Shabbaton

This shabbat was our congregation's annual retreat. We had several first-timers this year, in part due to better promotion, and I enjoyed getting to know them better. The study sessions were mostly done in small groups and we kept the same groups throughout (mostly); the other two people in my group were a first-timer I didn't know past his name (he's only been to the shabbat morning minyan a few times so far) and a second-timer I've gotten to know just a bit over the last year. While you can have amazing, deep discussions with people you've known well for years (I had a great experience like that last year), you can also have deep discussions with people you've just met, and I enjoyed that this year. The study sessions revolved around four questions in the book of B'reishit (Genesis): ayeka? (where are you?), ma t'vakeish? (what do you seek?), ha-shomeir achi anochi? (am I my brother's keeper?), and lamah zeh anochi? (why am I?).

We stayed up pretty late Friday night singing and more of the songs than usual were enjoyable to me -- a good mix of Hebrew songs and mostly 60s/70s folk music, with very few intrusions from the first half of the 20th century this year. (I recognize that older attendees feel about the music of the 30s and 40s the way I feel about music of the 60s, but I personally dislike the earlier era's music, at least what I've heard of it.)

For the torah service the rabbi did group aliyot based on how many shabbatons people had been at. (So everybody gets an aliyah, like on Simchat Torah. Nice.) I was a little startled that there were only five of us in the "10 or more" group, out of 32 people present. When did I become a quasi-elder of the group? :-)

There were other groups and activities at the campground (not surprising). Saturday morning we saw signs directing another group to the "Easter bunny brunch". It's dangerous to give a phrase like that to a bunch of Jewish geeks. We decided that while the wording was ambiguous they were probably eating with the Easter bunny rather than upon it, but that led to questions about the nature of the Easter bunny. Is it a single immortal being, like Santa Claus is understood to be, or do Easter bunnies retire and get replaced? Is there a training program and merit-based selection, or do Easter bunnies come from one unbroken family line (like kings, absent conquest) and there's always an heir apparent, or is it like the Dalai Lama and the reincarnated Easter bunny is identified in each generation? And, more specific to our group, are Elaine's iconic bunny slippers at all involved? Alas, these questions went unanswered, except that we think Elaine's slippers are likely to be innocent byhoppers.