Rabbi’s Musings & Amusings

For those living in New York City, it’s quite rare to see deer. But for those of us who live on the other side of the Hudson River, it is quite common. In fact, recently the number of deer has grown exponentially. It is not unusual for a family of deer to sprint across our yard, or even be grazing calmly in our yard. (So far, my effort to get them to pay for their usurped meals haven’t been successful…) Often, when I walk into my own backyard, the deer chilling there glare at me as if I am intruding on their property.

It wasn’t the way we envisioned or hoped. We so wanted to see Hersh Goldberg-Polin reunited with his family. No family should have to suffer as they did. Perhaps we, in America, identified more with them because they and Hersh are American, and because we heard Hersh’s parents speak so many times. Perhaps we felt it more because Rachel, Hersh’s mother, tugged at our emotions by openly personifying the Jewish mother who will stop at nothing for her child. Hersh’s parents traveled, spoke, begged, encouraged, and basically didn’t leave a stone unturned in their tireless efforts to get Hersh out of the Gaza inferno. But to our chagrin and national pain, that’s not the way Hersh was reunited with his family.

Each year before Tish’ah B’Av, I spend a considerable amount of time working with the learning director of Camp Dora Golding, my rebbi, Rabbi Noach Sauber, to develop a program for our campers that will be engaging, inspiring, and meaningful.

I never thought of myself as being very tech savvy. In fact, I still don’t. If you would’ve told me two years ago that I would be a media director, I would have told you that you got the wrong guy. But for the last two summers, I’ve been the media director at Camp Dora Golding and have enjoyed it immensely.

I’m sure it’s the same in many homes. The last few days before the school year begins, our children are abuzz gathering school supplies. Our kitchen table and floor are littered with highlighters, crayons, markers, notebooks, binders, sticky notes, hole punchers, glue, tape, staplers and staples, paper reinforcements, looseleafs and looseleaf paper – standard and college (kollel) ruled, subject dividers, whiteout, rulers, compasses, and many other things that we will probably never see again after the first week. But it adds excitement to going back to school, and that’s a good thing.

Our family has the great fortune to spend our summers at Camp Dora Golding. We have a wonderful and comfortable bungalow, but obviously smaller than our home in Monsey. For two months, we have to figure out how to get by with only one bathroom.