Twenty-five years ago, or so, I sat down in a room with a dozen or so people and came up with a framework for an overnight summer camp that didn’t exist yet, what would be the first camp in the Reconstructionist movement. We decided we would frame it around values Mordecai Kaplan taught, which are the core of Jewish identity – believing, belonging, and behaving. Hebrew would also be essential, tradition of course, and joy. It would be like other Jewish overnight camps, but it would be our own, filled with our own prayers and traditions. A few years later the first camp would open, a few years after that it would find its forever home in the Pocono Mountains.
For more than a decade I have spent a week at Camp Havaya each summer to be there for my kids and to spend time in the space I helped to create. It may not be exactly what we conceived a quarter century, but it is a living, breathing entity that is beloved by everyone who has a chance to spend time in it, so much better than we could have ever even have imagined when we started the planning process.
This week’s Torah portion, Ve’etchanan, contains the theological pillars of the Jewish people in the form of the Ten Commandments and the Shema and V’Ahavta. The essence of Judaism is contained in this seminal reading. And, while Judaism has adapted and changed over millennia, what we read this week are words that are still central to our DNA. It lays the foundation for all that follows. Just as I feel a great deal of pride and gratitude walking around the Camp Havaya campgrounds, we should all feel that sense of pride knowing our faith is something we have all built together. When we read the words of our essential prayers this week, may we know that they are ours and that they are holy.
Shabbat Shalom,
Rabbi Alex