By Rabbi Rachel Marks, Assistant Rabbi at Congregation Shalom in Milwaukee, WI and Tiferet Segel

I believe that OSRUI can be likened to a book in the “Choose Your Own Adventure” series.  The chanichim (campers) choose which eidah (unit) to enter.  Once they’ve made this choice, the adventure begins to unfold.  This summer, the adventure that I have chosen is to be on segel (faculty) for Tiferet, the eidah that places an emphasis on the fine arts through the lens of Judaism.

Having joined the eidah for the second half of the session, I have been blown away by the talent, creativity, thoughtfulness, and kindness of the chanichim and the madrichim (counselors).  The energy and enthusiasm that is consistently brought to original pieces of art, theater, dance, and music is simply astounding.

A few days ago, I had the privilege of sitting with Kitah Kof, one of the ivrit (Hebrew) groups, to plan tefilot (services) that they would lead for the rest of the eidah.  I simply posed the question, “What do you guys, as shlichei tzibur (prayer leaders) want to convey to your peers?”  With that one question, the floodgates opened, and the ideas came pouring through.  These teenagers decided that they wanted their peers to be able to fully experience the prayers in a different way, so we would travel around to different places at camp that spoke to the essence of each prayer.  Each of the chanichim (campers) composed beautiful words to explain their location choices.

About one third of the way through the service, as the eidah finished our private recitations of the Shema & V’ahavta scattered all around Bayit Hill, madrichim from Chalutzim began setting up for their game of British Hagannah.  Before we knew it, there were fireworks, horses, and people running every which way.  You see, our adventures had collided!  While we were experiencing the essence of the prayers, another eidah was learning experientially about the experience of the Jews who attempted to enter pre-state Israel while it was under British control.  While this run-in was certainly not planned, it served as a reminder to us all about all of the fabulous adventures in living Judaism and experiential Jewish education that are constantly happening all over OSRUI.