These and Those

Musings from students of the Pardes Institute of Jewish Studies in Jerusalem

[Alumni Guest Post] Encounter: Bringing More Into View

Posted on by
Reply

Bruce Shaffer (Pardes Summer ’06, Spring ’11) has been on eleven Encounter trips. You can read his testimonial below, or at The Boulder Jewish News.

Encounter: Bringing More Into View

By Bruce Shaffer on ‍‍March 8, 2012 – 14 Adar 5772

Zoomed in tight, images from the West Bank of Leila’s eyes flash anger. Shireen’s hold sadness. Sami’s seek possibilities. Ali – who could’ve given up – still looks for understanding. But at my Limmud Colorado 2011 photo show, it was the viewers’ expressions that interested me. There was dissonance, between perceived on-screen faces and on-the-ground facts presumed. Surprise, that I could enter Palestinian Authority administered towns such as Bethlehem, Hebron and Ramallah. And getting a bit personal… curiosity about my friendships on the other side.

Got me wondering, too. Our American Jewish community is focused on the multifaceted picture called the Israeli-Palestinian conflict. Yet most of us – and those who inform us – have never met a Palestinian, nor come face-to-face with Palestinian perspectives. Wouldn’t that experience, provided capably and credibly, complement our advocates’ and policy-makers’ understanding of and relationship with the situation? My viewers seemed to think so, and some wanted to know how-to.

Continue reading →

Share

Week 37: The Practical Dictionary of the Pardes Lexicon

Posted on by
Reply

(X-posted from my home blog, Yinzer in Yerushalayim)

One of the unadvertised perks of Pardes is that after studying holy texts in their original in the Beit Midrash for a whole year, no matter how advanced your Hebrew level, you come away with a black-belt in using dictionaries. Yet I have noticed that for all the dictionaries we have for Jewish religious language, there is, incongruously, not a dictionary of “Pardesian,” that unique jargon you learn upon entering the Orchard. Until now. As a gift to any incoming students who may be reading this and as a memento to those who are leaving, I present this necessarily abridged first edition of The Practical Dictionary of the Pardes Lexicon, heretofore to be known as “The Kwait.” You’re welcome.

Avoda Zara – Idol worship, literally “foreign service.” This is an all-encompassing term used to describe worship of foreign deities and/or the self, and commonly used around the Pardes Beit Midrash to describe any “Jewish” subject that does not involve learning Gemara and/or Halakha. There is a Makhloket about the Tanakh.

Continue reading →

Share

בחקתי

Posted on by
Reply

This week’s parsha closes out the middle book of the Torah, ויקרא, Leviticus, with a number of further details relating to the priesthood.  One specific word caught my eye though: “These are the statutes and the laws and the Torot that Hashem has given between Him and the children of Israel at mount Sinai by the hand of Moshe” (26:46).  Granted, throughout the Torah the word ‘Torah’ is used to refer to (seemingly) different things, but rarely is the word pluralized.  Somewhat surprisingly, this does not seem to bother any of the commentaries other than Rashi, who remarks that the two Torahs refer to the written and oral Torah, namely what are now known as the Torah and Talmud respectively.  Spinoza, on the other hand, finds this quite noteworthy, and he says:

From what has been said, it is thus clearer than the sun at noonday that the Pentateuch was not written by Moses, but by someone who lived long after Moses.  Let us now turn our attention to the books which Moses actually did write, and which are cited in the Pentateuch.  Firstly, it appears from [Shmot 22:14] that Moses, by the command of God, wrote and account of the war against Amalek…We hear also in [Shmot 24:4] of another book called the Book of the Covenant, which Moses read before the Israelites when they first made a covenant with God.   But this book or this writing contained very little, namely, the laws or commandments of God which we find in [Shmot 20:22-the end of ch. 24], and this no one will deny who reads the aforesaid chapter rationally and impartially. (A Theologico-Political Treatise, Chapter 8:48-53)

Spinoza is of the opinion that, only when it explicitly states that a ‘Torah’ is given over by Moshe, like it does here, that Moshe actually wrote those laws or parts of the Chumash (Pentateuch).  Excepting Rashi’s anachronistic read, it seems hard to deny that more than one book/scroll/text is being referred to here.

Moshe wrote the Laws
Attributed to his name
How about the rest?

Share

Are you a Lonely Man or a Social Man?

Posted on by
Reply

As most of my fellow Pardesnicks have probably gathered at this late date in the semester, I’m what one might call “quiet.” It’s not that I don’t speak up in class or won’t engage in conversation (if you strike one up first, of course). Rather, my quietness is an overall demeanor. I’m not a smiley person, and my facial expressions are what I like to call “subtle.” Crowded social gatherings make me stiff and awkward, because they require me to be, well, social. This is doable for me in small groups. However, the larger the group gets, the quieter I get. It’s not intended as an act of disengagement and it’s not because I don’t like people. It also certainly is not because I think that I’m too cool to let loose and be boisterous once in a while. It’s really a leftover trait of childhood bashfulness that morphed into nearly debilitating social anxiety at the onset of puberty, which lasted well into adulthood. It’s only been for the last couple of years that I’ve been able to train and force myself just to be this outgoing. I know, I know; I’m not exactly Little Miss Sunshine. I’m more of a Little Miss Moon…beam, or something.

In the last Relationships class with Tovah Leah, we discussed the role of the individual and the community, and the tension between the two, and the sacrifices we must make to obtain some sort of balance Continue reading →

Share

Bipartisanship

Posted on by
Reply

“Too often bipartisanship is equated with centrism or deal cutting. Bipartisanship is not the opposite of principle. One can be very conservative or very liberal and still have a bipartisan mindset. Such a mindset acknowledges that the other party is also patriotic and may have some good ideas. It acknowledges that national unity is important, and that aggressive partisanship deepens cynicism, sharpens political vendettas, and depletes the national reserve of good will that is critical to our survival in hard times.“

-Richard Lugar, U.S. Senator (R, IN)

Following the trend of the U.S. Senate (and all of Congress, for that matter), Senator Richard Lugar was voted out by his own party last week – after serving in the U.S. Senate for 36 years. The quote above is from Senator Lugar’s exit letter, dated May 8th (one week ago today).

This letter resonated deeply with me, and as I read it my thoughts turned to the Jewish nation – if there’s one overarching lesson that I’ve derived from my studies at Pardes, it’s surely the lesson of Ahavat Yisrael… the lesson that we Jews should strive to “have a bipartisan mindset… (and) acknowledge… that (others are) also patriotic and may have some good ideas… (that) national unity is important.”

Insert the word ‘pluralistic’ for ‘bipartisan’, and I find that Senator Lugar’s approach to politics suggests a healthy and productive framework for the Jewish nation to chart a unified course through the divisive currents of change and uncertainty.

Share