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“We’ve got spirit, yes we do…”
Not long ago in our Beis Medrash we had a conversation with an idealistic and insightful staff member. The madrich was observing how there was a growing gap between Torah values and cultural norms. He offered a constructive critique of our programming and challenged us to engage in these intellectual debates with the NCSYers and to address the issues head on. After first presenting a more defensive response (a list of shiurim and discussions we’ve presented that in fact do talk about these beliefs), we countered his claim a bit more forcefully. And we echoed a sentiment shared by so many parents, educators, and others who care deeply about our children and the Jewish future.
“If only! If only our students held passionate beliefs, however misguided. If only they had firm convictions, albeit with shaky foundations. If only they were excited and energized.”
Our generation’s greatest challenge is apathy. Too many moments in the prime of our lives are squandered in passivity and lethargy. So we can present compelling narratives in belief, make the case for Judeo values, and stimulate sophisticated debate on complex topics. But if that tree falls in the forest and no one cares to remove their AirPods, did it make a sound?
As a result, many of our summer goals are simply to engender enthusiasm and spirit. We want to awaken and enliven and allow our teens the exuberance that is appropriate for their station in life.
In contemporary jargon, the word spirit has at least three implications. All three were on proud display this week on NCSY Kollel, and all three served to animate our program.
The first, and most common, is the raw energy referenced above. Everywhere you looked this week revealed vibrancy and life. One of the best practices on NCSY Kollel is the transfer of positivity from area to area. A great tiyul doesn’t sap the Beis Medrash of strength, it fuels intensity. Rousing sports competitions don’t lead to emotional burnout, they spill over to the hum of learning throughout the night. Follow the trail and see how our week unfolded. We started with the incomparable experience of thousands (prominently including our hundreds) praying and welcoming Shabbos at the Kotel. From there, joy and laughter in the streets of the Old City throughout the Shabbaton. On Sunday, we welcomed the boys from Morasha’s Sulam trip to our campus for hours of learning and ball. The games were supported by the largest crowd of Kollel spectators in program history. While all the fan support could not earn us any additional victories (only our staff team got a win this day), the energy we walked away with was its own reward. Monday was as colorful and celebratory as it gets. The entire campus was filled with 3-on-3 tournament participants hustling from game to game, venue to venue, stopping only to enjoy the 3-on-3 festival and carnival on the side. Tuesday’s tiyul options were wild, including the legendary food tiyul (1.0 and 2.0), the hardest of hikes (Nachal Darja), caving and rappelling, Masada and Ein Gedi, and the amazing Shomron Experience Tiyul. All had in common a zeal for life that is too often lacking. A new round of Night Shiurim on Wednesday created its own special kind of buzz on the campus. Without school bells or grades, the NCSYers exhibited gleeful anticipation for a chance to learn with Rav Aryeh Lebowitz or Rav Zvi Sobolofsky. Thursday featured yet another campus-combined full Kollel Mishmar well into the night. It was complete with a massive ice cream party, Rosh Chodesh vibes, and late night chill on the big lawn. We need a free weekend just to catch our breath!
The second “spirit” usage is the most etymologically suspect, but no less important or descriptive of our program. “School Spirit” is synonymous with pride. Pride is also associated with a particular strand of passion and is also something that is missing from the tableau of modern religious life. When the Talmud describes Tefilin as a crowning glory, our children are sometimes perplexed. What crown? What glory? This week we found some of the answers. The Sulam games were an opportunity to fly the flag of NCSY Kollel and rally around, together with Camp Morasha our community’s most cherished values. On Sunday Rav Twersky’s residency on our program for this summer came to a bittersweet end. On Wednesday morning we welcomed Rav Lebowitz back to the NCSY Kollel environs. Later that afternoon, we heard some parting words from Rav Schachter before the annual rite of dancing him out of the Beis Medrash. In each of these instances there was palpable pride in the status of Torah and Torah leaders. It was actually quite “Gishmak to be a Yid,” and to revel in Yid-like behaviors. Where else do high school boys truly identify our leadership as our crowns? When there is glory in Rav Schachter’s Halacha shiur, there can be royalty in a pair of Tefilin.
About that…In what has become another summer tradition, this Wednesday we rejoiced with the twinning of two special occasions of first Hanachas Tefilin. Our Mechina Program (and West Coast NCSY) Director, Rabbi Derek Gormin and family, marked the occasion of their oldest son Yisrael’s donning tefillin for the first time. Of course, this was too good an opportunity for the Gormin clan to miss. NCSY gifted a new pair of tefillin to one of our esteemed Mechina students. The ensuing dancing and congratulations were not merely the epitome of Jewish unity and commonality. When Rav Schachter joins an entire Beis Medrash of high school boys in jubilant celebration of…a pair of tefillin and the opportunity to wear them, something simply magical is happening. This is authentic pride and its accompanying spirit.
Over the rest of the week we had a new reason to be proud. With remarkable cooperation and dedication from OU lay leadership, particularly our Youth Committee Chairs Laizer and Jessica Kornwasser, we opened our doors to twenty NCSYers and staff who extended their stay in Israel after finishing other NCSY programs. These extensions were heavily subsidized and made possible by those with a vision to express the value of NCSY Kollel to ever-growing populations. The invitations were extended and the response was quite overwhelming. A couple of weeks ago we described how NCSY Kollel is itself a destination. Well, this manifested itself to the extreme with the arrival of so many transfers. This generated even more intense feelings of pride.
And finally, we return to our roots and the most authentic definition of spirit and Ruach. In its biblical form the word more often has strong religious connotations. Man’s origin story involves the fashioning of physical matter followed by the Godly breath that provides us with existence. This is spirit. This might seem like a bit much for a weekly recap of summer camp activities, but in truth it is as much a definitional element of the NCSY Kollel journey as anything else described above. Spirit is a very short walk from spiritual. We think of animation as being the way in which we story-tell about a fictional mouse or Homer Simpson. In fact, animation is the story of our religious lives. It is the recognition of there being more than physical matter in our composition. To be animated and come to life is to tap into this spiritual energy, acknowledge it, and embrace it.
When walking on the stones of Old Jerusalem, this energy could not be ignored. When watching Rav Twersky teach, or Rav Schachter bid farewell to his chavrusas and students, or Rav Aryeh Lebowitz reacquaint with the holiness of the land of Israel, or seeing someone wrap his own tefillin for the first time, or simply taking part in a 350 strong Maariv with people striving to penetrate the veils that obscure this sublime reality, the spirit is strong. A week of spirit was a week of revelation. A torah scroll is not mere parchment, and a fist bump on the basketball court is not a formal handshake. Tefillin are not defined as straps of leather and the food tiyul doesn’t marvel at mere sustenance or vegetation. Most importantly, our NCSYers are not amalgams of organs and bones. These are all examples of a spirit that animates. The lessons and memories of this week should serve as a guide for years to come.
We head now into our second and final free weekend, which will present an opportunity to reflect on this very spirit, and to tap into a day that is also defined by being something more. Shabbos is one of 7, and wholly unique. It is part of our earthly cycle and also borrows from a different dimension.
Wishing you the spirit of Shabbos,
With appreciation,
Moshe Benovitz
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