?אייכה/AYEKAH?

Rabbi Daniel Siegel

It is most fitting that our Year 10 Machaneh Ayekah (Ayekah Camp) coincides with the month of Elul, in which we sound the shofar, daily.

The first evening of Camp, we engaged in a guided meditation seeking to understand the meaning of Ayekah?  A one word question, “Ayekah?”/“Where are you?”, was the first question asked of the first human being, Adam, and one which each of us, Elul reminds us, is to ask ourselves.

Following this time of personal meditation and reflection, our students silently gathered together under the hushed darkness of the night time sky and in unison called out an echoing and reverberating cry – Ayekah?

Ayekah? is the cry of the shofar, intended to ‘wake us up from our sleep’ and to take account of where we are in terms of where we might and, perhaps, should be.

The next morning we contemplated using the shofar for a sunrise ‘wake-up call’. But, as one student offered: “Rabbi Siegel, is that seriously how you will wake us up?”, we thought a gentle stirring might be better. That same student, Dylan Herden, then sounded the daily call of shofar following breakfast, when again, we reminded ourselves that Machaneh Ayekah is a time and opportunity to hear the call from within even as it is sounded without.

Inspired by Dylan’s efforts, several students followed suit as we sounded the shofar after every breakfast.

Machaneh Ayekah afforded our students abundant opportunity to explore and express who they are individually and collectively and who they might be in uncovering and sounding their unique voice. Machaneh Ayekah summoned our students to new beginnings, as does the month of Elul and the sounding of the shofar, when we rouse ourselves to another new Year.