With stomachs full of buttered and jammed biscuits, Sollelim me and her friends walked back to lower roads, hiking up to tzrif (bunk) 20 to begrudgingly participate in nikayon (cabin clean up) after breakfast. Her bunkmates shuffled in, carefully examining the nikayon chart to see which jobs were delegated to which person on that day. Under the name, “Shiri” read “dustpan, יָעֶה.” She sat on her bottom bunk in the corner, twiddling her thumbs until the sweeper was ready to sweep the dust pile into the dustpan. While the hour-long morning cleanup session seemed tedious and boring, at the end of the perek (period), the tzrif was near spotless. Without everyone completing their jobs, we would not have had the positive outcome of a clean tzrif. As a 5th grader, I struggled to understand why we had to perform our chores from the nikayon chart. Now I know that Nikayon served me with my first dose of humility, teaching me that Camp is about togetherness and community building. If my friends and I could individually put our wants and needs aside for an hour to help clean up around the tzrif, we would all benefit from living in a clean space.
This week’s Parsha, Vayikra, starts the beginning of a new book in the Torah. At the start of the chapter, G-d calls Moses to enter his Sanctuary for the first time. The verse states, “Vayikra-el Moshe,” “And G-d called to Moses.” The word “Vayikra” is written down in the Torah with a small aleph instead of a normal-sized one. According to Baal HaTurim’s commentary, the reduction in the aleph size symbolizes an integral part of Moses’s character, humility. Humility is a characteristic praised in the Torah. While the Talmud teaches us not to be too extreme, this teaching does not apply to the concept of humility. Rather, true humility is practiced at extremes by some of the chief influences of Judaism, like Abraham, Moses, Sanhedrin Rabbi Hillel, Maimonides and many more.
Humility is a fundamental part of the Jewish identity shaping values that we learn at Camp, helping us to understand something much greater, kehillah (community).
Beyond what we learn in our Yahadut (Judaics) classes and tzevet Limmud (staff learning), humility is a fundamental part of the Jewish identity shaping values that we learn at Camp. While every chanich and every tzevet member is given a unique opportunity to shine at Ramah Darom, Camp teaches us humility so that we can understand something much greater, kehillah (community).
This past year, we’ve had to internalize and apply the humility we learn at Camp differently. Staying quarantined, safely distanced and masked throughout this already year-long pandemic, has taught us humility. Understanding that to protect our family, friends, and strangers, we are obligated to take such measures. While many of us were upset about the loss of a Kayitz (Summer) 2020 experience face-to-face, humility helped us understand that to keep the members of our kehillah as safe as possible; we had to go =virtual. The good news is that hundreds of chanichim participated in various creative online programs during Kayitz Babayit (Summer at Home).
Shiri Abramson, Ramah Service Corps Fellow