On the morning of Friday, Nov. 8, the high school community boarded several buses headed towards Stamford, CT, embarking on Heschel’s annual shabbos retreat: the Shabbaton. 

This year’s Shabbaton theme was Intention vs. Impact, with student and faculty-led theme sessions focusing on the importance of intention in our justice system and the world around us.

The weekend was packed with tefillah, grade meetings, free time, and school-wide “circle time.” During these assemblies, students and faculty participated in classic circle games such as a rock paper scissors tournament and trivia, along with new activities like a concentration-style naming game based on the viral “name in the Bible that starts with _” video trend.

Also taking place in the circle was “Debate Midrash,” as faculty members took to the stage to argue theme-related topics. Issues such as whether Herzl or Avraham was more influential, if we should mandate voting in America, and the productivity of participation grades were debated by Samantha Brandspiegal against Dov Nelkin, David Steinberg against Sam Casper, and Ruth Satinover-Fagan against Rabbi Natan Kapustin, respectively.

After a community-wide Havdalah to mark the end of Shabbat, students gathered for Panoply and a gratitude circle, in which they expressed thanks to the JSL team, programming and spirit councils, catering staff, and everyone else who helped make the Shabbaton a memorable and successful event.