By Rabbi Steven Sirbu
Over the course of a 4-week session at Camp Harlam, each unit leads Shabbat t’filah (prayer services) once for the entire camp. It is a responsibility that some campers embrace while others are more hesitant. To help everyone participate in a way that they feel comfortable, during the preparation sessions, campers get to choose one of five groups: writing a creative English passage (usually in groups of 2-4) to be read aloud at the service, leading a Hebrew prayer, leading a song, creating a banner that will greet the camp as they arrive, or writing about the prayer experience for the Harlam blog. Two or three members of the faculty (the rabbis, cantors and educators who assist with Jewish life at Camp) advise the campers throughout the process.
This year, we introduced something new to the process—a one-hour program called nisayon (experimentation). This enabled faculty to work with their campers on a deeper level to better appreciate the act of prayer. Nisayon is not necessarily part of preparing to lead Shabbat t’filah, but in my case it was.
As faculty for Kineret (the unit for rising sixth graders), I led a program on gratitude. Campers began by writing on Post-It notes someone they were grateful for. In most cases, the answers were friends or family. Through a text study, the campers were encouraged to expand their ideas when it came to gratitude. Here is one of the three texts that they studied and discussed:
Abraham the Innkeeper
From Midrash Bereshit Rabbah (The Book of Legends, p.34)
Abraham used to welcome in travelers in the middle of the wilderness. After they had eaten and drunk, he would suggest, “Say a blessing.” When they asked, “What shall we say?” he would reply, “Say, ‘Blessed be the everlasting God of the world of whose bounty we have eaten.’”
If the traveler, having eaten and drunk accepted the suggestion and said the blessing, he would be allowed to go on his way. But if he refused, Abraham would say, “Pay me what you owe me.” When the traveler asked, “How much do I owe you?” Abraham would give him the total for wine, meat and bread, and then demand of him, “Who do you suppose is giving you wine in the wilderness, meat in the wilderness and bread in the wilderness?”
The traveler, now aware that he must either pay or thank God by saying a blessing, would say, “Blessed be the everlasting God of the world, of whose bounty we have eaten.” This is why Abraham is known (in Genesis 18:19) as a man of “charity and justice.”
From this text, Kineret campers drew two main lessons. The first was that Abraham wanted his customers to know that every meal, even one prepared and served by others, was a gift from God. The second was that Abraham was willing to give a meal away if it meant facilitating his customer’s gratitude to God. At the end of the program, campers were asked to think about the many staff whose work at Camp is often behind the scenes; it is important to be grateful even for those things that are not right in front of you.
When the day came to put these ideas into practice as they prepared to lead t’filah, Kineret campers rose to the occasion. Their writings show that they understand that gratitude is a Jewish value. As they led the camp in prayer on this theme, they will have the opportunity to teach their peers this lesson too. For a faculty member, this is the joy and opportunity of Jewish camp, one for which I am grateful.
Rabbi Steven Sirbu is the rabbi of Temple Emeth in Teaneck, NJ. He has served on Camp Harlam faculty since 2015, and has been the father of a Camp Harlam camper since 2013. He is an alumnus of URJ Camp Swig/Newman in California, where he grew up.