This year’s Shabbaton theme offered Heschel students a critical question to consider: how should we compare a person’s intention with their impact?

Vice President of the programming council and senior Elana Farbiarz explained the reasoning behind the theme. She said, “The council chose intention versus impact because they felt that it was relevant to our everyday lives and there were many distinct directions to go with it. The theme relates to our relationships between our friends and to the entire foundation of our society.”

On Friday afternoon, students engaged in theme sessions. These discussions invited individuals to grapple with the value of intention and decide whether it should take precedence over the outcome. Students examined specific, high-profile cases such as Alec Baldwin’s gun misfiring on the set of the movie Rust and Kim Kardashian’s prison reform efforts. They challenged themselves to form opinions about these complex scenarios and were asked to make a critical judgment: agree or disagree that the intent outweighs the impact? 

Senior Tanys Mayman said, “In the theme session I led, we discussed intention and impact in relation to the Heschel community, particularly how intention and impact affect friendships. We also talked about this issue in the context of cheating: when someone cheats off another and they both get a zero, even though one of the students was unaware of the copying of their answers.”

The theme extended into virtually every aspect of the weekend, including divrei Torah, Friday night learning, and circle time.  In the “Cancel Culture” learning session, for example, students learned about the dangers of cancel culture and discussed the role that intention and impact play in this phenomenon. 

Upon reflecting on this year’s Shabbaton theme, Farbiarz said, “It went great! Everyone worked so hard to make it happen and it was really special for me to see the result.”