My entire weekend was over-flowing with experiential education. It was a bit of EE overload! But since I love experiential education, I loved this weekend! It was lots of fun, and I want to share a few moments of it with you.
Since I have so much to share, I'll do this in two-parts.
Here's part 1:
Last Thursday, the Gann freshmen and seniors headed up to Camp Young Judea (CYJ), for the first day of a weekend retreat. The sophomores and juniors joined them on Friday. I headed up early, both to help the rest of the EE team set up, and also because it became clear days earlier that we would need to rebuild the eruv, so I picked up 150 2''x4''s from a local Home Depot.
It was quite the undertaking to build the eruv (and aside from buying the supplies, I had little to do with it). The 9th graders helped out by systematically screwing eye-hooks into the top of each plank, so there was something to weave the wire through. It was quite a help, and I'm sure it lessened the burden on the people building the eruv. It was a beautiful educational moment, to see an entire grade help build something that is deemed necessary by only a small fraction of the people at the Shabbaton.
That night, I went into all the girls bunks to say good-night. I figured that since we were at camp, we could have a bed-time ritual. After going into all but one bunk, having had mostly successful moments of saying the Shema together (a beautiful tradition that happens at Camp Ramah), I walked back into a bunk that hadn't been ready for me the first time I went in. They still weren't quite ready for me, but since I was sort of done waiting, I suggested that we pause what we were doing, and say the Shema anyway. I wasn't expecting full participation, because, well, these were 16 year old girls in the middle of brushing their teeth, rifling through their backpacks, and chatting. But for one brief moment, everything stopped. They stopped brushing their teeth, talking, looking through their bags, etc. They stopped, stood up, and said the Shema with me. It was really a beautiful moment. Of course as soon as we were done, they went back to what they had been doing -but it was really special that they all joined in together.
My last moment, from the Gann retreat, that I want to share happened on Saturday. In the morning, a teacher taught a beautiful song to one of the prayer groups. It went over so well, that in the afternoon, he taught it to the entire school. The words are "Ilu Finu Ma'leh Shira K'yam". It is a three part melody, and truly, I can't stop singing it. The words translate to 'Even if our mouths were filled with song like the sea', and the rest of the prayer goes on to say, 'still, we would not be able to thank you, God'.
When we had 350 people singing, whole-heartedly, this song, I couldn't help but wonder what could be higher praise of God. It was like our mouths were oceans of song, praising and thanking God. It has been a long long time since I've had a moment as powerfully spiritual as that one.
You can listen to and Download 11 Ilu Finu (Were Our Mouths Oceans of Song) by clicking on the link
. I plan to teach it at Rosh Hashanah services, and I hope that my congregation can attain even a little bit of the spirituality that was so evident and possible at Gann's retreat.
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