Monday, November 30, 2015

Our first Shabbaton as Cohort 19

Contributed by Ilana Basman

As Shabbat crept in on us, we started out our retreat with the lighting of the Shabbat candles and activities to get to know our Jewish identity better. After a wonderful dinner, we talked about our Shabbat traditions and the different traditions each fellow had. Through this we were able to discover the different ways each person celebrated Shabbat, but we also found out that many of us had similar traditions, like the Hamotzi and birkat hamazon
We then continued with another activity. We were told to find a partner and to stare into each others eyes while completing certain tasks, first being dead silent, but then allowing one person to speak and then having a regular conversation. At the beginning it was hard not to laugh but as it progressed, we all become much more comfortable with each other.
Our night ended with a Maagal Layla, night circle. We all sat in a circle in the dark and were asked a series of questions, starting with more general ones like your most embarrassing story, to more personal ones such as something that you are most afraid of. Each fellow was required to share, bringing us closer together as a cohort.
We began our second day of the Shabbaton with a lovely breakfast of eggs and cereal. After this, we came together for morning prayer and yoga led by Lara. We learned 3 morning prayers through this yoga, bringing us to understand our inner self better. After this more non-traditional morning service, we continued by reading the weeks Torah portion, about Jacob and Esau. We discussed how their relationship was created by their parents relationship with them, the good and the bad situations that occurred with their family. After this we were led down to the beach to work on an activity led by Micah. We were all given a rope and first, instructed to make a certain shape without talking. After this, everyone except for one person were blindfolded, that that one person had to direct us to create another shape. As the challenge progressed and we couldn’t quite create the shape we were told to, a heart, 3 other people’s blindfolded were taken off, and they all worked to create that shape together. We did this for two rounds, and it is much harder than it seems. After this, we had some free time with our fellows before lunch to hang out and get to know each other better.
After lunch we had one-on-ones with the staff, for them to get to know us better. As this time was also free time, many fellows either went hiking or hung out at the beach. At the beach, many of us threw around a football or a frisbee or just talked about our lives and school. We then came together again to discuss our Jewish traditions and more about our Jewish identity. As the day continued, we proceeded to have dinner, lasagna.
After dinner, we had Havdallah to say goodbye to shabbat. Noam and India led a song session where they taught us different songs that they liked to sing at the end of Shabbat. We they all went out to the campfire and enjoyed s'mores as Jonathan played the guitar. We ended the night with something a little different. We went on a night hike all alone. There was a trail lit up by glow sticks for us to follow but we were all alone and in pitch darkness. It was scary, but it let us reflect on the day we had had. We then continued with another Maagal Layla, similar to the one of Friday, but a little shorter. We were given glow sticks and again asked a series to question. As we answered, we were allowed to crack the glow stick. We were then able to create any shape we wanted with them in the middle of the circle. We all came together, from individuals to make a family. And then we went to bed!

On Sunday, we rose bright and early, and went to the beach together. We as fellows planned this all by ourselves and just wanted to bond. We thought that it would not be too cold, but we were very wrong. It was windy and freezing, so we quickly took some pictures and were to breakfast.  Afterwards we met up and talked about our Israeli partners in the Upper Galilee and how we will be getting our partners soon (as I am writing this, we have already received our partners name and many of us have already gotten in contact with them.) We did some more bonding activities and as we were all exhausted from a long weekend, soon proceeded to having lunch, custom made sandwiches. After this, we had another outdoor activity. We were given an about 6x6 ft blue fabric and told that we had to flip it while all standing on it. We tried it many times, some by sitting on each others shoulders, or standing on each others feet. All in all, it didn’t really work out but we definitely got closer as a cohort. 

After this we had a surprise in store. We had an activity called Late Nite Art. There were tables covered in white paper with every type of art material you could imagine, crayons, color pencils, paint. We were first told to complete certain tasks, like writing a question we had or drawing how our hometown looks, but then as the assignment continued, we all just started doodling on the paper. It went from being completely blank to having different colors on every part of the paper. Before departing, we had our very last assignment, feedback. We talked about the rules of giving feedback and the Kosher sandwich layout, first giving something good, then something that is honest feedback, many times something that wa not as enjoyable, and then giving another kind comment. We started with talking about the shabbaton as a whole, and then continued to speaking about certain programs we had. Even though we had only spent less than 3 days together and being extremely tired by the end, we all grew so close together, at the end not wanting to part ways. This shabbaton was a success!

Wednesday, November 11, 2015

Contributed by Jonathan Altman

This past Diller workshop was centered around the idea of inclusion.


Right from the get-go, Daniel from cohort 18 got us started with a couple of activities about inclusion. For our first activity, some of us were given instructions to do things like skip around the room or act like a chicken, while others were given no instructions. It was a great first step into the topic of inclusion, as our members who were not given instructions were confused and felt left out. We then moved on to draw concept maps about how we can include others and the effects inclusion can have. We capped off our study of inclusion with a discussion, where some members of the cohort shared very personal stories that let us grow closer. We established some inclusion norms, and then moved on to our study of Torah.

This was our first time as just our cohort studying Torah together. In Diller, this is called "Shnayim Ochazin." We first read the passage from which this name derives, about how to divide up something of immense value between two people. Gavi and Ma’ayan volunteered to play out the scenario, and it was very entertaining as well as very deep. We discussed the meaning of both the text and the scenario after it was done, and we were able to extract the deeper moral messages hidden within the text. We practiced our new Torah study skills by reading a passage about Miriam and discussing the idea of leadership as a group. We covered all sorts of questions surrounding leadership such as: Is leadership inherent? Are there different types of leadership? Etc… The discussion was very lively and everyone seemed to contribute their opinions. Once we finished our Torah study, we went to the roof to talk about feedback for the workshop as well as to hangout. Overall, our first meeting with just our cohort was engaging, fun, and inspiring.