Friday started off
like any other week: wake up; eat breakfast; go to school. It was, however, different
than the rest.
At one, all the
fun truly began. Meeting at the Y with luggage and tons of food meant that this
weekend would surely be one to remember. After a journey on the bus, a little
lesson on the rules of the bus, and a threat to get ditched on the side of the
road, we successfully made it to Camp Papillon. By the way, HAPPY BIRTHDAY
CHICAGO! After a quick unloading, we were assigned to our rooms and the
“preparations” for Shabbat began. By preparations, I actually mean The Ellen
Show. Once the episode finished, we put on our Shabbat clothes and headed back
to the main room for the traditional services.
The religious part
of the Shabbat service was organized by us, the teens, which allowed us to do
it in the way that we felt was most appropriate for our group. From the candle
lighting, in which every female from our cohort lit a candle and said the
prayers, to the Erev Shabbat service, done in the Orthodox style, to Kiddush
and Hamotzi, the service revolved around one of the themes for our weekend:
Leadership.
After supper, we
had some free time to change into more comfortable clothes to compete head to
head and test our Israeli knowledge. Our cohort was divided into two teams in
order to battle each other and fulfill the other theme for our Shabbaton:
Israeli Connection. We were tested on different trivia questions that were
about both past and present Israel. After that activity, it was a competition
to place different cities on a map of Israel, obviously before the other team.
Another Israeli Connection activity was only about past Israel. We had to place
different historical event in chronological order. We got to learn about each
of these events the next day. We also played Jewish Heads Up. We all got a name
of a famous, or not so famous, Jewish person put on our foreheads and asked
yes-no questions to guess who the person was.
The most
interesting part of the day came next, the Maagal Laila. Friday’s Maagal
started with perfecting two ways of Diller feedback: “The Compliments Sandwich”
and “The Chocolate Pretzel.” After giving our positive and negative feedback
about the day, we proceeded to the activity called “Taps.” Sitting in a circle,
with our eyes closed and silent, each member of the cohort was asked to stand
up quietly by our wonderful JCs, Maxwell and Alizée, and tap everyone’s head
who they believed filled the requirement set forth by the best JCs. We all
learnt what we accomplished in the group and what we could work on from this
interesting night circle.
The night ended
with free time.
I would like to
personally thank Sarah, Maxwell and Alizée for an amazing weekend!
By: Noah Adessky
No comments:
Post a Comment