A Time for Every Purpose...

It’s not uncommon that I come home from camp for a lifecycle event, but this summer was the rabbinic equivalent of a grand slam.

I knew I would be returning for a Bar Mitzvah ceremony. While I try to avoid scheduling them when I’m normally at camp, sometimes calendar shifts make it unavoidable. During the same Saturday morning service in which we marked Alex’s Bar Mitzvah, we offered the wedding blessing for Miranda and Daniel, and since I was coming home, I scheduled a baby naming for a couple whose marriage I officiated a few years back and was just blessed with their second child.
Lifecycles inevitably come all the way around, and Friday we also laid our friend Nessim to rest.
Ecclesiastes reminds us that there’s a time to be born and a time to die. The cycle continues endlessly. As I sit and write this, I’m watching the little children of faculty members here at camp playing with their moms, and a few minutes ago I left our oldest campers who I remember from when they were little ones. A couple hours ago I was reminiscing with a couple other faculty members about one of our teachers who was here at the beginnings of camp, fifty years ago. A few of the campers are the children of friends of mine from Sunday School and my days at camp.
I wonder which of our children will return to be camp counselors, who will eventually send their children to camp.

Each of the lifecycles represents a powerful moment. Whether it is a happy occasion or a sad one, it brings people together to share the warmth of love, friendship and community. I see that sharing among families. I see it in our synagogue community and I see it here in the camp community.

…A time for every purpose under heaven. And by the way, the sunsets here at camp are spectacular.