Objective:

(1)    The chanichim will discuss the different ways in which one can fulfill the role of being an Or Lagoyim.

(2)    The chanichim will realize that they can affect change in the world, and will think of an Or Lagoyim project that they can implement in Camp this summer.

Sicha/Peulah for Shabbat Afternoon:

Sarah Gordon

sygordon@gmail.com

Camp Stone Reunion 2005

Eidot Gimmel, Daled, Machal

Noseh: Or Lagoyim

Objective:

(1)    The chanichim will discuss the different ways in which one can fulfill the role of being an Or Lagoyim.

(2)    The chanichim will realize that they can affect change in the world, and will think of an Or Lagoyim project that they can implement in Camp this summer.

Trigger:  (Divide the kids up into groups with madrichim, this trigger should take 10-12 minutes)

Tell each group the following info: You have just inherited 1 million dollars from your dead aunt Zelda. She asked in her will for you to use this money to reward different Jews and organizations which best fulfill the role of being an or lagoyim. The groups that you think best fulfilled being an or lagoyim will get the most money, and the ones who you think do not fulfill it at all will get no money. The money you give each person/organization will help them to continue their work in being an or lagoyim.

Each group will get 12 cards, each describing what that person/organization did to claim to be an or lagoyim. Each group will also get 3 different sized circles made out of string, to be set up as a target. The middle one will be where you will put the cards that best fulfill the idea of or lagoyim, the middle circle you will put the cards that somewhat fulfill the idea of or lagoyim, and the 3^rd circle you will put the cards that do not, or in a very small way fulfill the idea of or lagoyim. You also must decide which order the cards are in, within each circle.

SICHA:     PART 1

When asking people to define or lagoyim, most people cannot come up with a quick answer. This is because it is an extremely complex idea. Hashem has told us in the Torah that we are to be the chosen nation, the Am Hanivchar, and that our mandate is to be a mamlechat cohanim v’goi kadosh. The Jewish People’s mission is to change the world, and through us, the promise made to Avraham; venivrechu becha kol mishpachot haadamah, will be realized.

Really, all the cards are ways to fulfill or lagoyim, but the point of this trigger is that in order to categorize the cards, the chanichim will have to verbally define and discuss what they think being an or lagoyim means.

Your role as a madrich is to play devil’s advocate and ensure that the chanichim define and express why they are putting some of the actions as higher on the or lagoyim list, and others lower.

There are many ways to define or lagoyim. The chanichim will probably end up dividing the cards up along the following lines – which you should point out to them in their groups. Such as: individual actions versus national ones, religious acts versus secular acts, active versus passive and so forth. The cards will be color coded according to these above divisions so that when each group presents, the moderator will be able to point out and ask the chanichim; “why did you put all the yellow ones together, or the green cards, etc”, and this will help bring to light that fact that each group probably defined or lagoyim by different criteria and we will be able to discuss back and forth which criteria should be used to define or lagoyim.

PART 2

Now that we just saw all the different ways in which one can fulfill or lagoyim – the emphasis of the sicha now shifts into the practical side. Using the backdrop of all the examples of or lagoyim that we just saw, how do we choose which one that we, that kids from camp stone, can best fulfill in an effective way?

But firstly, we have to stress to these kids that changing the world and starting these projects, and being an or lagoyim is not just a nice idea to talk about, but is something that can actually happen. The kids should leave the next part of the sicha feeling like it is tangibly possible to change the world.

Pass out to the chanichim two articles – one, from the BBC on how Stern girls did shmira and said tehillim over ground zero from the BBC, and one on Chabad’s relief efforts in Thailand for mainly non-Jewish victims and survivors of the Tsunami.

Ask the chanichim what they think of these articles, how do they feel when they see these articles in major newspaper headlines? Proud, but they should also feel inspired, that it is possible to change the world. This is cool because before we saw different ways to hypothetically be an or lagoyim, but these people really did it!

(Also, the examples on the bios, many of these are true examples. Kids from Dallas started S.A.T., a guy in Stamford really does send apple computers to Jews all over the world, ZAKA people really went to Thailand and Israeli chemists really won the Nobel prize.)

We saw that there is potential for am Israel to be an or lagoyim bekoach, through the peulah, but these articles prove that this actually can happen, people really did these amazing thing, and we too have the potential to be an or lagoyim b’poal.

FINALLY:

Now, together as an eidah, each group will choose one project that can be started in Camp this summer to help change the world and help us fulfill our role as an or lagoyim.

Ask the kids to bring past examples of projects or things they have heard about or seen started in their schools or communities or shuls that inspired them, that we could try in Camp.

Try to come up with 1 concrete idea and flesh out how it can practically be achieved.

CONCLUSION:

We saw in the bet midrash session how Hashem chose Avraham and his descendants to be an Am Hanivchar, a chosen nation, and how our mission is to change the world.

We then defined what we thought the Torah means by saying that we must be an or lagoyim and we saw in the peulah that there are many different ways to achieve this.

Then we saw that people (stern girls’ shmira, Chabad in Thailand) actually did do this! This shows us it is possible to change the world and that is our mandate as an or lagoyim and am hanivchar.

The question is, will it be through us that these changes happen?  Will we wait to read about the next kiddush Hashem in the newspaper headlines, or will those newspaper headlines be talking about us?

In Megillat Esther, Mordechai warns Esther that if she doesn’t step up to save the Jewish people, the Jewish people will still be saved, as G-d will send someone else to save them. The challenge for Esther to decide is will she be the one who saves Am Israel, or will she miss her chance to make history and fade into the sidelines??

We have our chance to return to our schools and communities inspired to be an or lagoyim, and with the courage to realize the awesome power we all have to change the world.

BIOS FOR THE PEULA – WHO IS THE BEST OR LAGOYIM?

1. Derek works as an accountant for Deloitte and Touche in New York City. He goes to work everyday wearing a kippa, excuses himself from meetings at 3pm to daven Mincha, and leaves early on Fridays to make it home early for Shabbat. Yesterday, he told his co-workers how he plans on taking his family to Israel for vacation. They could not believe that he would take his family to a place so “dangerous”, but after hearing him speak about Israel, they realized things must not be so bad there after all.

2. Leah, a 10^th grade student at Hebrew Academy of Tampa Bay, founded an organization called S.A.T., Students Against Terror, an organization through which high school students will raise put together petitions and rallies against terror in Israel, and all over the World. She recruited support for her organization, got donations for it, and has spoken to other high school students all over the US and Canada, in both Jewish and non-Jewish schools, to get them to start branches of S.A.T. in their schools.

3. Chaim is a chareidi Jew from Bnei Brak who works for ZAKA (chevra kadisha). He recently flew with other Israelis to Thailand to help search for survivors after the Tsunami. Once the Jews were accounted for, he stayed in Asia for the next 5 weeks helping search for non-Jewish victims, and shared his expertise with the local staff he met there.

4. Yossi and Nachman are Israeli chemists from Tel Aviv who just won the Nobel Prize for their medical research, which has made huge strides in developing new treatments and a possible cure for H.I.V.

5. Shira, a senior at Rutgers University, set up a booth with information about Israel and participated in a pro-Israel rally, to counter a giant Palestinian demonstration going on at the same time.

6. Levi, a businessman from Boston, recently discovered that he can use his Apple laptop to link by video to anyone in the world who has the same type of apple computer. He then spent lots of his own money to send these computers all over Israel and Russia and America, so that rabbis in Israel can give video shiurim to Jews all over the world. He spends most of his time setting up these computers for shuls and schools for free, in order to fulfill his goal of connecting all the Jews in the world by this video link up.

7. Tuvia learns Torah all day in a Kollel in Memphis. He doesn’t really ever interact with non-Jews, but he tries to learn as much as he can, and gives weekly shiurim to kids in the local high school and adults in the local synagogue.

8. Rachel, like most of the people she knows, has lived in Haifa ever since she was born. She never has anything to do with non-Jews, except for seeing the occasional Arab bus driver. However no matter how bad the matzav in Israel gets, she would never think of leaving and plans to raise her kids to live in Israel too.

9. Nadav is Israel’s ambassador to China. He is one of the only Jews in his neighborhood in Shanghai, and spends his days in meetings with Chinese politicians, trying to strengthen China’s political, economic and social ties with the State of Israel.

10. Yoni is a Corporal in the United States Armed Forces. He recently returned from serving 7 months in Iraq. He felt that to fight against terror was a very Jewish value and something that he had to do. While he did not usually wear a kippah during his army service, he was very proud of being Jewish, and while eating his special kosher army meals, he was happy to explain to all his army buddies why he wouldn’t join them in eating the bacon strips that were for dinner that night in the army cafeteria.

11. Anat has spent every one of her Pesach holidays while in Stern College, running seders for Russian Jews in Moscow through a program called YUSSR. She has also spent the past 4 summers as a counselor on JOLT, a similar program where she worked in a camp for Jewish children in Warsaw, Poland. Anat is happy to give up her summers and chagim, because she feels that it is so important for young people to step up to help stop Jewish assimilation in Russia, by running these programs for Russian Jews about Jewish Identity.

12. Yagil is an Israeli pilot for El-Al. He has flown all over the world; USA, Greece, England, France, Australia, Japan, Kalamandu… etc. He takes great pride seeing the Israeli Flag symbol on his airplanes in airports all over the world, next to planes from other major airlines, and especially enjoys walking in exotic airports, wearing his El-Al uniform, so that everyone he sees knows from what country he has flown in from.

Different things to emphasize:

• Individual – like Yoni in US Army, or Derek the accountant, versus national – like Rachel from Haifa – she does not do anything individually, but she makes up the medina which is in itself an or lagoyim

• Or individual versus national based on what you’re spreading. El al pilot, and Israel activist and ambassador are pushing Israel as a nation – as a state being an or lagoyim, while others are not focusing on Israel but on either religious or humanitarian issues.

• Internal versus external - Programs that affect Jews versus programs that affect non Jews too (ZAKA and SAT versus the apple computers and YUSSR which affect only Jews. BUT- is this bad? Do Jews have to be interacting with non-Jews to create an or lagoyim or can it be internal only affective Jews and still be an or lagoyim? Discuss. It could be fine because (1) non Jews see the program and it is PR for Jews in general doing good things, there is a concept that just the Jewish people existing gives kavod and PR to Hashem and (2) also it gets Jews back on track (kiruv) for being that or lagoyim. We cannot be an or lagoyim if we are not upstanding Jews. Or can we? But we at least have to be dedicated about our mission.

• This ties into active versus passive. Rachel from Haifa and Tuvia who learns all day, versus others who are active – Anat and Shira are trying to “save the world”.

• Religious versus secular. Tuvia is passive religious, but the American army guy and the accountant are more secular but pushing Jewish values.

• Derek works as an accountant for Deloitte and Touche in New York City. He goes to work everyday wearing a kippa, excuses himself from meetings at 3pm to daven Mincha, and leaves early on Fridays to make it home early for Shabbat. Yesterday, he told his co-workers how he plans on taking his family to Israel for vacation. They could not believe that he would take his family to a place so “dangerous”, but after hearing him speak about Israel, they realized things must not be so bad there after all.

• Leah, a 10^th grade student at Hebrew Academy of Tampa Bay, founded an organitzation called S.A.T., Students Against Terror, an organization through which high school students will raise put together petitions and rallies against terror in Israel, and all over the World. She recruited support for her organization, got donations for it, and has spoken to other high school students all over the US and Canada, in both Jewish and non-Jewish schools, to get them to start branches of S.A.T. in their schools.

• Chaim is a chareidi Jew from Bnei Brak who works for ZAKA (chevra kadisha). He recently flew with other Israelis to Thailand to help search for survivors after the Tsunami. Once the Jews were accounted for, he stayed in Asia for the next 5 weeks helping search for non-Jewish victoms, and shared his expertise with the local staff he met there.

• Yossi and Nachman are Israeli chemists from Tel Aviv who just won the Nobel Prize for their medical research, which has made huge strides in developing new treatments and a possible cure for H.I.V.

• Shira, a senior at Rutgers Univerity, set up a booth with information about Israel and participated in a pro-Israel rally, to counter a giant Palestinian demonstration going on at the same time.

• Levi, a businessman from Boston, recently discovered that he can use his Apple laptop to link by video to anyone in the world who has the same type of apple computer. He then spent lots of his own money to send these computers all over Israel and Russia and America, so that rabbis in Israel can give video shiurim to Jews all over the world. He spends most of his time setting up these computers for shuls and schools for free, in order to fulfill his goal of connecting all the Jews in the world by this video link up.

• Tuvia learns Torah all day in a Kollel in Memphis. He doesn’t really ever interact with non-Jews, but he tries to learn as much as he can, and gives weekly shiurim to kids in the local high school and adults in the local synagogue.

• Rachel, like most of the people she knows, has lived in Haifa ever since she was born. She never has anything to do with non-Jews, except for seeing the occasional Arab bus driver. However no matter how bad the matzav in Israel gets, she would never think of leaving and plans to raise her kids to live in Israel too.

• Nadav is Israel’s ambassador to China. He is one of the only Jews in his neighbourhood in Shanghai, and spends his days in meetings with Chinese politicians, trying to streghthen China’s political, economic and social ties with the State of Israel.

• Yoni is a Corporal in the United States Armed Forces. He recently returned from serving 7 months in Iraq. He felt that to fight against terror was a very Jewish value and something that he had to do. While he did not usually wear a kippah during his army service, he was very proud of being Jewish, and while eating his special kosher army meals, he was happy to explain to all his army buddies why he wouldn’t join them in eating the bacon strips that were for dinner that night in the army cafeteria.

• Anat has spent every one of her Pesach holidays while in Stern College, running seders for Russian Jews in Moscow through a program called YUSSR. She has also spent the past 4 summers as a counselor on JOLT, a similar program where she worked in a camp for Jewish children in Warsaw, Poland. Anat is happy to give up her summers and chagim, because she feels that it is so important for young people to step up to help stop Jewish assimilation in Russia, by running these programs for Russian Jews about Jewish Identity.

• Yagil is an Israeli pilot for El-Al. He has flown all over the world; USA, Greece, England, France, Australia, Japan, Kalamandu… etc. He takes great pride seeing the Israeli Flag symbol on his airplanes in airports all over the world, next to planes from other major airlines, and especially enjoys walking in exotic airports, wearing his El-Al uniform, so that everyone he sees knows from what country he has flown in from.