#YetzirahBeRamah

During our last week of Yahadut we returned to our original topic of study in yetzirah (creation) – Briyah (the story of Creation). The hanichim read the verse from Breisheit chapter 2, verse 15 in Hebrew and then developed their own translation.

וַיִּקַּ֛ח יְהוָ֥ה אֱלֹהִ֖ים אֶת־הָֽאָדָ֑ם וַיַּנִּחֵ֣הוּ בְגַן־עֵ֔דֶן לְעָבְדָ֖הּ וּלְשָׁמְרָֽהּ׃

God put Adam (and Eve too) to rest/live in the Garden of Eden to work in it and guard/take care of it.

The hanichim pointed out that the “it” God was asking us to work in and take care of in the verse is not just the Garden of Eden, but also our environment, natural resources, and the animals and their habitats. Similarly, just like God put Adam and Eve in the Garden of Eden to care for it, we were also put here on the earth in order to take of it. Each eidah brainstormed different ways to care for our world, playing a game based off of Scattegories in Garinim and Nitzanim and playing charades in Shorashim to share their ideas.

They came up with many ideas for taking care of the world, our environment, and the animals, some of which are listed here: don’t litter, conserve water, stop hunting endangered species, only feed animals food that won’t make them sick, save electricity by unplugging things and turning lights off when you’re not home, don’t put oil or trash into water, only take flowers/leaves/sticks from the ground and not from things that are still growing, and Reduce, Reuse, Recycle.

Tomorrow as we conclude our study of yetzirah (creation), the hanichim will have the opportunity to put their ideas into practice as we care for the natural environment at Wellspring before saying goodbye to our beloved camp for another year.