In addition to leading songs at Shabbat this week as I usually do, I also spoke on the theme of Jewish camping and how it has affected my identity. Below is the text of my speech.
The late author David Foster Wallace began his commencement address at Kenyon College with a parable about two fish swimming in an ocean. The first one asks, "How are you finding the water today?" They keep swimming along for a while, until eventually the other one asks, "What the hell is water?
Wallace used the tale to illustrate the importance of not being afraid to ask questions in order to better understand the world around us and empathize with our fellow man. As Jews, asquint questions is a vital part of our tradition (i.e. mah nishtanah halila hazeh), and life at Jewish camp should be no different. Learn all that you can. Understand why we don't eat cheeseburgers, bacon, or shrimp at camp. Question why we wend every meal with the birkat hamazon. Ask David and I about the significance of the head coverings we wear at services.
Jewish camping and the nature of my role in it has pushed me to be similarly inquisitive about my own identity. Prior to coming to camp, I hadn't been to a Friday night Shabat service since my bar mitzvah, and the thought of leading one on a weekly basis seemed daunting to say the least. Needless to say, the experience has been beautiful, eye-opening, and it's brought me to ask "What the hell is water?"-esque questions about my own identity--why do I fast on Yom Kippur but do nothing for Rosh Hashanah? Why do I feel a need to light candles on Hanukkah but not Shabat? Why do I refuse to eat bread during Pesach but have no such reservations about eating pork? I don't think that the answers to any of these questions are quick or easy, but I do feel that being in an environment like this one has made me more eager to pursue them.
I'll leave you with one more thought from Wallace. When asked in an interview about the importance of fiction, he responded, "Literature is what it is to be a human being." I'd go a step further and add that religion is also what it is to be a human being. Whether or not we always like or want to see it, the various aspect of religion reflect what make us human--the desire to identify with a group, the need for a moral code, the obligation to observe specified rituals. I encourage each and every one of you to utilize this environment to question and learn as much as you can about these aspects. This is water.
Shabat shalom.
Music Specialist
Max Bledstein
