HaMirpeset Shelanu 106: From Jacob Cytryn, Assistant Director
During the past week I've immersed myself, again, in the rewarding and inspiring interactions that characterize interviewing our alumni and veteran staff for the upcoming summer. In Munster, IN and Minneapolis and St. Paul, MN, and on the campuses of the University of Wisconsin-Madison, the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, and the University of Minnesota, I met with nearly forty prospective staff members. (Rabbi Sykes, as he wrote about last week, is in Israel meeting with prospective and veteran Israeli and American staff.) Along with those conversations (and motivated, in part, by the extremely mild temperatures in the Midwest this week), my mind also turns inevitably to the summer ahead.
This week's parashah, Beshalach, has at its core shirat hayam, "the Song of the Sea" (Exodus 15:1-18), and because of that song this Shabbat is called Shabbat Shirah. This is one of my favorite portions of the year to read from the Torah itself because of the magnificent poetry, rhythm, and music of the entire story, including the prose narrative. And it reminds me of the power that song has to inspire and motivate us, to shape our lives.
Beginning in 2010 and continuing now into its third summer, Camp Ramah in Wisconsin has undertaken an attempt at cultural change to radically improve the camp's relationship with Jewish song, our repertoire, and the quality of our songleading. This is part of a tapestry of song that stretches from our annual production of Broadway musicals in Hebrew to the musical melodies and chants of prayer services, the soulful outpourings of our older campers' singing on Saturday evening to accompany the end of Shabbat, and a reinvigorated culture of singing in the dining halls after meals.
Each staff member I spoke to this week has their own story about camp, the way it has influenced their Jewish identity (and quite often their family's), and their hopes and dreams for the summer ahead. Listening to a radio show yesterday in the Twin Cities that was celebrating poet Langston Hughes's 110th birthday, I was reminded that, in addition to our Jewish heritage of song, a major theme of American poetry is finding a voice to sing each of our individual songs, a combination of American exuberance and individualism stretching back, at least, to Walt Whitman.
For the Children of Israel, rescued by a God who is active in history on the banks of the Sea of Reeds, song is a way of expressing the exuberance of liberation. For Whitman and Hughes, their "songs" embraced the abundances of America: geography, agriculture, hope, and dreams. In different avenues around camp, song - as written word and vocalized music - takes on different meanings, capturing the essence of our freedom as Jewish Americans; our ties to the Land, State, or People of Israel; the spirituality of Shabbat; and so much more.
As I continue to embark on staff interviews over the next few weeks, our renewed efforts to bring Shirah - song - to every corner of the camp, and the personal "songs" of each staff member, will accompany me, as will the original, magnificent context of the Song of the Sea which we read this week and that we directly allude to three times each day in our liturgy.
May all of us enjoy this Shabbat Shirah as we enjoy songs of all types and continue to write our own.
This week's parashah, Beshalach, has at its core shirat hayam, "the Song of the Sea" (Exodus 15:1-18), and because of that song this Shabbat is called Shabbat Shirah. This is one of my favorite portions of the year to read from the Torah itself because of the magnificent poetry, rhythm, and music of the entire story, including the prose narrative. And it reminds me of the power that song has to inspire and motivate us, to shape our lives.
Beginning in 2010 and continuing now into its third summer, Camp Ramah in Wisconsin has undertaken an attempt at cultural change to radically improve the camp's relationship with Jewish song, our repertoire, and the quality of our songleading. This is part of a tapestry of song that stretches from our annual production of Broadway musicals in Hebrew to the musical melodies and chants of prayer services, the soulful outpourings of our older campers' singing on Saturday evening to accompany the end of Shabbat, and a reinvigorated culture of singing in the dining halls after meals.
Each staff member I spoke to this week has their own story about camp, the way it has influenced their Jewish identity (and quite often their family's), and their hopes and dreams for the summer ahead. Listening to a radio show yesterday in the Twin Cities that was celebrating poet Langston Hughes's 110th birthday, I was reminded that, in addition to our Jewish heritage of song, a major theme of American poetry is finding a voice to sing each of our individual songs, a combination of American exuberance and individualism stretching back, at least, to Walt Whitman.
For the Children of Israel, rescued by a God who is active in history on the banks of the Sea of Reeds, song is a way of expressing the exuberance of liberation. For Whitman and Hughes, their "songs" embraced the abundances of America: geography, agriculture, hope, and dreams. In different avenues around camp, song - as written word and vocalized music - takes on different meanings, capturing the essence of our freedom as Jewish Americans; our ties to the Land, State, or People of Israel; the spirituality of Shabbat; and so much more.
As I continue to embark on staff interviews over the next few weeks, our renewed efforts to bring Shirah - song - to every corner of the camp, and the personal "songs" of each staff member, will accompany me, as will the original, magnificent context of the Song of the Sea which we read this week and that we directly allude to three times each day in our liturgy.
May all of us enjoy this Shabbat Shirah as we enjoy songs of all types and continue to write our own.