Posted by Nicole P

Program Host	Regional
Host Region	Central Region West
Program Type	Brotherhood Convention Education Hebrew Israel Judaic Kallah/Judaic Convention Sisterhood Social Social Action
Time Required	Less then 2 hours
Target Population(s)	Girls (BBG) Boys (AZA) Members Members-in-Training Alephs-in-Training Teen Leaders Convention Participants Freshmen Sophomores Juniors Seniors 8th Graders
Folds Targeted	Judaic Education Social Jewish Heritage Recreation Sisterhood
People Participating	100-200

Program Summary:

A Judaic program done at Kallah about how humans react when their life is in danger.

Full Description:

Purpose:
To understand how we would react when our well-being is at stake. To take that knowledge of ourselves and apply it to a modern situation where there is no “ending.”

Supplies:
Butcher Paper
Markers
Stickers for designation in groups and Subgroups

Division of Participants:
120 participants
3 simultaneous programs/ 37-38 Per group
    Within each group→ 6 groups with 6-7 people in them.

Program:

Sequence:
1)    Participants act out Masada story (Omitting end result) with leader narrating.
2)    Web Café Discussion
3)    Conglomeration of everyone’s thoughts
4)    End of Story
5)    Nigeria Information
6)    Web Café Discussion
7)    Conglomeration
8)    How do we act differently in the two situations

Details:
1)    Masada Story: (Rough Draft)
Once upon a time, before Israel was born, there were Romans and there were Jews. The Romans Did not like the Jews very much and decided to persecute them. So the Jews decided to run away to the desert in the south of current day’s Israel. They ended up on a mountain called Masada which only had one windy path up to the top. Once they reached the top, they took refuge in Hordus’ (what’s his name in English?) castle. They build a life up there. They build a temple and a Mikveh and survived on food left in the storage rooms. One day, The roman General decided that they had to get rid of the Jews on top of Masada. He said to himself, “Word cannot get out of Jews who have escaped the wrath of the roman empire. They will spread the word—Jews talk, you know—and soon all the Jews will think they can escape us!”
So the Roman general gathered his army, 12 legions to be exact and attempted to breach Masada. Well, As I said before, there was only one steep windy path up, and it was easily defended. The roman had to climb up one by one and couldn’t bring any equipment save what was on their bodies. They were easy targets for the Masada Jews. After seeing that Masada could not be breached, the Roman general deiced to change his tactic. He said “I’ll build a road!”
And so he did. With a road he could bring up many soldiers at a time and have them bring up the most advanced weaponry—catapults. So of course, the roman’s used slaves to build the road. The Jews decided to kill the slaves, so there would be no one to build the road. But once this started happening, the roman general had an idea. He said “I’ll use Jewish slaves!”
Now, if you were a Masada Jew, What would you do? WWMJD?
2)    Web Café: There are X groups each with Y people in them. Each group in given a question that relates to the topic being discussed. They write all their thoughts on butcher paper.  Before the next question is introduced all but one of the people in the original groups move to different groups. The one that remains explains to the new people what was previously discussed and newcomers explain things that have not yet been mentioned. Continues…
a.    Questions for Masada
i.    What are the options available to the Masada Jews?
ii.    What are the ramifications of the options you have discussed?
1.    Is it self defense?
2.    Who wins?
3.    Jews on Suicide?
iii.    What are the options of Slaves
iv.    What are the ramifications of the Slaves?
1.    Are the Jews on the ramp following the torah
2.    Asked to kill someone, or just facilitating?
b.    Questions for Nigeria
i.    In the eyes of Jewish Law, what is the appropriate response?
(discuss in groups) →Present
Jewish Law actually states that:
    If we spend all our time helping others there is the possibility that we will neglect ourselves and our families. How does Judaism deal with this issue? The Talmud discusses a case where two men find themselves stranded in the desert; one has a bottle of water which, if he drinks it all, will probably last him till they reach civilization but his friend will die. If, however, he shares the bottle then the likelihood is that neither of them will survive long enough to reach safety. What should the man who has the bottle do? The Talmud concludes that in such a case we say ‘chayecha kodmim’ that a person is obligated to put his life before that of his friend, and consequently he must keep the bottle for himself even though it means that his friend will probably die.
ii.    What are the differences in our thought versus Jewish Law?  (AS A WHOLE – all 36 People)

3)    Conglomeration: everyone gets together and explains their thoughts as a whole.
a.    Masada & Nigeria
i.    What would you do?
4)    End of Story: (not acted out)
The Jews decided to fortify their walls and not kill the Jewish slaves. Unfortunately they knew that their fortifications would not last and committed suicide before the Romans could reach them.
5)    Nigeria Information:
The population of if Nigeria is growing exponentially. Couples end up having an average of 5 children so that the children will be able to help support the family financially. Before advanced healthcare,  many of the children would die before age five. So even though birth rate was high, death rate was higher and the population didn’t grow. Now, however, advanced healthcare and foreign aid dollars are pouring into Nigeria decreasing the death rate but keeping the birth rate high. With the massive percent of growth per year, Nigerians will soon need more resources than they can produce for themselves or afford to buy.
What do we do?
9)    Discussion
a.    How do we react in two different situations?

Minutes:
9:55:  People Arrive/ Split onto groups
10:00: Explanation
10:05: Masada Play
10:25: Masada1st question
10:30: Masada2nd question
10:35: Masada 3
10:40: Masada 4
10:45: Conglomeration
10:50: Nigeria Info
10:55: N1
11:00: N2
11:05: N3
11:10: N4
11:15: Conglomeration
11: 20: Final Discussion
11:25: END

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