5/9/26 a Grateful Shabbat

 5/9/26 A Grateful Shabbat 

It seems like just yesterday, and in fact it was, just yesterday, that many of us gathered in The Kaufman Chapel at The Davis Academy Lower School to briefly welcome Shabbat (a few hours early, in true Davis Academy fashion) before embarking on our Big Trip. Robert Hunter, lyricist for The Grateful Dead, was spot on when he wrote, “The first days are the hardest days.” After having led more 8th grade trips than my jetlagged brain can tally right now, I’m certain that he had days like today in mind: hard days are days that ask a lot of us, that take all we’ve got. 

Between the extensive travel, the time change, the generally high emotions, and a full day of touring central Prague at the height of tourist season, today definitely qualifies as a demanding day. But when we look back, today won’t be memorable because it was hard, but because it was awesome. As a community, we navigated two of the world's busiest airports. We said goodbye to the familiar and embarked on a journey that requires courage, maturity, openness, curiosity, patience, and equal measures of heart, soul, and mind. You can make the argument that every day asks this and more of us, but days like today are more transparent in making the non-negotiable nature of their request abundantly clear. 

While future blog posts may enchant you with varying degrees of analysis regarding our daily themes, experiences, insights, and key moments, this post will honor the fact that, in spite of our extensive travel and robust touring, today was Shabbat. A Shabbat that began symbolically at The Davis Academy, literally/technically/physically somewhere 39,000 feet above Newfoundland, and ended with a Havdalah service in the serene courtyard of our hotel. Even the most experienced travelers among us have never celebrated a Shabbat quite like this one before. Aided by beautiful weather, the awe inspiring beauty of Prague, we embraced the fun of being with classmates and experiencing freedom and independence that comes with the transition from Middle to High School and with travel experiences like the one we’re embarking upon. 

I’ll end with two small observations. First, Prague, Bratislava, and Budapest are far from random European destinations. These cities, when taken together, will allow us to explore one of the most significant questions that Jews should be asking, but which we often fail to even pose. That question: How have the last 150 years shaped our consciousness as a people, a faith, a culture, and a civilization? There’s great power but also an inherent risk in asking this question because certain topics are unavoidable-- antisemitism, pogroms, gas chambers, communist oppression. No answer is complete without addressing these topics, but even more true is the fact that no answer is complete that doesn’t go beyond these sources of adversity, pain, and anguish. Prague, Bratislava, and Budapest all provide different pieces of a Jewish puzzle that many Jews never fully grasp, let alone experience firsthand. In our case, we will experience a great amount firsthand, but the grasping may look different for each of us. 

For a second and final observation, I’ll note that gratitude is a motivator for human behavior. There is not a person among us, student or chaperone, that isn’t grateful to be here. Gratitude is oozing out of our pores. It’s wonderful to be with a group of people that are grateful-- for their portion in life, for the gift that we’ve been given, for the privilege of being able to travel, and for the fact that we are part of such an extraordinary story-- the story of The Jewish People. 

More to follow. Shabbat Shalom and Shavua Tov.