Let me ask you a question. When I say the word “community” what do you think of? While an unenlightened person will finagle a variety of uncouth answers like spending time with family and friends, the BT junior class would all give the exact same answer, “breaking bread.” So, you may ask, why is breaking bread an important aspect for a community? Well, in the words of Hellen Keller “Alone, we can do so little; together, we can do so much.” Please sit down while I open your third eye and your chakras to a story as old as time about how the Beth Tfiloh juniors break bread every Friday, day 5.

It all started in December of 2020 when I jokingly offered to break bread with Benny E. ‘22, at first it was a joke but, when more people like Emunah W. ‘22 and Ahron F. ‘22, who would soon become the Minister of Vibe joined, I knew this would be fun. On December 11th, 2020 at 12:21 Post Meridiem Eastern Standard Time the first ever breaking of bread occurred in the Beth Tfiloh parking lot outside of my 2006 Toyota Rav4. I started by giving an absolutely “S tier” profound speech about community following with the Minister of Vibe who played some absolute fire jams. Later we would each take turns to break off a piece of one of the two highest quality French baguettes that I could obtain from my awe inspiring and legendary quests to the best local bakeries (Social distancing the whole time of course).

Following the first breaking of bread, a multitude of important bread breaking traditions were established, such as saving the bag in which the bread was contained, writing a quote about community on the bag and recording the exact time of the event on it. According to tradition, our Minister of Vibe Ahron F. ‘22 would do this with a black sharpie marker.

The Second breaking of bread occurred on Mental Health day, January 15th, 2021 at 12:08 Post Meridiem Eastern Standard Time and was the first breaking of bread of the new year. This breaking of bread was notable because of the confusion caused by mental health day resulting in many people never finding the bread breaking and therefore, a smaller ceremonial group than ever before. Benny E. ‘22 and I after the main ceremony then took it upon ourselves to bring vibe to the vibeless by going on an odyssey together with the second baguette hoping to inspire vibe and camaraderie within our grade.

The third breaking of bread would be on January 29th, 2021 at 12:16 Post Meridiem Eastern Standard Time and this one had the highest quality bread to date. Nothing really incredible happened except for what I would call a “phantom high turnout” from many other juniors showing up just for bread and neglecting to recognize the point of community. I would also like to stress the amazing quality of bread. During that breaking of bread if you didn’t taste it, I sincerely feel bad for you.

That brings us to the most recent breaking of bread on February 12th, 2021 with the exact time forever lost to history. This one occurred on zoom leading to it having many firsts. The first non BT student at a breaking of bread being a former junior who left after Freshman year, the first non human at a breaking of bread who was Jacob Z ‘22’s dog, Bailey, and the first full time zoom student, Jacob Z ‘22 at a breaking of bread. The fourth breaking of bread did, of course, have relatively low turnout and not the best bread as we all brought our own bread and broke it in front of the zoom camera.

So why am I telling you all this? I am sitting you upon my lap to apprise this to you because I hope that I will open your eyes and expand the depths of your brain to understand the true meaning of community and how to gather fist pumpingly amazing pow wows. The true meaning to me is to sit down and break bread with your friends while listening to some nice music. If you are ever feeling down or lonely just go and break bread with some friends, it doesn’t have to be some quality French baguettes, it can be any kind of bread just grab a few friends, break bread with them, talk about anything, and your desires for community shall be absolutely satisfied.