As countless youth prepare for Summer camp, we do well to remember the wisdom of Deuteronomy 23:15 – “Let your camp be holy; let God not find anything unseemly among you.” Originally in reference to maintaining sanitary facilities and latrines (!) in a military encampment, the medieval sage Ibn Ezra applies this admonition to “anything unseemly, in deed or in speech.”
The Chofetz Chayim understands this verse as mandating “personal modesty.” Rabbi Joseph H. Hertz explains “unseemly” as “anything that one would be ashamed of.”
The Torah predicates this requirement – at once mundane and spiritually incisive – on an awareness that “the Lord your God moves about in your camp to protect you….” Summer camp offers an early introduction to living in community, to developing wholesome and gracious personal relationships, to recognizing the divine image in others. Summer camp is also an opportunity to be inspired by the beauty of nature and God’s creation. To the thoughtful camper, God does indeed “move about” in camp.
The “camp” in our verse encompasses our communities, our civic life, our congregations, our workplaces, and our homes. If our personal interactions and comportment fall short of the holy and the modest this “camp” season, Scripture invites us — quite literally — to clean up our act.
(Rabbi Joseph H. Prouser is the rabbi of Temple Emanuel of North Jersey and the National Chaplain of the National Jewish Committee on Scouting.)
As countless youth prepare for Summer camp, we do well to remember the wisdom of Deuteronomy 23:15 – “Let your camp be holy; let God not find anything unseemly among you.” Originally in reference to maintaining sanitary facilities and latrines (!) in a military encampment, the medieval sage Ibn Ezra applies this admonition to “anything unseemly, in deed or in speech.”