowcases, middle Onondaga and Cayuga discussed our worst and best days and reflected on the power we have to set our own attitude, while oldest Onondaga and Cayuga did a really creative program about kibbutzim and community in which the campers spent some time reading and creating maps before discussing how a community's design can teach us about that community's priorities. Youngest and Middle Seneca and Mohawk had particularly unique Judaica periods. They were silent for 35 minutes (really) while going through a traditional four-leveled Jewish meditation followed by a hitbodedut (group scream/release of energy) and debriefing. The campers were AWESOME, and the meditations couldn't have gone better. Tusc spent a lot of time in Judaica, as the village not only concluded its summer-long Judaica curriculum by watching West Bank Story, a short award-winning film about a Romeo and Juliet-like love story in the West Bank, but also spent many hours preparing for Tusc Shabbat! The theme of Tusc Shabbat was "teachable moments" to reflect the learning and growth that has taken place in Tuscarora this summer. The campers really went above and beyond to make Tusc Shabbat special, including building a symbolic staircase to the Fire Circle and using lights and candles to illuminate the service in new ways. As Saturday was the last full day of camp, discussion periods were substituted with packing and clean-up, thus ensuring ample time for village activities and league culminations. Tusc Shabbat provided a beautiful Judaic closure to CSL 2010. See below for my D'var from this weeks service.
Thanks for a great summer!
Joy Newman
Dvar – Friday night – Week 7
Theme: Teachable Moments
A few years ago I skipped Yom Kippur services. I told my youth group kids that I was attending services on campus, and I told my friends at school that I was attending services at synagogue, but in reality I stayed home in my apartment, watched old episodes of Friends, and ate lunch. Really. While most Jews spent that day fasting and reflecting as a community, I spent the day eating and reflecting, alone with my “Friends.”
At the time I skipped Yom Kippur services I was going through a period in my life when I was rejecting organized religion. Keep in mind that despite my personal conflicts I continued to work in the Jewish community. I taught Jewish music in a Sunday school. I worked, on both the chapter and regional levels, for a youth group. During this time of “rejection” I staffed a Birthright trip. I led a Jewish teen trip to LA. I did things like eat in a sukkah with my youth group teens – an event I planned and for which I got a whole group of high schoolers really pumped – but I didn’t build my own sukkah. I was in a Jewish funk.
I wasn’t in a “spiritual” funk, but rather simply a “Jewish” funk in which I rejected the idea that other Jews – whether rabbis, youth group directors, peers, or family – got to decide how I celebrated and observed my faith. The way I looked at Judaism, there were 613 mitzvot or “commandments,” and all were equally important and worth trying. I just didn’t understand why kashrut was more important than say…paying your workers on daily basis, or building a ledge around your roof so workers don’t fall off, both of which are Jewish laws found in this week’s parasha, Ki Taytzay. In fact, this week’s parasha contains seventy-two of the Torah’s 613 mitzvot, many of which teach us how to live a moral, ethical life. In Ki Taytzay we are told that runaway slaves should not be returned to their masters but rather allowed to live free, that individuals can only be held responsible for the crimes they personally commit, and that it is the community’s responsibility to provide for the needs of the stranger, orphan, and widow.
Jewish tradition encourages us to follow all 613 mitzvot under the premise that by following the laws we will come to understand and appreciate them. Rather than first learn about the laws and then decide whether or not they will work for us, we are taught to observe the laws, and learn by doing. This is a tradition I hold dear. There are times when I am enamored with Jewish traditions, and times when I am disgusted by Jewish traditions, but no matter my mood, I find that I’m constantly re-evaluating my Jewish observance, and seeing what works for me at a given time and place. Time after time I find myself returning to aspects of Judaism that previously held little meaning, only to find that a tradition I had previously rejected was exactly for what I now yearned.
Each of our spiritual journeys are different. There will be times when you embrace God, and times when you reject God. There will be times when you love Jewish tradition, and times when you hate Jewish tradition, times when you love specific Jewish laws and customs, and times when you want to skip Yom Kippur and watch Friends in an empty apartment while eating an entire can of Pringles. Judaism, like life, is a journey. Sometimes we’ll know exactly where we’re going, sometimes we’ll take wrong turns, and sometimes we’ll go in circles. The important thing to remember is that those wrong turns are just as important as the “right” turns, and that we learn about Judaism by practicing it, but living it. Jewish traditions and laws exist to serve as a guide for how to live an ethical and moral life. Some laws will speak to us more than others, and that’s ok. The important thing is that we stay connected, even in small ways, to Jewish community, and to faith, because you never know when a Jewish tradition or law will provide the type of “teachable moment” you so desperately needed, or when it will help illuminate something about yourself you otherwise never would have known.
