Director’s Blog: To Dedicate and Re-dedicate

Happy Holidays to you and your family!

As I celebrate Hanukkah this year, followed in quick succession by the New Year, I am drawn to the etymology of the Hebrew word Hanukkah, whose root (chet, nun, chaf) means “to dedicate”.  After all, this is the time of year when we find ourselves thinking about resolutions for the next year – eating better, exercising more, spending more time with our family, spending less time in front of a screen, etc. – and upon settling on the perfect resolution, I don’t know about you but I also immediately start to wonder how long I will keep my resolution until inevitably my best intentions fall by the wayside. Why then do we enter into these seemingly empty self-contracts each year? Here is my thought –

When Judah the Maccabee returned to the Temple in Jerusalem after leading a miraculously successful revolt against Antiochus, he found that the Temple had been desecrated. Judah then ordered for the Temple to be cleaned, for a new alter to be built, and new vessels to be made to replace those that had been tainted by the Syrians. And in this way, the Jews re-dedicated the Temple.

So, I contend, that what we are really doing each year through the ritual of making resolutions is taking a moment to return to our “temple”, a.k.a. ourselves. Quite often upon introspection, we find that we have desecrated this temple (our bodies, minds, and lives) through a myriad of bad habits and thoughts. Just like Judah, we must take inventory of the things that need to be repaired or replaced and then we make a plan to clean-up, purify, and re-dedicate ourselves to the kind of life that we want to live. Our New Year’s resolution is an act of dedication and re-dedication to our self; an act that we are driven to make in our pursuit of self-actualization. To me, it matters little how long we are able to keep our resolutions; what is important is that we take the time to examine, reflect, and to experience (if even just through visualization in our mind’s eye) the best version of who we are at this point in time.

At this time of year, Gilad and I are also professionally re-dedicating ourselves to making Ranch Camp the best that it can be under our leadership. For us, this means critically examining what we can do to improve our camper and staff experience for the coming summer and making sure that we are staying true to our camp mission. Here are some ways that we are working towards improving the Ranch Camp experience for 2012:

• Renovation of our Banim (boys) Village: All cabin units will be renovated in time for the opening of our 2012 season.
• Completion of millwork in our Banot (girls) Village: Built-in shelving will be installed to help keep belongings organized and off the floors.
• More activity choice in the camper day: Our second elective period each day will be converted into a free-choice activity period so that campers have more choice and flexibility during each day to do more of the activities that they want to do, more often.
• Enhanced bullying and bystander training for staff and camper groups: Staff will receive more training about how to identify and react to bullying at camp, and will also receive training and tools for how to create true cabin communities so that we may create a Kehillah Kedosha (a holy community).

We hope that you have a wonderful holiday season and that you are able to take time to re-dedicate yourself to the things you love.

Chag sameach (Happy holiday),
Miriam Shwartz