At SKA, Asarah B’Tevet fast day inspires ‘Turning Tefilah into Your Life’ program

On Asarah B’Tevet, the TTYL (Turning Tefillah into Your Life) 

Committee of the Stella K. Abraham High School for Girls ran an inspiring program to enhance tefillah. Upon entering the school building, a huge sign reading “Welcome to the MET (Museum Enriching Tefillah)” introduced incredible student-produced artwork throughout the hallway. SKAers were surrounded by beautiful paintings and computer graphics created by the Art Academy and Graphic Design classes depicting different tefillot in a unique visual form. In each davening group, one painting and one graphic design were presented to the girls to illustrate the deeper meanings behind the tefillah.

Each class also benefited from individual tefillah workshops run by TTYL student facilitators. The classes were presented with a choice of 12 Post-it notes created by TTYL, each with an image and short poem related to tefillah.

Every girl chose four Post-it notes that contained a personal connection to her, and with the help of the student facilitators, discovered how the words of the poems can actually connect to words of tefillah. At the end of the session, the girls were able to stick the Post-its into their personal siddurim, in order to add personal meaning to their everyday davening.

This program was an opportunity for girls to see tefillot in new and exciting ways, and to add a layer of depth and meaning to their routine prayers. The notes remaining in each girl’s personal siddur are a representation of the lasting impact of the inspiration, and serve as a constant reminder of the lessons learned.

In addition to making the fast day so relevant for students, SKA offered an inspirational Asarah B’Tevet Boker Iyun to women of the community as SKA Limudei Kodesh faculty members Sheva Mezei and Rochel Chafetz delivered powerful shiurim to a large group of attendees.

Thanks go to Rabbi Isaac Rice and Elisheva Kaminetsky for arranging this Boker L’iyun; Kayla Mezei and Rochel Chafetz for sharing divrei Torah; Suzy Libin, Meredith Pyle and the Art Academy students for the gallery of artwork, Mrs. Kaminetsky, Aviva Dennis, Rikki Ash, orge Mallin and Rivi Blum and all the TTYL members for all their work in making this Asarah B’Tevet at SKA meaningful.