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By

Rabbi Aaron Goldstein

Opinion

A big shout out to our Youth Movements

April 18, 2013 16:10
3 min read

Pablo Casals, one of the world’s greatest cellists of all time was attributed as saying, “Each second we live is a new and unique moment of the universe, a moment that never was before and will never be again. And what do we teach our children in school? We teach them that two and two make four, and that Paris is the capital of France. When we will we also teach them what they are?”

Similarly, if the week’s Torah portion is as uninspiring and largely irrelevant as we are presented with, why not talk about something completely different that is!

It was with incredible surprise, delight and a hug dose of parental trepidation that my wife and I heard the announcement from our youngest daughter that she wanted to go on LJY-NETZER’s Machaneh Aviv (Spring Camp) – 6 days and 5 nights away from home. Of course we were wonderfully supportive, nurturing and encouraging. I filled in the forms with a mix of pride, elation and a humungous scream brewing inside as I conjured up images of my daughter alone on her dorm bunk, inconsolable as she pleaded time and again, ‘why didn’t they just say I was too young!?’

Although we had reports that she was homesick rather a lot on the first day and then a slightly diminishing amount each day, the returning daughter was focused purely on the incredible new friendships she had made, on showing us the friendship bracelets she had made and tales of edible skyscrapers, costume design for the escaping Israelites from Egypt and giant challah clothes, meditation and rousing prayer services, swimming everyday and sharing her goggles, saving water and being kind to animals. The latter was part of the informal learning sessions around the theme of tzedek, tzedek tirdof – justice, justice shall you pursue. Having just quizzed my daughter, I have confirmed that the concept of justice is only beginning to form in her mind but that she knows how it should be applied when I just confiscated the iPad until she did her school homework!