By Jazzie Morgan
In the Torah, we read about Nachshon being forced to step out of his comfort zone in order to lead the Jewish people out of Egypt. Similarly, the first week of The Nachshon Project forced each of us as fellows to step outside of our comfort zone. For me, the moment I felt the most out of my element was during our outdoor training session with Enigma. Enigma is a series of life size brain teasers that challenged our ability to both think outside of the box and work as a team. As leaders, it is hard to balance our desire to both step forward and step back at once. During Enigma, many of us found it difficult to balance speaking up and letting other people take the lead. Throughout our two hours with Enigma, I watched the group transform from just a few people having their voice heard to the entire group working together as a well oiled machine.
Beyond learning to work as a team of leaders, Enigma also showed us that no matter how difficult a task seems, it doesn't mean you shouldn’t try. This point truly hit home for me during our lifesize game of Jenga. The team I was on quickly realized there was nearly no chance that we could win. At the point of “no return” we decided to bite the bullet and just pull out the last block. I offered to be the one to “rip off the bandaid.” I stood up and grabbed the block. I then shut my eyes and pulled the block out as fast as I could. When I opened my eyes I looked at the group and everyone was laughing, I had managed to somehow not drop a single ball. We realized that in that moment where we had completely given up we actually found the solution. Sometimes, it isn’t complicated. Sometimes, the solution to the problem is simple; try.
As Jews, there were also many parallels to take from this activity. Throughout history the Jewish people have faced situations that feel almost impossible to overcome. During our Enigma training, we were similarly given what seemed like circumstances we couldn’t overcome. We learned through the training that it is not just about getting there but also about how we got there.This idea was the by far hardest to grasp. It was often easy to get to the end goal we were given but when asked to get back to the beginning we realized we didn’t pay much attention to the steps we had taken.
After the program ended, the leaders led us in a reflection of what we had learned throughout the course of the training. We each had come to a similar but different conclusion on why we thought the Rabbi’s had put us through the training. Enigma showed each of us that often simply accomplishing a task is not the end goal, it is also about getting there, and figuring out the steps we have to take to get there as a team.
