By Rabbi Michael Schadick, Temple Emanuel in Grand Rapids, MI and Moshavah Segel

Na, Na, and more Na.  How wonderful it is for me to help teach the chanichim in Moshavah Bet some of the most important Jewish lessons from our prophets and kings.  These come to us from the second book of the TaNaCH, the book of Nevi’im.  With much shtick and plenty of serious discussion these eternal values are being embraced with lots of enthusiasm.

This morning we used a modified form of the game of ultimate frisbee to learn about the quest for peace and the prophet Isaiah.  Divided into top bunks and bottom bunks, and the colors of blue and white, the chanichim were told that before they began to play the game, teams would not be able to communicate using traditional language, either between themselves or with the opposing team.  Each team was charged with creating a language or specific gestures to be used during play.

The idea, from the organization known as Ultimate Peace, encourages participants to be creative in their conflict resolution, with respect, integrity, non-violence, friendship, and fun as overarching values of the experience. There are no referees during the game. Ultimate Peace brings this model of play all over the world, including to Israel.  Our chanichim had to figure out how to resolve disagreements during the game, and this was very challenging without the use of English or Hebrew or any traditional language.

We were delighted to welcome Dani Glass from Ultimate Peace to camp to speak at the end of the games.  She shared with us her experiences working with Israelis and Palestinians.  “We need to reach them when they are still young,” she said. We ended our limud session singing the words of the prophet Isaiah, who envisioned a world at peace, in which one nation would not lift up sword against another nation nor ever again know war.

And that is some pretty good Na.