I've just had the most interesting couple of days up at Ramah in the Berkshires. Camp itself has been over for a week or so, but the place is taken over (as it is every summer and, I believe, as every Ramah is) by the United Synagogue Youth for an encampment that attracts several hundred kids to camp. It's not just USY, however, that is there. Kadima, the movement's youth group for middle-schoolers, is also present and, all together, they create an extraordinary community that lives every minute of its nine-day life to the fullest. I wish you all could have been there with me! (I wasn't alone either--I went up with Adam Watstein, our rabbinic intern for this year at Shelter Rock. And we both had a terrific time.) What's exceptional about encampment is the speed at which things happen.

These kids don't have months to get to know each other. They don't have weeks to try things out, to experiment with different activities, to try things out slowly. They have nine days...and then it's all over until next year. So it's interesting to see how the reality of a pre-imposed time frame energizes the effort to create a community. Friendships form immediately.

Tasks that would take months to get organized in the real world are undertaken and accomplished in a matter of days. Skills are acquired quickly...and there is (almost) no time for dilly-dallying or, worse, for whining. Instead, people learn what they need to know almost amazingly quickly and efficiently...including skills like Torah reading that we usually think of as unmasterable without months, or at least weeks, of training. I liked watching all these young people setting themselves with vigor and passion to creating a community. And, as I watched them engaged in building a kind of society-and engaged wholly by the larger enterprise, not slightly or tentatively-I found myself wondering how different our world would be if people began to relate to real life in a similar way.

We live in a world in which people, terrified of having to live later on with the aftereffects of premature enthusiasm, end up valorizing procrastination as nothing more than thoughtful deliberation. Generally speaking, of course, looking before you leap is an excellent plan. But there is a profound difference between proceeding thoughtfully and carefully, and moving forward through life so painfully slowly that it takes years to accomplish what our USYers manage to accomplish in a week and two days. In nine days, a Jewish community comes into existence. Boys (and girls!) who don't know how to put on tefillin are taught how to put them on. People who want to read Torah are given a chance. Kids who haven't ever lead a prayer service and who don't think they ever could are encouraged to try. In the real world, no one moves that quickly. And, probably, no one could, or even should...nor are we wrong to expect a certain level of expertise from those who would lead us in prayer or read the Torah aloud in synagogue. But it's inspiring to see these kids daring to step up, throwing inhibition to the wind, agreeing to read a weekday aliyah from the Torah, taking a chance, jumping right in. I suppose I came away thinking that we could learn from these kids...that the only true prerequisite for participating in synagogue life is a willingness to learn and the nerve to do something in public for the first time without an ironclad guarantee of success.

Anyway, encampment was great. What I really wanted to say to you all is that, if you have kids or grandchildren the right age for Kadima or USY (which would be all kids from seventh grade through the end of high school), this is absolutely where they need to be the last nine days of August next year. The singing in the dining hall was deafening. The enthusiasm was incredible. The friendly way the kids related to each other, including to people they hadn't known a day earlier, was moving, even inspiring. Adam and I both looked out at the crowd at lunch yesterday singing, laughing, joking around, loving each other's company and feeling wholly and unambiguously engaged by their own Jewishness...and by Judaism itself...and we both felt reminded that the key to the eternal nature of the Jewish people isn't about individual Jews living forever, but about ensuring a steady stream of young people like the ones we visited in camp waiting in the wings for their chance to step out into the spotlight and take over. In the end, we came home encouraged. If you had been there, you surely would have felt exactly the same way. Do you know any kids the right age who weren't there this year? Can we double the number of kids we send next year? Or triple it? This year's Shelter Rock contingent included the largest number of kids we've ever sent...but I know we can do even better. I want to try. And I'd be pleased for anyone to help me when the time comes to recruit kids for next year.

Sincerely,

Rabbi Martin S. Cohen