The five legged Table, Second day of Kennes- WIE 2014, Cohort 17

Today was our second day of Kennes and our last day in Israel. Avraham Infeld came to speak to all of us about his 5 Legged Table idea. Basically, he believes that a person's Jewish identity is made up of five legs: memory, Israel, family, covenant and language (Hebrew). A table can't stand on just one leg--it usually needs three to be sturdy-- and similarly with his table, when a person connects to more of these legs they are able to create a stronger Jewish identity and connect to other Jews. 

In the afternoon we split into our color groups, which consisted of two members of each cohort, a junior counselor and a coordinator. The junior counselor led a program about the important values of North American Jews. My group decided on community, opinions on Israel, Tikkun Olam, adaption and roots. It took a long time to pick these 5 because while we all agreed on most of them, we do come from different communities so there were some differences in what the last few values should be. It was also interesting to see how some of our own values overlapped with Avraham Infeld's 5 legs. This was one of my favorite programs of Kennes because it allowed us to see how just living in a different part of the same country could change what a person values. We ended the day with a New Years countdown and confetti poppers outside by the crater in Sde Boker. I thought that this was the perfect way to end a great trip.