Dear Friends,

In the summer of 2000, there was a camper who was not particularly athletic. To put it more bluntly, he was an awful athlete. Because of this, he shied away from most sports and dreaded the posting of the league teams, knowing full well he was likely last to be drafted to the league teams. In that particular summer, he did notice that he had the same coach for both his basketball and hockey league — and that relationship became a transformative one.

The coach didn’t see him as a bench-warmer and encouraged him to not only show up, but to give it his all. While basketball continued to be a challenge, this camper started to get more and more interested in hockey. The team won the semi-finals and he scored two of the four goals. They won the championships 2-0, with the boy scoring both goals. He took home the hockey MVP trophy for the summer.

The reason I know the vivid details of this 25 years later is because that boy was me — and the lessons I learned from that experience have had a deeply impacted me as a parent, educator, and Camp Director. This counselor saw the good in me even when I couldn’t see it in myself. He saw past preconceived notions or labels and that Ayin Tovah has inspired me for decades to come.

As we progress through the Three Weeks, we have been working on Seeing the Good in Others. We know the Beit HaMikdash was destroyed because of sinat chinam and, iyH, our work will help pave the way for the third Beit Hamikdash, bimheira b’yameinu.

Enjoy this week’s PreShabbat Video by clicking here. From our home to yours, wishing you and your family a Shabbat Shalom — and wishing all our visitors a safe ride up to camp this Sunday! We can’t wait to welcome you.

Jeremy Joszef
Director, Camp Morasha