The second day of Congress: Tribes, Families, Languages...and a table with 5 legs?

Contributed by Aaron Morrill

On Tuesday we started Congress with a bang as we got to partake in engaging and inspiring programs with the rest of our Diller community. We assembled in our tribes and then began the day with a discussion about the Jewish community as a family. Then we moved to an activity investigating the origins of our families. After putting stickers in a map indicating our grandparents', parents' and our individual birthplaces, we got a snapshot of the Jewish Diaspora. 

San Francisco's very own Adam Weisberg
 

After a discussion of the meaning of the map we split into two groups. All of the Israelis went to delve into the nuances of the Hebrew language through a text study. The Americans, Canadians, South Africans and Australians heard a lecture from Avraham Infeld. The lecture was passionate and moving. He wove his life story into a talk that was truly about the collective Jewish experience, talking about the five legs of a "Jewish Table" which shapes all of our lives as Jews. For the international community, this framed the rest of the day. For the Israelis, this strengthened the ideas discovered in the Hebrew program. 

Avraham Infeld

After lunch, the two groups switched and got to experience the other program. Next, we took a quick break and then concluded out programming with a discussion of our connection to the covenant of Mount Sinai, the third leg of Avraham Infeld's Jewish Table model. That concluded the formal part of the day as we went back to our separate hostels to eat dinner, have a closing Ma'agal and then chill before getting a good night's rest.