Parshat D’varim: Retelling the Story of Camp

Dear OSRUI Families,

It has a been a great first week of camp for the 400 campers who arrived on Tuesday! We are settled into cabins and tents, have started to build our communities in our units, and have had the first opportunities to enjoy the great parts of camp. (Our Chalutzim campers, who have been here for a month already, had a fun week as well, enjoying a three-day canoe trip!)

This week’s Torah portion, D’varim, marks the beginning of the fifth, and final, book of the Torah. The fifth book, also called D’varim, or Deuteronomy, retells much of the previous books of the Torah in the form of speeches from Moses which offer interpretation of previous events.

On Monday this week, between sessions, we talked with our staff about the timeliness of reading D’varim this week. Just as the Torah retells the story in a different way, a new session at camp offers the same opportunity. For those of you have that have sent campers to OSRUI for years, you know that each year and each session is uniquely different. Sure, pieces like Shabbat Shira and swimming endure from year-to-year, and there are traditions at camp that live on for generations, but what is core to camp is the opportunity that each new summer and session represents a chance to tell a new version of the same story.

In two days, our Tour La’Agam campers depart camp for their 1,000-mile journey by bicycle around Lake Michigan. The route stays largely the same each year but every summer, as a different group makes their way around the lake, they have the chance to tell a new story about their experience, just as the book of D’varim does. They have been training all week (including a 60-mile bike ride to the Trek Bicycle factory) and are ready to offer their own interpretation of the trip.

On Fridays, our campers engage in special Shabbat Preparation activities. These activities can include challah baking, singing, nikayon (cleaning), and writing thank you cards to people around camp for helping to keep camp running smoothly. These preparation activities play an important role in separating the week from Shabbat where we have a chance to catch our breath and take a break from the daily schedule. Just as the book of D’varim is the chance to reflect on the previous books of the Torah, I look forward to reflecting on the first week of the session this Shabbat with your campers, as we prepare for another great retelling of the story that is camp next week!

Shabbat shalom,

Solly