Friends,
Once again, I am so privileged and grateful to be spending time at this wonderful Jewish summer camp, Ramah of the Rockies. An astonishing number of campers (chalutzim) and staff (tzevet) from Bonai Shalom are here this session, which officially started on Tuesday. There are 19 kids who are connected to Bonai here as campers, and 4 members of staff who either grew up in our shul or became involved more recently! It is so wonderful to be able to walk around and recognize so many smiling faces engaged in the various activities indoors and outdoors, from morning prayer to biking to singing to art to rock climbing.
There are also 35 young Israelis on the staff, many of whom came straight here from serving in the army or other national service. There is very thoughtful, intentional and age appropriate space created for them to share their experiences as they have this beautiful mountain camp as respite from the trauma of such an awful and devastating year. Mostly they just want to be seen and known for the lovely, kind humans that they are as they devote themselves to the beautiful young hearts, minds and souls who are here for the summer!
One of the sections we read in the Torah tomorrow, Parshat Beha'olatecha (Numbers 8:1-12:16), is the description of the silver trumpets that Moses was instructed to make; they are used to call people together, to signal a time to move from the camp, as alarms for war, invitations for celebration and calls to action. As the war in Israel and Gaza continues and antisemitism increases, there is such a power in this story of the piercing sounds of these trumpets and, for me, especially in the joyful, transformative environment of a Jewish summer camp. In a poignant piece on this week's parsha, Rabbi Asher Lopatin says:
"We need loud, piercing horns to be blown to make sure we can see who we really are through the haze of the antisemitism and anti-Jewish bias that surrounds us."
There has been plenty of research about the positive impact of Jewish camps on future identity and I certainly feel that here as I walk around this sacred land and absorb the energy of these young Jews in formation. I look forward to a joyous Shabbat here at Ramah where the values of knowledge, empathy, awareness, connections, love and action, shown in the image above, are lived every day!
Wherever we are this Shabbat, may we also be inspired to express and practice our Judaism and Jewishness strongly and positively, as we continue to pray and act for the release of the hostages in Gaza and an end to the war, and peace in our streets and on our campuses. May we hear those ancient trumpets calling us in ways that give us strength and hope!
Shabbat Shalom
Rabbi Marc
