Written by Kara Hoffman, Offering Written by Creative Writing Shabbat Prep, led by Carly Husick
Creative Writing, CAA’s newest Arts Major, has found its place in the Friday night Shabbat experience. At Creative Arts, Shabbat is like no other. Campers and staff begin on Thursday evening to design, choreograph, and prepare an artistic offering to one of the prayers. Throughout the 8 Shabbatot we’ve had with campers, we’ve seen Jewsicals with talking Donkeys, live painting of Maariv Aravim, and jazz dances of Lecha Dodi. We’ve tasted different challot recipes, witnessed collaborations of Instrumental and Vocal music come to life in newly written melodies, and cried during Jo-Ellen’s weekly messages to the community through song. This year we added Creative Writing to our Major offerings and many wondering how this would play out in Shabbat services.
Each week, campers and staff disect the prayer piece by piece, rearrange the key statements they discover, and invite the community to embrace the prayer through a new lends. Below is the 2019 Session 1, Creative Writing Shabbat Prep contribution to the community: Ahavat Olam.
Like day and night we work together, for the sun of day cannot rise without the night’s moon setting.
Harmoniously working together and passing down values and traditions, from Mo Moments to Siyyum. Song, Prayer, Art — we teach, we learn, we channel our passions into words of love.
Twelve days, 288 hours, 17,280 minutes make up a session — yet it feels like so much longer.
Taste, Color, Word, Song, Faith — the elements that connect and unite us, that create unspoken yet undying love.
Counselors teach us how to be good people, be kind, do mitzvot, and to be passionate about what we love to do.
Rising up, laying down, repetition. Everything in between. We join together every day, every night. All days different from each other, as none are unique.
Through our art we express our passion, ourselves, and our love.
We invest our love in each other, finding a way to never run out,
and the people of Israel will love G*d unconditionally.
Here at camp we are given a safe space to create art and make mistakes. We are allowed to fail with the comfort of moving forward.
Love is like the day and night. Its warmth and tender touch stretch over the earth, embracing us all in a woven blanket.
In the end, we have to work together to make camp a great experience as well as to follow the commandments.