While most of my columns deal with formal education – schooling – the work I do deals with the informal sphere as well.

Traditionally, one thinks of schools as an educational base for literacy and informal activities such as youth groups, camps, and Israel tours as places to nurture Jewish identity. But there are two flaws with that premise.

First, Jewish education, or talmud Torah has always had two functions: it is instruction for the future, but also a meaningful mitzvah in its own right. Studying a sacred text involves learning lessons to apply in one’s life and, in itself, should be a significant spiritual moment. Experiencing the joy of Shabbat in a summer camp is, many times, a memory for life, but it can also translate into bringing more Shabbat into one’s future life.

Second, the old walls separating formal from informal and literacy from identity are crumbling. Camps always taught swimming. Now, some teach Hebrew poetry. Schools run Shabbatonim so that some of the lessons taught in class can be applied to real life over a 25-hour period.

With that understanding, it’s clear why so much effort is currently going into the promotion of high-quality Jewish camping. Camp has the potential to mix the forms of education in the most imaginative ways. One can be playing baseball and learning Jewish values at the same time. The forests and lakes of Ontario have messages in them that are straight out of our talmudic tradition. The 24/7 aspect of summer camp makes the educational experience a life-connected one, and not as artificial as the classroom can become.

But there is one other quality of camping that makes it unique among our educational options. Unlike school, camp is all about creating your own life away from home. Officially, you get to do things you can’t do at home – and off the record, sometimes you get to do things you dare not do at home. In that respect, it’s a creative and imaginative experience.

If an inspired educator can show children how to be creative and imaginative Jewishly, the kids are being trained to not only continue Jewish life, but to change it for the better. As my readers well know, I value Jewish creativity much more than Jewish continuity.