As you read this dvar Torah either you are digging out of the snow (a foot here in NJ fell and it is still snowing), getting ready for Shabbat or getting ready for Purim. I guess you could also be at work or taking off the day and spending it with your spouse, friends, or the kids! I just spoke with our facilities manager at camp, Jason Smalley, who said that at the most maybe 2″ – 3″ of snow has fallen in Wingdale!
Who would have thought? Englewood – 12″ and Wingdale 3″? Who would have thougth that in the economic times we are living in that camp would be at capacity enrollment? Who would have thought that we would have such a great retention rate of 2009 staff to 2010? And who would have thought that this year’s dinner would be the most successful in terms of support for schoalrship ever?
With $300,000 raised for scholarship and over 300 people attending next week’s event, we are living through amazing times for Camp Ramahin ther Berkshires!
Purim is the only holiday on the Jewish calendar that encourages us to let go – almost completely. To put on masks and take on different identities. To celebrate with others at a Purim seudah. To tell jokes. To laugh. To blot out the name of Haman and to cheer on Esther! Who would have thought that we are commanded in Parshat Zachor to blot out the memory of a nation? We are encouraged to make life go upside down. To be silly. To let go.
Our mission statment says that we transform lives. We approach the summer as if it were a show – ten months in the making – and then the curtain goes up! We approach it very seriously however, we also design it to be fun, to be almost Purim-like for a while. Campers often say that one of the things they love about camp is that they get to remove their masks and just be themselves, who they are, Purim like for some because they get to act differently then do at home.
Who would have thought that early next week we might need to close registration for the dinner because of the tremendous response we have had already? Who would have thought that we are already working on the supplement to the journal and not just the journal itself?
Purim is a crazy day on our calendar. May we all enjoy it and may we all look foward to the most amazing, crazy dinner celebration of CRB on Marcy 7th!
Shabbat Shalom and Simchat Purim!
