In Defense of Humanity
I have spent the last 2.5 weeks in the Northern Woods of Wisconsin helping camp counselors develop their programming into deeper, more meaningful programs for the campers of Camp Ramah Wisconsin. Our oldest daughter, Siona, is a camper here. My husband is an Outdoor Education Specialist, and our younger two children are in the ‘staff brats’ camp. This is a first for us – we have never been to Camp Ramah Wisconsin as a family. Siona and my husband went last year for 2 weeks – she was a camper and my husband helped out in the kitchens. It’s been incredible to be immersed in this kibbutz-like environment. Hebrew is everywhere. All the food is kosher. I get to work with thoughtful Jewish college students to help them build informal Jewish education moments for their middle and high school-aged campers. This shabbat our Hillel will be sponsoring the kiddush of the oldest high school campers who are Juniors. There’s nothing like a ton of donuts and Little Debbie snack cakes to introduce yourself to potential future Jewish Miamians.
Being up here has been a wonderful break from reality. I’m peripherally aware of the current chaos of our country while also feeling so gratefully disconnected from it. I know, however, that in 10 days, when we re-emerge into the world, it’s going to be difficult and a bit of a culture shock. Just this morning I was working with a counselor to help her strengthen her shabbat program about this week’s Torah portion, Korach. She was struggling with the topics she should use for a debate that she wants her campers to engage in. Her topics were light subjects such as gun control, the death penalty, and the like. Oh my!
In Korach, there is a challenge to the leadership of Moses and Aaron. It appears that what follows is the typical Israelites complaining formula that can be found throughout the book of Numbers and the Israelites' time in the wilderness. The people complain, often hearkening back to better days in Egypt and lamenting that they left Egypt only to die in the wilderness. God gets angry and threatens to annihilate the people. Moses and Aaron intercede on the people's behalf, and God tempers the decree, but it is usually still severe.
In this week’s parsha, however, there is something different about the complaints of the Israelites for instead of complaining about their conditions during their wandering, they band together and accuse Moses and Aaron of "raising themselves above the congregation." (Numbers 16:3). What’s more, the 3 loudest challengers, Korach, Datan, and Abiram, are severely punished by God. Not for the sake of challenging leadership, but for HOW they challenged the leadership of Moses and Aaron. Korach throws God’s own words back at Moses as part of his argument, which greatly angers God and Moses. Datan and Abiram take it a step further and refuse to even see or speak with Moses. There is a lot of commentary about this parsha – a lot focusing on seeing Korach, Datan, and Abiram’s challenge as a positive since it can teach us to not blindly accept leadership decrees. The counselor I was working with, however, wanted to use this parsha to highlight the fact that God punished the 3 challengers for essentially arguing ‘dirty’ (thus, she wanted them to participate in a debate and hone their civil discourse skills). When I asked her the goals she and her co-counselor have for their Shabbat programming she stated, “I want our campers to understand fact vs. opinion but also to remember the humanity of the person/people they are arguing with. There’s too much arguing and not enough remembering that the person in front of you is a human”. I know our world might seem chaotic and difficult right now, but that statement from a 20 year-old gave me so much hope and I hope it brings hope to you for this shabbat as well. Shabbat Shalom.
