Fair Lawn Jewish Day camp is off to an awesome start, as the campers eagerly run to camp every morning to enjoy a packed day of lots of fun and excitement with a Jewish spirit. 

To view pictures of the first two weeks of camp click here. 

A Shabbat Dinner is planned for Friday, July 13th at 7:30pm. The entire community is invited to celebrate Shabbat together with our camp families. Candle lighting, followed by a delicious catered, four course dinner, with wine and challah, served on china. 

To make your reservation call 201 791 7200, or email rabbimendel@jewishfairlawn.org.

Reservations close on Tuesday, July 10th. 

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Izzy is sitting in synagogue one Sabbath morning when he falls asleep and starts to snore. His friend Sol, quickly taps him softly on his shoulder and says, "Please stop your snoring, Izzy, you're disturbing the others in the shul."

"Now look here," says Izzy, "I always pay my membership in full, so I feel I have a right to do whatever I want."

"Yes, I agree," replies Sol, "but your snoring is keeping everybody else awake."

In biblical times, modesty played a pivotal role in thwarting Balaam's evil intent. Balaam was a non-Jewish prophet employed by Balak, king of Moab, to curse the Jewish people. Now Balaam knew that a military attack would be futile; the Jews had a track record of supernatural and forceful victories in war. So Balaam tried to weaken them at their source, by mitigating their spiritual connectivity. As a spiritual guru, he felt he had the skills needed to undermine their connection to G-d.

Ironically, whenever Balaam opened his mouth to curse the Jewish people, out flowed the most magnificent blessings. Finally, after his second fruitless attempt to lash out words of destruction, he said something very telling; telling since it exposed the reason for his inability to curse them.

"How goodly are your tents, O Jacob; your dwelling places, O Israel!" (Numbers 24:5)

The Midrash explains that Balaam was noting the modest way in which the tents of Israel were aligned. They were staggered so the windows of one tent had no visual access to the windows of its neighboring tent. At each of their stops over their forty-year trek, the people made sure to erect their tents in this modest arrangement. Apparently it was this exceptionally sensitive quality amongst them that made it impossible for Balaam to harm them.

Modesty means having healthy boundaries. Today modesty is underrated. As Americans, we're hooked on TV shows that dig into the most personal parts of peoples' lives and display them to millions of viewers. Conversely, many teens (and adults) are misled to believe that if they don't expose what is meant to be sacred and private they are prudish.

People who are careful not to speak lashon hara, gossip, are merely expressing their appreciation for healthy boundaries. Who gave you permission to analyze another's life? You shouldn't be looking in their window. And if you are exposed to a private bit of information about your friend, be sensitive. Gossiping is violating the sacred space of another person.

The Jews were in transit, and yet they still made sure to uphold this subtle expression of modesty as they assembled their tents. Preserving strong and healthy boundaries was high on their priority list. Mirroring their efforts G-d shielded them from harm with a protective barrier, and Balaam was just unable to mitigate their prowess.

-adapted from chabad.org