As a child I always hated packing up my sleeping bag. It was big and fluffy and somehow had to be shoved into a bag so small it could barely carry crackers. I would roll it and reroll it and then roll it again, all in the futile attempt of getting it to fit just right. After a while of struggling, I would call over an adult who would calmly do the exact same steps I had just done and manage to actually get it to fit with only a few bits of fluff sticking out. It was so stressful, I would have nightmares about it.
Because of this, I’m not sure if I would have made a very good Levite. Back in the wilderness, packing and unpacking the traveling Tabernacle, or mishkan, was their primary role. So complex was the setup of this ancient synagogue, it required not one, but three sets of families in charge of its various responsibilities. As we learn in this week’s Torah portion, Nasso, the Kohathites were in charge of transporting the key ritual items – the Table of the Shewbread (Showbread), the Ark of the Covenant, and the Menorah. The Gershonites oversaw the soft furnishings like the curtains and the inner and outer coverings. And the Merarites were in charge of the heavy equipment like the wooden frames and the tent pegs. This was hard work, holy work, and would have made my struggles to pack my sleeping bag look incidental.
Today, the skills of these ancient priestly families are best exemplified by our modern-day scouts. The scouting movement is one of the few places in greater society to fully embrace the Jewish community. Starting one hundred years ago in 1926, the National Jewish Committee on scouting was formed. At one of the peak times of antisemitism in American history – only a few years after huge quotas were placed on the ability of Jews to enter our country – scouting welcomed us in. By the 1950s there were well over 1,000 active Jewish troops, including one in Western New York. At Congregation Shir Shalom we have member families who have been involved in scouting for over three generations. In Israel, the Tzofim, or Hebrew scouts, there are over 100,000 Israeli youth involved in scouting, with over 200 individual troops. It is by far the largest youth activity in the entire country.
This Friday, our local Jewish Committee on Scouting will celebrate our annual Scout Shabbat. Dozens of Jewish troops in both Girl Scouts and Scouting will announce awards, give honors, and celebrate their accomplishments. We have been proud to host and are most proud that this long-standing tradition in our community continues. I am grateful to Leah Romeo who has served as our Jewish chair the past few years and who helps organize our service. While we may no longer have the Mishkan, the dedication of our young people and their families to setting up and taking down their tents would have made our ancestors proud.
Shabbat Shalom,
Rabbi Alex