Chodesh Elul is an experiential process for Hadar Bet Yaakov students, where Torah isn’t simply lectured but lived. Girls began the school year with a multi-faceted Yom Iyun focused on the greatness of our teachers under the guidance of Mrs. Shaindel Simes, titled “Class Act.” Students focused on the relationships between talmidot and teachers while also workshopping on the chain-linked mesorah connecting the Jews of today with the Torah given on Har Sinai. Girls played games and presented skits and songs that all culminated with Mrs. Simes showing them a timeline of Jewish history filled with all our great chachamim listed in order followed by our present-day rabbanim who teach our generation Torah. Given a new lens with which to understand the role of their teachers as present-day emissaries of Torah, students also uncovered new respect for the pivotal role every rabbi and teacher plays in our lives.
Hadar Bet Yaakov also welcomed Mrs. Amit Yagoubi to our speaker’s podium where she relayed a moving story about a rebbe who sent a talmid to get a much-needed brachah from another far-away rosh yeshiva. When the talmid returned dismayed with a confusing list of ambiguous blessings, he went through each of the blessings, with his rebbe showing him the hidden “brachah” in each. Mrs. Yagoubi’s tale took many turns and detours as she elucidated the importance of resolving our everyday moments of ambiguity with intentional positivity and the corrosive power of negative thinking. Mrs. Rambod, HBY’s Kodesh principal, thanked Mrs. Yagoubi for gracing students with her transformational message of hope and positivity.
As the days drew closer to Rosh HaShanah, students embarked on a school trip to Davies Apple Farm in Rockland County for a morning of apple picking, hay rides, and picnics. Rabbi Avraham Hecht of Project LEAD generously sponsored this wonderful beginning-of-year trip where girls enjoyed Elul-oriented excitement as they create friendship bonds and group cohesion establishing a culture of respect and middot tovot throughout the school. Students teamed up in groups to pick a variety of apples, sang songs on the hay ride, and put together their own bagels and spreads sandwiches for a picnic. All students expressed much gratitude to Rabbi Hecht for his generous sponsorship of the apple picking Rosh HaShanah trip as well as Queens District Attorney Melinda Katz for supporting our many Jewish Institutions in tandem with Rabbi Hecht. The generous giving of both Rabbi Hecht’s Project LEAD and Melinda Katz has helped thousands of Jewish students in Queens to connect to their Jewish heritage with conviction and love.
One of the last projects found girls making apple recipes to bring home to share with their families over chag. “We love apples in everything,” beamed a 9th grader, explaining how to wrap pastry dough around apple slices. It was the perfectly sweet way to end the day before going home to prepare for Rosh HaShanah and pray for a shanah tovah u’metuka.
By Shoshanna Friedman
