Posts

Kayakin picture

People Are Waterproof

/in , /by

In honor of the start of the rainy season in Israel, here’s a guest post from Ezra Epstein, Yagilu alumnus and current star counselor. Register now for Yagilu 2019!

Ideas I learned from Camp Yagilu:

1. People Are WaterproofPeople are waterproof

My fellow Y2 campers and I were hesitant to work in the rain. Our counselor, Josh Botwinick, didn’t understand why. “People are waterproof!” he said. “It’s not like we were going to melt in the rain.”

I was stunned. I had never realized that before. And he was completely right. I had simply been told my entire life that when it rains, you go inside. The only reason for my initial discomfort was that I hadn’t bothered to think objectively about how to react to rain. And this awareness of my own faulty thinking was mind-bending.

I wondered what else in my life needed reevaluation.

2. Use A Rockrock hammer

Another lesson I learned in Yagilu happened when I was working on a project and reached a point when I needed a hammer. But there were no hammers. So I told my counselor, “I can’t continue. There are no hammers.”

“There are hammers everywhere!” he said, pointing to all the rocks scattered around the forest. “Rocks are nature’s hammers!”

Not only does Yagilu challenge you to question the way you think, it also encourages you to come up with creative solutions to everyday problems. This was far from the only time I was challenged to think outside the box in Yagilu. No sponge for cleaning out your bowl on a hike? Use a clump of moss. Nothing to sit on? Use a tree stump. Broken car door? Use some rope.

All it takes to solve a challenging situation is a little imagination.

3. Make One

Here is the most powerful lesson I learned in Yagilu. It helped me discover a quality of divine creativity that exists in every person, but is usually ignored.

The lesson: If you want something, make it.

After hopping off the bus on the first day of Y2, the counselors wouldn’t give us rope to work with until we made some rope from scratch. That hand-made rope had to be strong enough to hold the weight of one of the heavier counselors! This theme continued throughout the course of the summer.

 “I need an extra shelf.” 
“Make one.”

“I need a new knife.”
“So make one.”

“I lost my kippah.”
“So make a new one.”

This was taken to the extreme when we were directed to construct our own community – including shelters for sleeping, a communal living room, a kitchen, a workout space, and a shul – using only the rope we earned and whatever we could find in the forest.

Since the beginning of time, human beings have been capable of making things with their hands. For better or for worse, this gift has become more or less irrelevant in today’s world of economic prosperity, when everything is handed to you, ready-made.

When I first became reunited with this G-d-given gift of mine, the ability to make things with my bare hands, I could feel the creative power coursing through my veins. This is one of the ways Hashem made us like Him, and it allows us to be a partner with Him in creation.

Everybody deserves to be reunited with this gift. It doesn’t necessarily have to be at Yagilu. But for some reason, our campers don’t seem to discover this special superpower they possess anywhere else.

Sign up here for Yagilu 2019-Early Bird Deadline if you send in the deposit by Sunday, Oct 7.

Ezra Epstein is currently a Madrich at Yeshivat Aish Gesher, Aish HaTorah’s gap year program for Orthodox young men.

Learning From the Trees

/in /by

Ever feel like you’ve just hit a dead end? That you could be so successful, if just for that one thing standing in your way? What can you do to move past, to succeed?

From the Forest Itself…

I recently heard a fantastical Medrish: When Hashem created the trees, they began stretching higher and higher. So high, in fact, that they became proud. “Look at us,” they said. “We’re the tallest things around! What could possibly knock us down?” Then Hashem created iron, and they became nervous. The iron, formed into an ax, could cut them down! Noticing their anxiety, the iron pointed out to the trees: “Why should we make you nervous? As long as you don’t allow yourself to be used as a handle, we can’t hurt you!” (Bereishis Rabba 5:10).

Understanding the Lesson

What’s the meaning of this Medrish? Are we supposed to understand that this ‘conversation’ happened and make a note in the history books that trees used to talk to iron? This Medrish teaches us an important lesson. Problems often seem to come from outside ourselves and stop us in our tracks. In reality, though, we are the ones who will decide whether something grows and flourishes, or whether it is toppled prematurely. If we decide to focus on solutions rather than problems, we’ll find ourselves growing higher and higher, despite whatever difficulties present themselves to us!

Can’t Stop Me!

This idea shows up in camp all the time. Here’s one example: What happens when it starts raining and you’re outside? Most of the time, you run for cover, dodging raindrops and praying that you don’t get soaked. Once you’re inside, you wait around for the rain to stop. You’re trapped by the rain! But ask a Yagilu camper what do we do when it rains, and you’ll get a different response. You’ll hear an enthusiastic, “We get wet!” We decide not to let the rain hold us back from working, accomplishing, and enjoying. And that’s it.

The message doesn’t deny that situations are difficult. Of course problems come up and we need to deal with them. In the Medrish, iron formed into an axe head is objectively sharp. The point is that it only has the power to chop down a tree when the tree provides a handle. Think of a tough situation you’re in right now: carpools for the upcoming school year aren’t coming together, kids never seem to be able to get along without fighting, or you never get a chance to take some time for yourself to recharge.

Just One Thing

What’s one thing you can do right now that can take the bite out of the issue? One text message, a positive comment to the kids, or a super-quick, 5-minute break from the daily routine? As long as you’re still working towards a solution, you can be happy. You’re not letting the problem stop you. You won’t give the iron a handle that would make it an axe.

Change the Frame

Even something as basic as reframing an issue can itself be the solution! Reframing means taking something that you see in one way and try to put it “in a different frame,” or look at it in a different, more positive way. For us in Yagilu, reframing transforms a rainstorm from something to flee from, to something to ignore or even enjoy. It’s not a disaster, it’s a refreshing cooldown while we continue with our activities.

Whatever it takes, learn from the trees. Don’t give the ‘iron’ in your life the handle it needs to bring you down!