By Emily Rebenstock
After most of us had spent the past 20+ hours traveling, I looked around the circle at the 22 other exhausted people and I hoped this sushi would taste as good as it smelled. I had just spent what seemed like an eternity schleping my heavy bags through the airport and onto a bus with strangers, struggling to shove myself into a tiny elevator to get to my room at Shefaim and trying to make a good impression on the people I was going to be sharing my semester with. After settling down and taking a quick catnap in my temporary bed, we were told to go to the conference room to meet the other participants that we had previously only met on the hour long bi-weekly webinars. We sat in chairs set up in a semi-circle, and listened to the Rabbis welcome us, talking to us about what they expected from our semester and giving us an overview of this week’s itinerary. It all sounded exciting, the educational opportunities we would be provided, the innovative thinkers we were going to meet and the friendships we would form, but everyone seemed more interested in either sleeping off their jetlag or eating the grand looking sushi ensemble that was being prepared by the sushi chef behind us.
After eating some sushi (which did in fact end up being as good as I imagined), the Rabbis introduced the first Va’ad to lead some icebreakers to get to help us know each other. They had us tossing water balloons at one another, yelling each other’s names, and playing Jenga with a twist. As camp counselors and programmers, we all were impressed with the new silly games that allowed us to let loose and really get to know each other for the first time. After the Va’ad finished their program, it was time to end our first night in Israel by making our own sushi. The chef briefly taught us about the art of sushi making and he challenged us to try for ourselves. I found myself laughing with the group of people around me, as we joked about how the avocado was oozing out of the side of our poorly wrapped sushi roll. This activity gave us the opportunity to engage with each other in a way that was out of everyone’s comfort zones. We shared stories about our respective camps, exchanged tales of our airport disasters and joked about how nervous we were before arriving to Israel. In retrospect, I could tell that this first night of activities foreshadowed the way the rest of the semester would unfold. Now, more than three weeks after that first sushi night in Shefaim, I am beyond confident that the friends I have made and this adventure we have embarked on will exceed all of my expectations.
