Welcome to the first Judaica post of August 2012. My name is Joy Getnick and I'm the Judaic Educator at Camp Seneca Lake, as well as the Jewish Program Director at the JCC of Greater Rochester. I'm thrilled to be spending my third summer here at CSL, in large part because I love being Jewish here. I love the incredible open-mindedness of the CSL community, and of the opportunities camp provides to explore who we are, who we want to be, and how we get to where we want to go.
Shabbat at CSL is a very special time. The entire camp comes together for Friday night and Saturday morning services, as well as a concluding Havdalah service on Saturday night. After Saturday morning services each bunk participates in a "Shabbat discussion," which is sometimes a discussion, sometimes a program on a select theme. This week Youngest Onondaga and Cayuga explored the five senses of Shabbat and discussed an Algerian folktale about a boy's journey to celebrate Shabbat with family. Middle Onondaga and Cayuga created murals of thanks, and Oldest Onondaga and Cayuga created images of peace. Youngest Seneca and Mohawk discussed the concept of Yisra-el: a people who struggles with God, Middle Seneca and Mohawk learned about a traditional morning prayer - Birkot HaShachar - and evaluated what types of blessings we might say in the morning, and Oldest Seneca and Mohawk shared about their role models, and what a role model or "phenomenal person" (think Maya Angelou's "Phenomenal Woman") could look like. Tusc explored how they would change Judaism (culture, tradition, law) if they could spark a "Jewish Reformation," and the LITs explored what it means to be a leader in the American Jewish community.
Thanks for all staff and returning July campers (and some friends!) who spoke at Shabbat services. :-)
Shabbat Shalom,
-Joy
Dvar, Week 5
Theme: Fresh Starts/ New Beginnings
I'd like to think of myself as a relatively centered person. I have a good sense of who I want to be, and feel confident that I am living a life I'm choosing. A few years ago I began to notice that even though I was mentally and emotionally centered, physically I was not. I often felt like the world was moving, ever so slowly, but noticeably. It was as though I was so centered, so happily immersed into the world, I could actually feel the world spin. But in a weird way. I'd walk into Wegmans and it would look like the carts were moving, and I knew they weren't, but it really looked like they were. I'd take a step aerobics class and it would seem like the walls of the gym were moving, and I'd know they weren't, but it looked like they were. Two plus years and many hours of thinking I was losing my mind later, I now know that I have Meniere's, an inner ear disorder that often causes vertigo, aka: the feeling like the world is spinning.
When I first got diagnosed last fall I was thrilled. I called a good friend and yelled "I'm not insane!!!" into the phone, to which of course she responded, "that's yet to be proven, but glad to hear about the ear." But then of course she started asking the real questions, the important questions, such as "how will this affect your life?" At the time I wasn't 100% sure. Nine months later I have a better idea, but really, it is what it is. In a recent talk with that same girlfriend she asked what I'd do differently if I'd known that randomly this would happen. She asked what I'd do now if I could have a fresh start. I remember being surprised by the question. It's interesting to ponder how we'd live our lives over again if given the chance.
In this week's parasha Va'etchanan, Moses argues with God for a fresh start. Moses argues that he should be allowed to enter the Promised Land, and that it wasn't his fault the Israelites went astray. Moses argues with God for a second chance, but God says no. In fact, God tells Moses never to speak of this again. Moses’ past was too tainted; the decision had been made. Moses was left with two choices: he could spend whatever time he had left complaining about his plight, or he could learn from his flawed path, evaluate his reality, and do his best to ensure that even though he couldn’t lead the Israelites into Israel, the Israelites' future was bright. To that end, Joshua is selected to lead the Israelites into the Promised Land.
Vertigo or otherwise, the world spins really fast. One day we're five, and the next we're eighteen. We can't go back and time and change the choices we've made. We can't go back and live our lives again. For me, when the world starts to spin so so quickly, I stop and try to recenter. I focus on something stable far away, take deep breaths, and dig my heels into the ground, cementing myself in the earth. The Meniere's has helped remind me of the importance of being where I am, of centering myself in the world I'm actually in, not a world that could or might be. As Moses learned in Va'etchanan, we can't erase our past, but if we try, we can change our attitude about our life situation for the positive. We can recenter ourselves where we are, good and bad, and then move from there into a brighter future. Shabbat Shalom.
