On Shabbat parsha Vayishlach the JHS girls from Yeshiva of Central Queens had their annual Shabbaton. The girls in grades 6 through 8 along with staff and alumni davened and had breakfast at YCQ before heading upstate NY for a Shabbaton filled with ruach, friendship, and spirituality.
To start off the memorable Shabbat, the girls made a stop at Sport Time USA for a few hours of games and prizes. They arrived at the Raleigh Hotel mid-afternoon. After settling into their rooms and getting ready for Shabbat, the girls danced and listened to music to get them excited for the coming Shabbat.
After candle lighting, the girls joined together at the shul for mincha and Kabbalat Shabbat. There was a great feeling in the shul with everyone davening together. During the Friday night seudah, divrei Torah were given by Tehila Kafash, Maytal Gigi, and Eva Bokhour. After dinner, the girls gathered in a circle and sang zmirot. After benching, inspirational speaker, Michal Horowitz spoke on the topic, There’s No Such Thing As “I Can’t” Accepting and Embracing Our Unique Abilities where she discussed what life challenges she faces considering her loss of her hearing. The eighth-grade girls then entertained the other students, staff and chaperones with creative skits where they mimicked some of their teachers keeping the crowd laughing and relating to the performers. The evening ended with the Battle of the Classes competition. The girls then settled in to their rooms for a few hours of games, laughter, and boding before lights out.
Shabbat morning following davening the girls broke into their grades and had learning sessions with their counselors. Eighth grade discussed the importance of their yetzer hara and that they have the option to chose to follow it or to listen to their yetzer tov. They learned they always have an option.
They then rejoined together in the dining room for lunch. Tehila Shabtai, Avigail Izgel and Aly Adelstein gave divrei Torah. Aly Adelstein spoke about two sisters. One was popular, smart and got good grades and her parents were so proud of her. The other sister was also a good student, but very quiet. She was less noticed by their parents. One day they got in a fight, so the parents put them in a room to try and work out their own problems. The ‘perfect’ sister did not realize she was doing anything wrong. The lesson was that it is important to be aware of everything you say because it can hurt or offend someone even if you do not mean it and also, if you are hurt or offended you need to tell it to the person to give them the chance to improve.
Each grade participated in games followed by another talk by Michal Horowitz. She talked about how important going to yeshiva is. That in Hebrew a school is called a beit sefer. Beit means house and sefer means book. Your yeshiva is your home first and then your school. Throughout shabbat the girls earned raffle tickets for davening with kavana, benching and showing middot tovot to chaperones and other students. The tickets were used for prizes that teachers donated.
During Seudah Shlishit Sarah Leah Sullivan , Shira Fisher, Nanetta Katayev, and Olivia Kandinov gave Divrei Torah followed by a performance of songs by grades 6 and 7 and a final going away song by grade 8. Then Shabbat began to draw to an end. All the students, staff and chaperones gathered around the Havdalah candle to say goodbye to an amazing, spiritual uplifting shabbat. It was a bittersweet end for the eighth-grade girls as they sang and danced and said goodbye to their last Shabbaton at YCQ.
YCQ Junior High School Girls Shabbaton
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