Girls “Retreat” in Crown Heights

By Devorah

This past Monday night, the JCM overflowed with the twelfth grade girls of Beis Rivka High School. This was the night that we had all been anticipating for the past two weeks: the one and only twelfth grade retreat.

We were welcomed by beautifully set tables with a smoothie at each place and a scrumptious fleshing buffet dinner and salad bar. We ate and enjoyed as our program was opened up with words from Mrs. Matusof, reminding us to take advantage of our last few months in school before we enter life.

Then we had a hard time holding in our laughter as Rabbi Korn of Chabad of NYU spoke to us about growth, and Hashem is always with us, even when we feel lost and like we’re not getting anywhere. It was so inspirational to hear a summary of his remarkable path to teshuva.

Next, the lights went off, and colorful spotlights shone on two amazing women, Rivka Leah Cylich, and Chaya Sara Weiss who inspired us with their stunning voices and music and wise words. We danced and swayed back and forth to the beautiful music and the most amazing moment was when we sang “tzomo lecha nafshi” all together. There was a unity and holiness and the room that can not be explained. We just felt as one.

To continue with our program, we enjoyed a delectable sweet table for dessert prepared by a number of our talented classmates. Then each girl found a place-card with her name on the table which said which workshop she would go to. We all got to attend workshops of our choice, given by professionals in nutrition, tznius fashion design, hair care and color palettes. It was amazing to learn how with just a little bit of knowledge we could significantly improve the way we look and feel about ourselves.

Finally came the highlight of our evening- the real retreat for the soul- farbrengens with Rabbi Samuels and Rabbi Herman. We spoke about moach shalit al halev, the beauty of Chassidus, the truth of Torah, and many other topics. We asked and answered questions, and just soaked in the inspiration until about 1 in the morning.

Thank you so much to our principals, Mrs. Teichtel and Mrs. Piekarsky, and to our mechanchos, Mrs. Gluckowsky and Mrs. Gurary for all of the thought and consideration that you put into making this event happen. And an especially big thanks to our dedicated Bnos Chabad leaders, Malky Lerman and Mushkie Junik for all of the work and time that you put into making this event as beautiful and well organized as it was!

The enjoyment and inspiration from this evening will stay with us for a long time.