Discovery

By Rabbi Joshua Cahan

Session 2 Visiting Faculty

Day-to-day life at camp naturally revolves around workshops, chugim, and meals, with campers spending much of their time in a few familiar spaces around campus. But some of my favorite moments happen when we step beyond those routines and explore the beauty that surrounds us.

Sometimes that means stopping to look and listen for the many birds that call this place home. Other times it’s noticing the bursts of color tucked among the flowers, bushes, and trees that campers might have walked past a dozen times without seeing. In our photography elective and Digital Film Production workshop, campers learn to use a camera lens to see familiar places in a new way, discovering details they never noticed before.

To me, that spirit of exploration is what really defines Sci-Tech.

It’s about observing. Noticing. Asking questions.

It’s not just about learning a subject. It’s about starting with an idea, wondering how something works, and figuring out the steps to get there. The goal isn’t simply to leave camp with more knowledge. It’s to leave with a different way of looking at the world.

I like to think that every camper goes home not only with answers, but with questions they never would have thought to ask before they came to camp.

Rab­bi Joshua Cahan is an author and Tefi­lah edu­ca­tor in New York City with many years of expe­ri­ence in high schools and camps. He holds rab­binic ordi­na­tion and a Ph.D. in Tal­mud from the Jew­ish The­o­log­i­cal Seminary.