What We Eat - United Synagogue of Conservative Judaism

20 CJ — VOICES OF CONSERVATIVE/MASORTI JUDAISM
to bring a blanket to a nearby field and watch
for shooting stars.
Hiking and swimming are all within walking
distance of our camp site. Shabbat is
a day to explore nature or kick back with
a good book (or both – Shabbat is long in
the summer). At first, we new parents
climbed the bluffs with children riding in
backpacks. When she was 2, our younger
daughter made the climb by herself to the
top of the bluff, about half a mile up, and
then she climbed into a backpack and slept
the rest of the hike.
Now, having grown up at Devil’s Lake,
the children are master hikers, taking on
more challenging boulder fields every year,
helping their friends along. Kids of all ages
run in packs, watching out for each other
and creating their own experience.
One year, we grown-ups were treated to
a variety show with skits and dance numbers
performed by all the kids. Another year,
among the cords of wood we bought for the
fire were some odd bits left over from some
building project. That year, the boys spent
hours creating cities and superhero worlds
with those wood pieces.
Havdalah at the campsite is a sublime
moment. As a new fire grows in the fire
pit, we gather around, 60 or more of us,
singing and swaying, smelling spices often
created from plants and flowers collected
near the site. And as the last notes of
“shavuah tov” fade away, the kids scramble
to pop marshmallows onto the sticks
they have foraged and do what they have
been waiting for all of Shabbat – make
s’mores! The guitars come out, and the songbooks,
and we sing folksongs and Indigo
Girls late into the night.
I didn’t grow up camping. But my kids
will. They can put up a tent and break one
down. They can shlep water without too
much kvetching, pick up a daddy longlegs
spider by the leg to get it out of the tent (oh,
wait, that’s me, they still don’t do that), row
a canoe, pee in the woods, and take pleasure
climbing a boulder field with their
friends. They thrive in this camping community
that now includes friends from all
over the Midwest. I just hope they let me
come back and join them when they start
a camping group of their own. CJ