By Betzy Lynch in La Jolla, California
A teaching often attributed to the Lubavitcher Rebbe reminds us that ‘the world is not a jungle to survive, but a garden to cultivate.”
That image has stayed with me this week.
When we see the world as a jungle, then life is about surviving. But if we view the world as a garden, then our calling is to plant, nurture, and believe that the seeds we cultivate today will blossom tomorrow.
It is no accident that the Torah begins in a garden. In Gan Eden, humanity’s first responsibility was to work it and protect it. From the very beginning, G-d invited us to become partners in creation, cultivating a world where goodness can flourish.
The rabbis noticed something remarkable about that first garden. Every human sense participated in the first mistake. Eve listened to the serpent. She saw the fruit. She touched it. She tasted it.
Only one sense is absent.
Smell.
Jewish tradition teaches that because fragrance alone was untouched by the sin of Eden, it retained something of Paradise itself.
Modern neuroscience offers a beautiful parallel. Of all our senses, smell has the most direct pathway to the parts of the brain responsible for emotion and long-term memory. A familiar scent can transport us back decades before we even have time to think. Our sages understood this long before science could explain it: fragrance has the unique ability to awaken not only memory, but something deeper within us.
As Camp Jaycee fills our JCC with the energy of another summer, I’ve been thinking about the smells that will stay with our campers long after the season ends.
The smell of kosher hot dogs on the grill.
Sunscreen mixed with warm San Diego sunshine.
Chlorine lingering in their hair after an afternoon in the pool.
Fresh challah before our camp-wide Shabbat celebration.
These are more than the smells of summer. They become the fragrance of childhood infused with Jewish community.
Years from now, one of those familiar scents may suddenly bring a camper back to the friendships they formed, the counselor who believed in them, the joy of singing Shabbat together, and the discovery that being Jewish is not simply something you learn, it is something you live.
That is what Camp Jaycee is really about.
We are cultivating a garden.
Every friendship formed.
Every act of kindness offered.
Every challenge overcome.
Every Shabbat celebrated.
Each one plants another seed.
Our hope is that every camper leaves knowing they, too, can be a gardener for the world. That through compassion, generosity, courage, responsibility, and friendship, they have the power to help other people flourish.
This is how Jewish values take root at camp. Not only by teaching them, but by living them together whether you are Jewish or not. Perhaps that is the greatest gift of Jewish summer camp. Not simply the memories it creates, but the people it shapes.
And years from now, when the smell of sunscreen, challah, chlorine, or kosher hot dogs drifts by, our campers won’t simply remember Camp Jaycee. They will remember the garden where they first discovered they were responsible to help the world grow.
May we each find opportunities this week to be gardeners, planting seeds of kindness, cultivating hope, and helping our corner of the world bloom.
*
Betzy Lynch is the CEO of the Lawrence Family JCC.