Shabbaton #2: Saturday and Sunday

The 2nd shabbaton continues...

Decorating cookies on Saturday night!

Saturday morning everyone met up in the staff’s cabin for breakfast, which included bagel-cream cheese-and a lot of lox . We then spoke about prayers and what they mean to everyone. I found it interesting because everyone had a different meaning as to what prayer is. 

Then, we spoke about the timeline that we had to put in order on Friday. There were some very interesting things that we learned about Israel. We then did a leadership activity. Now this was extremely complicated. Six people were in the middle of the room and blindfolded, then the circle around them had to tell them what to do, but they had their backs to the people with blindfolds and they had to communicate with the people in front of them who weren’t allowed to talk. Complicated right? They had to get the blindfolded people to make a star of David. So that didn’t work out very well but it was still fun and we learned about ourselves as leaders.

Later, we went outside for the “outdoor training” run by our JC's. We had to work in teams. It was like a scavenger hunt in the woods. Then we tied a rope (made of plastic bags) to two trees. We had to get everyone to the other side of the rope by going over it. Speaking as the first person to get thrown over the rope, it wasn’t easy. This was a tough activity, but we worked together and we did just fine. Once we got changed from the “outdoor clothes”, we had some free time. I used this time to get to know better some of the Diller Teen Fellows.

After the free time, we did the prayer for the Shabbat lunch and ate. And now came some more leadership activities. There were pictures of some important and inspiring leaders spread on the floor. We had to choose a picture and explain why we choose those people and say one trait they have as a leader. We discussed those traits and explained why it s important for a leader to have those traits. Then, we were separated into three teams and each team got the name of a leader from the bible: Abraham, Moses, and Joshua. We had to read a passage about them and then make a little campaign for them.

After all these activities, we did seudah shlishit-שעודה שלישית and had a snack. We had an interesting conversation with our well-informed JC, Maxwell, about politics in Israel and in Canada. Then came the havdallah that was done, very well, by Steven, Levana, Rebecca and myself. I liked it because it’s very different than how we do it at my house. We were all together singing around the table, it was a pleasant moment.

Now this is one of my favorite moments, the group who was in charge of the games (Matthew, Phil and Noah A) decided that we were going to play “Baby, I Love You!”. In this game, there is one person in the middle and they have to go tell someone in the circle “Baby, I love you! Can you please smile for me?” and the person would have to answer back “Baby, I love you too but I just can’t smile for you!”. If the person smiled, then they had to go to the middle. So here is why I enjoyed it: I was the “target”, everyone tried to break me and it was fun to watch. The things that they tried were funny and unexpected but we all had a good laugh.

Then we did some T-shirt decorating. We came to the decision that we would use Michaela’s beautiful drawing for the front and Levana and Phil’s (also very nice) design for the back.

Shortly after dinner, unfortunately a few people had to leave so the group was a little smaller. With the cookie dough, we shaped our cookies and put them in the oven. Meanwhile, we had our maagal laila. It was just us and our wonderful JCs. I really appreciated this moment because it was all about us. We got to share our stories and learned about more about the others. After that, most of us went back to the staff’s cabin to decorate the cookies.

Then came Sunday morning. Everyone was tired from a long and delightful week-end. First we had breakfast, and then a short maagal. We had to pick a card with the word that explains our hopes for the continuation of the Diller experience. Before loading the bus, we had feedback. The next thing I knew, we were at the Y.

I know I wrote a lot, but this shabbaton can’t be explained with only a few words. If I had to sum it up, I would say it was just the beginning of a wonderful experience. Merci! Et a bientot! Alexia (AKA The Girl Who Doesn’t Smile:)

Baby I love you, but I just can't smile for you!

Since it’s me, I had to put in at least a few words in french! So again: A Bientot!

Written by: Alexia Brami