Mr. Daniel Gofine
Director of Engagement and Development
A mentor once told me that the purpose of an overnight camp experience is to allow counsellors and staff to plant small seeds that, with enough nourishing and watering, will grow into strong well rooted trees. At the time, I was working at Camp Moshava Ennismore, Canada’s Bnei Akiva overnight camp. What I understood this to mean was that camp provides an opportunity for us to instill important ideas and values in young people that will eventually become a much deeper part of a person’s identity. Through education, whether informally as in the case of camps, or formally through our schools, our role as educators is to nurture our students’ learning. Eventually, when the student is ready, we hope that the ideas and values we have instilled will have taken root.
Building and nurturing the future has a significant place in our literature. Now that I’m older, my mentor’s comment about planting seeds echoes a beautiful teaching of Rabbi Yochanan Ben Zakkai,
“If you have a sapling in your hand and they tell you ‘The Mashiach is coming!’, first plant the sapling and then go to greet him.” (Avot D’Rabbi Natan, 31b)
Rabbi Yochanan ben Zakkai teaches that even at our moment of personal and national redemption, our priority is to sustain and nurture the young so that they can contribute to our shared future.
As I think about my experiences growing up in the Religious Zionist community of Toronto, Yom Hazikaron and Yom Ha’atzmaut provided formative memories for me as a student. Hearing heroic stories of chayalim on Yom Hazikaron or watching a video of the azaka wail in Israel as the country comes to a standstill provided a strong emotional connection for me – both to Israel, and to the Jewish people as a whole. As odd as it may sound, my classmates and I looked forward to hearing a recording of Shai Gabso’s stirring Arim Roshi play during a montage of chayalim and chayalot. Those feelings and memories have stayed with me since I’ve graduated from Or Chaim and moved on to other stages of my life.
My decisions to learn in a Hesder yeshiva in Israel and subsequently enlist in Tzahal can be attributed to the small “seeds” that were planted and nurtured during my time in Or Chaim and at Moshava. Often, they were from seemingly small moments in my life, like a meaningful conversation that I had with a camp counsellor on the way out of the chadar ochel. Or they could be communal, like the decision to wear blue and white because it was Yom Ha’atzmaut. They could have been planted just by having fun playing a game that an Israeli friend taught us. All of these experiences have significantly impacted my life.
Often, we take for granted the influence that our communal spaces can have on us. Schools and camps teach us in a number ways, some subtle and some more overt. Rarely, however, do we pause to appreciate the impact a conversation with a teacher or a game we’ve played with a counsellor can really have on our life.
As I’ve returned to Bnei Akiva Schools, I’ve been able to experience first hand how our schools and camps continue to ensure that strong seeds are planted for our children. I’m also fortunate to be present as returning graduates, parents, current students, and friends of the schools express immense pride knowing that our teachers, rebbeim and shlichim continue to nurture students to feel a greater sense Jewish peoplehood and a deep love for the Land and State of Israel.
