Finally, the second shabbaton has arrived! This was our first big opportunity for self-management. After all the preparations the Diller teens put together, we were finally ready to experience these activities we organized. After meeting up at the Y, we loaded the bus and we were off to Camp Kinneret! On the bus, we talked, laughed, and had conversations on what we had been up to since our last workshop. Once we arrived at our destination, we quickly unloaded all our baggage and the food from the bus. We settled in our bedrooms and prepared ourselves for the most amazing shabbat of our lives!
We brought in Shabbat by lighting the candles all together. We sat together and heard an amazing poem, found by the Rituals committee, about how every soul is just like the flame of a candle. We read that just like a flame is pointing up, we too are always searching up. Following this inspiring poem, we sang the shabbat services beautifully. Then we ate a delicious Friday night dinner, also overseen by the Diller teens, specifically the Food committee. We then had an amusing and fun-filled program prepared by Buddy, Emma, and Elisheva. The program consisted of us splitting up into 3 groups and we competed in a few courses against each other. First, every group had to find a creative name for their group. Then the group had to pick a representative to do the following activities: make him/her into a Garbage Queen out of a garbage bag, toilet paper, and scotch tape and have him/her do a model walk down the hallway, (round 2 was the bathing suit competition) have a pudding eating race, and have a relay race with getting a ball on a spoon past a certain distance. Afterwards, we all went outside to get some fresh air, and played a few of our childhood games in the snow together like red rover, and cops and robbers.
When we got back, we ended the night with a Ma’agal Laila with our staff. This Ma’agal Laila consisted of us sitting in a circle with the lights shut off and our eyes closed. We were tapped on the shoulder by one of our staff and were told a sentence like “tap someone who gave you knowledge” or “tap someone who inspires you”. That person would tap someone on the head who affected them in that way. This activity was really interesting and thought-provoking because the discreet environment made people feel more comfortable to let people know how much they’ve affected them. So too, that night the people who were tapped were not only tapped on their heads, but they were tapped on their hearts as well. When someone knew what a difference they were to another person, it left them with a heartwarming feeling inside of them and gave them a good night sleep.
On Saturday morning we were awoken by our leader of the day, Leah, and we all went upstairs, leaving our smelly basement to have an extremely delicious breakfast thanks to the Food committee. Following breakfast, (which was eaten while a heated conversation about Hebrew Academy’s famous colour war took place) we had a very relaxing yoga session run by our JC, Maya, which helped us reflect on what we are thankful for and what we are proud of.
After that, we all got in our winter gear and exited into the gruelling & freezing weather. We did a leadership activity where we were each given a role of either a certain type of leader or follower and we had to work together to build a snow fort. Since all our roles were exaggerated, the only thing we did successfully were getting stuck in piles of snow and Elisheva getting hit in the face with a shovel. At that point, we went inside to continue the activity by building a house of cards instead of a snow fort, which was unsuccessful as well. We then discussed the activity and learnt about the leadership compass, where we all fell on the spectrum, whether we were a visionary, a teacher, a healer, or a warrior. We then enjoyed an amazing lunch followed by a break.
Once our break was finished, we got all geared up again and went outside to play games, which we were really excited about since the winners were promised a very cool prize! So we split into groups to play a game of hide and seek around the camp. We then went on a mini nature walk and found a field where we played an intense game of capture the flag, which resulted in Gabriella’s hat getting lost and Buddy suffering from a leg injury. We went inside and enjoyed hot chocolate while nervously waiting to find out what the prize that the winning team was going to receive. We were all hoping for Diller swag and then our JC’s revealed to us that indeed it was Diller baseball tees! But they told us that there was only 5 and not everyone would be able to get…we were immediately all struck with sadness and someone pointed out that swag is Stuff We ALL Get, and then… surprise! They had shirts for all of us!!!
Next, we ate seudah shlishit and had an activity where we learnt about the history and geography of Israel. We were split into 2 groups. We were given names of Israeli cities and we had to place them how we thought they actually are geographically. Then we were given historical Israeli events that we placed in chronological order. This was followed by a meaningful havdalhah done by the Rituals committee and we each wrote on a paper what we were proud of in the last week and what we were hoping to accomplish in the next week. We then ate dinner and we were given the chance to design our own Diller T-shirts!!!
Later on Maya represented the Educational committee and led us in an activity where we were split into groups and we had to make a lemonade stand! Each group was given a certain amount of theoretical money and we had to buy all the supplies to make lemonade, an advertising poster and a jingle. After the allotted amount of time was up, we presented to the judges (Phil, Maya and Sarah). None of the lemonades were perfect; one was too sour, one was too warm and too sweet, and the other was too watery and cold. However, there was still a winning group; and we then discussed how each of our groups split up the responsibilities and leadership.
When we finished cleaning up, we had a very meaningful Ma’agal Laila run by our JC’s. We began in complete darkness, and one at a time we cracked our glow sticks (we struggled, but we did it) and we spoke about our roses & thorns (something good and something bad in our lives). The next part was deep questions that helped us open up and learn a lot more about each other. Before turning the lights back on, we all decided to be artsy and take creative pictures with the glow sticks. Then we cleaned up and most people stayed upstairs to watch a movie. When it got too late, we went back to the smelly basement and went to sleep.
The first thing that happened Sunday morning was obviously that we woke up and had breakfast at 8:30. Luckily, there was still lots of nutella left for us to devour. Afterwards, we had a feedback session where we pointed out the positives and negatives of the shabbaton so that in the future, our shabbatons will be so much better, which I don’t even know how that’s possible. Then came the dreaded 10:30, the moment we all wish didn’t happen; we packed up our bags and headed onto the bus to return back to the city.
By: Miriam Abadi, Leah Bessner and Matthew Stendel
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