When it is time to bless the bread, each table is requested to have all participants either touch the challah or touch someone in contact with the bread. This creates 25 tables of human chains, arteries into 25 doughy hearts. Just before the meal is served, resident rabbi Sidney Mintz stands, and in place of the campers' parents, leads the counselors in a blessing over the children. It is a valuable commodity among campers, mainly for its scarcity among their ranks. Come Shabbat, however, Pog is available to all.
Campers drink thirstily, their meals augmented by the forbidden fruit juice.
When asked their favorite part about Shabbat at Tawonga, many campers mention the stroll, the songs and the havdallah service. Just as many mention Pog. Again skirting convention, counselors buss dishes for their cabins. Overhead streamers cease to be background decoration, and now serve to transform the room into an impromptu dance floor. Ferris and Saxe, who have accompanied each song so far, turn things up a notch, playing up-tempo crowd favorites such as Mitzvah Goeret Mitzvah, Tumbalala'ika and Lo Yisa Goy.