Our First Shabbaton: Saturday!

Baruch Atah Adonai… may this year's Diller experience be the best yet! AMEN!

After a late but exciting night of talking, story telling and friend making, we all woke up slightly restless for our first Shabbat service together. None of us really knew what to expect with the scheduled, “alternative Shabbat service” that was planned for us. Personally, I was extremely curious how we would be celebrating Shabbat as we all clearly had distinct levels and relationships with the holiday as we discussed the previous night. I thought this experience was the best spiritual one yet and truly summed up what Diller is all about. As every fellow stood up and went through the order of the Shabbat service through personal prayers and aspects of our lives that we were particularly thankful or wishful for, we not only uncovered more about each other, but also in many ways connected differently with Judaism. The service was unique and spiritually educational and while it was far from traditional, I think we all agreed that it accomplished a very similar task to any other Shabbat service that any of us had ever taken part of.

After a number of emotions surfaced in the Shabbat service it was now time to learn about each other’s different views on Judaism and finally begin our long and difficult voyage of uncovering our own Jewish identities. When we were split up into random groups and were told to present on four distinct sectors of Judaism that may or may not actually represent our own views, there was some level of uncertainty in the room. Once again Diller was forcing us to leave our comfort zone. Nevertheless that small instant of hesitation was quickly replaced with debate and teachings from every Diller member. No matter the outcome all of the teens for sure have a much greater respect for all Jews in the world from Orthodox to Reconstructionist. We were all pleasantly surprised to realize the ease that we were able to discuss different issues and understand each other’s opinions. All in all I think the morning of our first Shabbat was the most any of us had truly participated and it was at this time that we really jumped face first into the Diller experience and never looked back.

After an insightful lunch and talk with Rabbi Nu at the Montreal Torah Centre, we all gained a new appreciation for sensitive issues in our society and Judaism’s view on them. After a relaxing afternoon filled with more relationship forming, we did Havdallah in another classic Diller way and finally did our first real leadership activity. As we read through old Amerindian leadership qualities, we all gained new insight on what type of leader we were. The group reached a consensus that a well functioning team needs all types of leaders including creativity, self-reliance, analysis and cooperation. In my opinion, this was the most beneficial activity that we did as a group as we saw how similar yet different all of us are. While we all enjoyed discovering aspects of ourselves, it was finally time for the big and suspenseful surprise. As correctly predicted by a few of the Diller teens, we all went laser tagging and had an amazing time. When we got back to the hotel we were all relieved to have a short organized talk and were excited just to continue our discussions and become better friends. These bonds were truly exemplified when the next day we were asked to describe our group’s relationship with Judaism through only six words. “Leading Israel through traditional family values” could not sum up what our cohort is about any better. The cooperation and teamwork of the entire group reinforced that this would be a fantastic experience for all of us. Like classic Diller style, we could not leave the Quality Inn Hotel without some sort of bang. Luckily, the hotel helped us out a bit when a chandelier fell directly on my head. Don’t worry Quality Inn, I’m all good plus you just gave us another amazing memory so thanks I guess???

Although we all come from different backgrounds, have pluralistic views on Judaism, and are part of the Diller journey for many different reasons, every fellow ultimately understood that the first Shabbat spent together would be a very special one. With that mentality in mind, I think that I can safely speak for everyone who took part that it lived up and in many ways surpassed all of our expectations and was a Shabbaton we would all remember for a long time.

By: Phil Dubrofsky