By Simon Luxemburg
For many of us Nachshon Fellows, one thing that strongly characterizes our Jewish identities is ruach-filled singing. Stemming from our Jewish-camping experiences, many of us have a deeply engrained love for spontaneous shira sessions at all hours of the day. Yet, just like any true Jewish camp kid knows, there is no better time to unite in communal song than on Shabbos. For our first Nachshon Shabbaton, we stayed in Jerusalem in the Rafael Residence in Jerusalem. Before our traditional Shabbat meal, we split up into various groups to attend a wide range of minyanim and communities in the area for Minha, Kabbalat Shabbat and Maariv. Some examples of services attended were a carlebach orthodox minyan (Mizmor l’David), a partnership minyan (Shirah Hadasha), and a conservative minyan (Tzion). Afterwards we all came back together to share a wonderful Shabbat meal. Geared with the Shabbos spirit generated from our various minyanim we, naturally, continued on singing the night away. At the meal, we passionately sang zmirot from our various camp and Jewish experiences. As always during our Nachshon program, the fellows enjoyed learning songs from the various movements. Throughout the night, everyone was able to play the roles of teacher, student, and participant. Effectively, this experience made it so that we were able to build a pluralistic kehilah (community) of Shabbat observance. After our Shabbos dinner was over, we all headed back to the Rafael Residence to continue with the programming for our Shabbaton. We gathered in the penthouse room of the residence, and continued with our singing and Shabbos spirt. Here, we sang songs such as Yah Ribon, Ivdu, Yom Ze mechubad, and more. One of the main themes of this Shabbaton was exploring various expressions of Judaism, and how they manifest in Israel. We were able to learn from Jewish educators from a wide range of movements and denominations within the country. Parallel to our theme of the Shabbaton, our abundance of singing on Friday night effectively encompassed a wide range of Shabbat expressions from our own personal experiences. Not only were we all students this weekend, we were our own peers’ teachers.
