Today’s Chaburah spotlight is on Yaakov Abramovitz’s Chaburah.
Yaakov (Queens, NY) is spending his second summer as an advisor for Camp Sports after spending one summer in the camp’s Kollel. After spending a year and a half at Yeshivat Sha’alvim, Yaakov currently attends Yeshiva University.
The NCSYers in Yaakov’s Chaburah are Seth Mintz (Elizabeth. NJ), Micha Richmond (Setauket, NY), and Michael Sarasohn (Elizabeth. NJ).
Together they learn Sefer HaChinuch, the Book of Mitzvos, which counts, describes, and explains each of the 613 Mitzvos. The group mainly focuses on the underlying purpose for each Mitzvah, in an attempt to get a better understanding of why we do what we do and how we can make Mitzvos most meaningful in our daily lives.
One of the sefer’s most famous ideas is that a persons attitude is influenced by the actions that he does. It is for this reason that most Mitzvos contain a physical action, which is meant to impart a specific underlying message that directly relates to the action being performed. For each mitzvah, Sefer HaChinuch explains its underlying purpose giving us a greater understanding of what we are trying to accomplish in our lifelong quest of Torah and Mitzvah observance.