Last weekend, seventh and eighth grade students at WTA enjoyed the annual in-school shabbaton. Throughout the week leading up to the shabbaton, students had the opportunity to help prepare for the weekend—making decorations, preparing leining and divrei Torah, baking challah and so much more—every single student found the best way for them to give their own personal contribution. Some of the students took it upon themselves to create a WTA Shabbaton Newspaper so that they’d have some good reading material for Shabbat afternoon, and all of these preparations made for a great Shabbat.

This year, the theme of the weekend was “Ivdu et Hashem B’Simcha, Serve Hashem With Joy” and it was beautiful to see how the different study sessions and discussions all fit so perfectly with WTA’s core value of Hakol B’Simcha. To nobody’s surprise, WTA’s students quickly made the connection, and enjoyed exploring how this concept can be found and incorporated into their day to day lives. Of course, one of the highlights of the weekend turned out to be the cholent competition! The seventh and eighth grade students set up their crock pots on Friday morning, and throughout the day, the building was filled with the delicious smell of different styles of cholent. When Shabbat finally came it was the eighth grade who took home the gold medal!