“Happy Campers.”

Rabbi Y Y Rubinstein

J.T. 7^th Sept 02

Later in the year, I plan to take a hundred Jewish Students to spend a Shabbaton in the Lake District. A lot of organisation has to go into a venture like this and so on the second last day before my son returned to Yeshivah for Ellul Zman, I thought it would be nice to take him with me to have a look at the place.

The particular Youth Hostel is perched on a mountainside in some truly stunning countryside. The location is so wonderfully discreet that it took us quite some time and quite a few wrong turns before we found it.

After parking the car we found a door in a wall covered in Ivy and I pushed it open. The gardens were very large and as we had arrived without an appointment there was no official waiting to meet us. Instead there were quite a few young people sitting in the chairs or sunning themselves on the lawn. One of them walked up to me smiled and said, “Rabbi YY!”

I had walked into the middle of a residential summer camp for a non-religious, in fact anti religious, Jewish youth group. The young man standing in front of me had heard me speak in his school and as it turned out, so had another three of the Madrechim.

After exchanging pleasantries I asked them if they would give me a tour of the building as I was hoping to use it myself for my Shabbaton later in the year.

We walked along the corridors, which were “decorated” with art work that the kids had done. These pieces reflected the philosophy of the group as well as the ideas that underscored their lessons.

My son and I viewed the rooms which turned out to perfect for what I had in mind. Then I asked if I could see the kitchens and my guides didn’t hesitate or show any alarm. In we walked to where three young ladies were busy preparing a meal. Their faces betrayed the fact that they did not share their colleagues relaxed attitude to letting me see where the food was prepared.

They all stared at me as though I was their headmaster who had just caught them cheating in an A Level exam.

I was really only interested in the facilities on offer but I couldn’t help but notice the ingredients going into the meal. They were Treif L’Mehadrin, which went to some way to explaining why the girls were quite so appalled.

(I suppose they could technically claim that, at least for a brief time, they were under Rabbinical supervision.)

We left the Kitchens and after inspecting the dormitories I was ready to leave. We said goodbye to our guides and as the car moved off, my son asked me if I had heard a conversation that had taken place between our guides as they showed us around. I replied that I hadn’t and so he filled me in.

One of the Madrechim had told the other, “I think he’ll have to go! I have no hesitation in making an example of him, we’ll have to phone his parents to collect him tonight.”

I listened with interest as my son continued with another story about a very different type of summer camp. This one is organised by someone who is an ex-teacher of his and a friend of mine. I have known this person for about fifteen years and when we first met, it was immediately apparent that he was a talented teacher possessed of a very rare gift. My son was about to tell me a story that showed me that till then I had underestimated him!

At almost every summer camp there will be one or two campers whose behaviour is unacceptable and threatens to disrupt the others. Consequently, every camp organiser will be faced, perhaps annually, with the question of “Making an example of someone” and sending him home.

Of course, camps who’s ethos and loyalty is to the way the Torah says things should be done, from what’s cooked in the kitchen, to displayed on the wall, to what message is taught to the campers, sending someone home is by definition, something we have to have every hesitation about.

The Posuk says at the end of ParshasYisro Chpt.20 Vs. 23

“You will not go up on steps to My alter so that you do not display nakedness on it.”

Rashi comments,

“Steps cause a person to lengthen his gait and even though that that is not actually displaying nakedness because the Cohen would wear lined trousers (under his garment) still it hints at a display of nakedness and you would be treating the stones in a hurtful way. The issue establishes a Kal V’Chomer. The stones of the alter that are none sentient and would not be hurt by being shamed, yet still the Torah says since they have a role and function we may not treat them disrespectfully, your fellow Jew who is in the likeness of your Creator and is hurt by being shamed how much more so should we worry about his feelings.”

There is too another concern. “Chavrah D’Chavrach is Lei” declares the Gemora in Gittin and elsewhere. Translated at it’s simplest, “People talk!”

To send someone home from camp is to tell the whole of Klal Yisroel that the person was evicted, and Klal Yisroel has a very long memory indeed.

A few years ago someone approached a friend to ask him if he would be interested in taking a certain position. After a great deal of consideration, he decided to decline the offer. Later though one of the people who would have been his new employers, mentioned to his wife that he was very disappointed that her husband had not taken the job.

He confided that he was sure that he would have been the best candidate by far and at that time he had only one reservation. His wife asked what that was and he explained that her husband was not very “organised.” As this job required administrative skills, he felt that might have posed him problems. His wife was perplexed by this comment which she felt was untrue and asked him where he had got that idea from. He promptly replied, “You!”

No fewer than ten years before, his wife had mentioned to this gentleman’s wife that her husband had forgotten to write something down on their calendar. “He’s not very good at writing things down.” she concluded. At the time he had several jobs and things sometimes got a little bit hectic. So a harmless comment had been exaggerated and stored away for a decade, ready to re emerge and cause trouble ten years on.

My sons’ ex-teacher knew before a particular years camp began, that there would be one or two who would invite, in fact demand, that they be sent home. He also knew that sending them home would have a salutary and sobering influence on the remainder. This would guarantee that the camp proved to be a success for campers and staff alike. But what about the effect on the boy or boys sent home? What about the long-term damage to their reputation?

My friend struck upon a simple solution. Two days into the camp one boy misbehaved very badly indeed and he promptly expelled him. There was no question of second chances and the boy was packed up and on the next train the same day as his crime took place. The effect was exactly the one anticipated. The news spread through the camp like wildfire and all the other campers behaved perfectly for the remaining two weeks.

The genius of my friend’s behaviour lay in the fact that the boy was paid to misbehave!

He had been approached secretly weeks before the camp and asked if he would like to earn some money? His job would be to come along to the camp pretending to be a normal participant. After a day he was to commit a pre-arranged crime and be very obviously sent home. Once this had been done, the expectation was of two weeks undisturbed by any further outbreaks of mischief.

The plan worked perfectly. On the last day of the camp the “Criminal” reappeared in the camp and at the last meal, a very clear and public explanation of his true role was delivered to the entire camp. In stopping any other boy gaining a reputation that might stalk and haunt them for the rest of their life, my friend could not condemn his “secret agent” to the same fate. This “letting the cat out of the bag,” would mean that everyone was a “happy camper” in a successful Torah camp.

In Perkei Avos the Mishnah talks about three crowns “Keser Malchus, Keser Cehunah V’ Kesser Torah” The crowns of Monarchy, Priesthood and Torah.

The Mishna continues, “V’ Keser Shem Tov Oleh al Gabeihem.” “And the crown of a Good Name, crowns all three!”

The Alshich points out that the words of the Mishna contain a paradox. The Mishna states that there are three crowns but cites a fourth the crown of a good name.

He explains, A good name without Torah is nothing. After all people can have a good name in other contexts and societies other than the Torah’s. Rabbi Akiva before he became Frum had fame and renown amongst his friends precisely because of his anti religious views, Pesochim 49b

“When I was part of the anti-religious society I used to say who will give me a Talmud Chochom and I will bite him as a Donkey bites…”

Conversely, someone who enjoys greatness in Torah or Kingship or Cehunah but who does not have a good name, is despised in the eyes of people and HaKodosh Boruch Hu!

That is why “The crown of a good name” does not appear as a fourth independent category in the Mishna. It has to be attached to the other three and they have to be attached to it.

The forethought that my friend put into the boys he was responsible for showed me that despite the very high esteem in which I held him till now, I had indeed underestimated him.

It is a Torah demand that we all try our very best not to wrest the Kesser Shem Tov from any Jews head. In these days of introspection and rectification, it is worthwhile considering if over the last twelve months we gave sufficient forethought to making sure that those for whom we have a responsibility were helped to keep their Kesser Shem Tov in place.

Those, for whom we have that responsibility, are of course the members of that much larger camp, Macheneh Yisroel.