Rabbi Gelb’s “Beyond the Bunks” & Friday Night Drash
Rabbi Gelb shares his weekly “Beyond the Bunks” message:
Shalom Ramah New England Parents,
Friday nights at Camp Ramah are very special. The whole camp gathers together in the grove to celebrate Kabbalat Shabbat. The order of events are a rikud and shira presented by the edah of the week, a song by the tzevet choir, a d’var Torah from yours truly and then Kabbalat and Maariv led by a camper from the edah in charge. This year, I have focused my divrei Torah on two different themes and often connecting them to thoughts on God. The first is going deep into seudah shlishit songs we sing and the second is how we build the Ramah kehilah (community). My talk Friday night was about the difference between heaven and hell, givers and takers and how we make Ramah special for each other. I’m no great orator, but this one did catch the fancy of the chanichim and I got fist bumps for the first time afterwards from many. The chanichim do know of my love for John Wooden and I quote him often. I also drop a movie reference that many of you will catch.
The new Mercaz Omanut opened on the first day of chugim (activities) this session. It is amazing! It is multiple sizes bigger than our previous, located in the center of camp and is air conditioned. The art center boasts a main room for many different “messy” arts, a ceramics studio, separate rooms for arts like digital photography, sewing or things that don’t generally require water, a dance/martial arts studio and a teaching kitchen.
My philosophy is that there are different entry points into meaningful Judaism and that different ones will attract kids at different times. I also believe that kids can discover their passions at camp and that we should give them breadth of experience along with allowing them to develop deeper skills. The key areas that we have had tried to develop at camp are the arts, the outdoors (farm, garden, climbing towers and nature), sports including the waterfront and experiential Jewish education. With the opening of the new arts center, we now have great art, sports and outdoor facilities for our chanichim to enjoy.
This week begins our Kishroniyah program. It is a specialty camp within a camp that we run second session that allows campers to choose one activity to choose from to dive deeply into. Maghsimim and Bogrim get four two hour sessions and Machon and Nivonim get six. Many of our leaders also offer “tastes” to our A side and Tikvah campers in one hour workshops. You will see more coverage of this throughout the week. Offerings include Basketball, Mural, Ultimate Frisbee, Robotics, A Capella, Filmaking, Glass-Fusing, Jewelry, Mosaics, Producing a Musical, Life Guard certification (Machon and Nivonim only), Podcasting and Puppet-Making.
One of my favorite things at camp is early morning boating. Tzrifim (bunks) can sign up to go. This picture is from Friday and boating in the mist is, well, mystical. As I am writing, another tzrif if getting ready to go out.
Shavua Tov,
Rabbi Ed Gelb, CEO