You do you, Jew- Cohort 18 First Shabbaton!

Our Shabbaton started with a Shabbat activity in which we read and thought about eleven different questions based on the Birkot Hashachar. This led into the Shabbat prayers over the candles, wine, washing your hands, and challah. We learned about each prayer and what they meant. After a lovely Mexican dinner, we learned a Shabbat tradition in pairs and then shared out tradition with every other pair of fellows. A few traditions we learned about were the hamotzi, the Torah service, and the birkat hamazon. 

Our Friday night ended with different group bonding activities. The first one we did was to find a partner and stare into their eyes for a given amount of time. It was really funny and everybody had a hard time not laughing. The second one we did was throwing socks at each other. Everybody got into pairs and one partner was blind folded while the other was trying to direct them to hit the farthest person away from them. That too was a lot of fun. After the giggling and loud activities, we transition into a more serious activity: Maagal Layla (night circle). We did this activity in the dark with only candles as our light. The staff asked different questions such as “What is a song that best describes you when you wake up in the morning?” We were also asked more serious questions such as “What is something you would change about yourself?” It was amazing to see people let themselves be so vulnerable to a new group of people.

Our Shabbat morning started with a yoga service or Shabasanna led by Gabi. As we did yoga, we thought about five morning prayers rather than doing a traditional morning service. Continuing with the theme of a non-traditional Shabbat service, we went to the beach and focus on the Amidah. Sam led us in a meditation and then we had some time for self-reflection. After the Amidah, Ariel read us a summary of this week’s torah portion. We then talked about a time when we had to take on two different roles in the same situation. We then had some free time before lunch to hang out with other fellows. 

After lunch we had more free time and one-on-ones with the staff. We all went to the beach and played Frisbee and mafia and talked as a cohort. We transition back inside for a Jewish identity buffet in which we picked slips of paper that talked about different aspects of Judaism and pertained to each individual. We then got into smaller groups to discuss our choices of ideas or practices further. It turned out that each action or idea pertained to a certain sect of Judaism, which was a nice plot twist. Subsequently, we were given a piece of paper with a person surrounded by aspects of Jewish life. We connected pieces of string from our body to different words that we felt connected to. We learned more about our Jewish identities in multiple different ways. Before dinner, we had outdoor training. We were given a blue piece of fabric and told to flip it over without touching the ground. Our entire cohort thought that this meant we had to be standing on the fabric and turn it over but in reality, we just had to flip it over without touching our hands to the ground. We could have listened to the instructions more closely but we got a lot closer as a cohort.

 After dinner, we continued to learn about our Jewish identities by writing poems about a meaningful experience we had in Judaism without saying what the actual experience was. We then were given time to walk around the room and either comment on or guess what people’s poems were about. We learned a lot about each other through individual experiences. To say goodbye to Shabbat, we had Havdallah outside and sang the prayers. We then enjoyed some s’mores and campfire songs, which were a bit out of tune. We ended the night again with Maagal Layla and the lights off. It was a bit different from Friday. We each were given two glow sticks and told not to crack them. Gabi asked us two questions: what was something you were nervous for coming into the Shabbaton and what is something you are proud of? As we answered, we cracked our glow sticks. After everyone had cracked their glow sticks, there was light in the room and we created a circle using the glow sticks. It symbolized us coming to together and how each individual is needed to make a community. Goodnight.

Emily- Cohort 18 

Our last day of the shabbaton started very early…we dragged ourselves out of bed and headed to breakfast. After breakfast and a quick packing of bags, we started to brainstorm ideas for our introduction video to the Upper Galilee Cohort 18. We decided to do a flashmob set to the Cha-cha Slide. It took a lot of prep time and three filmed takes, but we finally nailed the moves and ended up making a very enthusiastic and creative clip!

We then were separated into our various committees for our first ever committee meetings. SFUG Partnership, Swag Spirit, Keeping Up With the Dillers, Ceremonies, and Diller Social Life all met to discuss goals, roles, and specific agendas. The meetings led us right up to lunch, and we finished them up in the 10 minutes after getting back to the Raven building. The SWAG Spirit Team then did our first fellow-led activity—The Human Knot. We first attempted to include the whole cohort but ended up splitting up into two different groups to accomplish the task more efficiently and practice our communication and problem-solving skills in a smaller group. 

We then joined back together and tried to do a human knot with all of us. It was a little chaotic and we didn’t end up perfectly undoing the knot, but we were still able to communicate pretty effectively and have a lot of fun and bonding in the process.

We then transitioned into a super helpful time management workshop led by Ariel. We had a mini-competition to complete as many tasks on a list as we could; this helped to reveal how we prioritize certain jobs over others and whether our strategies are effective in the long run. After that, Ariel had us answer questions about our personal time-management habits and strategies. We then had to schedule out a week in the fictional life of a junior called Naomi. We were given a list of voicemails and had to use them to prioritize certain assignments and write them in a day-by-day calendar. We then debriefed and Ariel showed us the top 10 rules for time management.

The last two assignments before departing were feedback/evaluation and journaling. We learned the ground rules and strategies for giving helpful and honest feedback. Among them were the Kosher Sandwich layout, citing specific examples, and being receptive on both ends of the conversation. We did a feedback session first on the whole shabbaton and then on specific programs, using our newly learned skills. Finally, we each wrote a letter to ourselves in our journal reflecting on the past weekend and setting goals and expectations for future the rest of our time as fellows. Once the letters had been collected, we were free to leave. Although it was only a weekend, we grew so much as a cohort and individuals; I consider it a major success!

 Jessie- Cohort 18