By our Tiferet Segel: Rabbi Andi Cosnowsky, Associate Rabbi at Congregation Etz Chaim in Lombard, IL and Cantor Vicky Glikin, Cantor at Congregation Solel in Highland Park, IL

Tiferet Art Studio is the part of the camp that is dedicated to celebrating Judaism through art.  Each day is as unique as the moment we come together in the morning.  We gather as the soft fog settles over the tree tops.  The dew that first kissed the grass now settles on the bottom of shoes as the chanichim (campers) line up to enter the outdoor sanctuary, while our songleaders play guitars and call out page numbers in Hebrew.  The sounds of youthful voices combine with the neighing of horses and the hum of the morning quietly calling us to pray and contemplate life in an artful way.

After our morning tefillah, we go to the chadar ochel (dining hall) to eat, to learn some Hebrew words and sing songs and dance.  The ruach (spirit) of song and joy is palpable as the campers are fully engaged in learning and are captured in the moment.  After we eat, sing and dance, we adjourn to our studios to create art in our own special ways.  Our topic this year, B’reisheet Rabbah – the stories that accompany the text of the Torah, are our guides.  Some campers experience the Torah through drama, others through movement and dance.  The digital arts studio is busy gathering video images of camp life happening under the gaze of their lens, to be compiled later into a video to be viewed by the entire camp during Shabbat Shira. Still others are creating worlds to explore musically, whether it’s on a piano, guitar, oboe or cello.  The visual art studio is alive with creation of painting and drawing.  Each camper is fully present in his or her art – experiencing the moment where nothingness meets the moment of inspiration and becomes a work of creation to be celebrated.

By evening, after a day of creating in our studios, as well as going swimming, doing sports and learning more Hebrew, we come back together for evening tfillah. We contemplate the day while the sun sets and the night comes alive with a backdrop of light from fireflies and shooting stars.

Tiferet is alive with the act of creation – making memories of a magical summer, which will last a lifetime.