These and Those

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

A Wonder-ful Question

Posted on May 29, 2014 by AdAm Mayer

Tags: , , , , ,

Here are my parting words from the final
community lunch of the year:
גּל­ֵעינַי וְאִַבּיָטה­­  נְִפָלאוֹת, ִמתּוָֹר ֶתָך

“Roll open my eyes that I might look at wonders from your Torah.”
t’hilim 119:18 ­ (Psalms) ­

And aren’t they wonderful!

The principle of ­בטל ב60

AdAmayImagine you are making a kosher meatloaf. If one small piece of non-kosher ground meat falls into your kosher meatloaf, as long as the piece of non-kosher meat is less than 1/60 of the entire loaf, we render the loaf kosher.

Is this because the non-kosher meat is greatly diminished and now makes up less than 2% so we just don’t care about it anymore? 98.6% is kosher enough for me?

Or does this principle rabbincally obliterate the non-kosher crumbs and make them no more, rendering the meatloaf 100% kosher.

In other words: Are we living in an observe reality, or are we creating and recreating the reality in which we live?

For me, this question is a wonder – ­ is wonderful.

גּל­ֵעינַי וְאִַבּיָטה­­  נְִפָלאוֹת, ִמתּוָֹר ֶתָך

“Roll open my eyes that I might look at wonders from your Torah.”

And I believe that each of us has had moments of wonder this year: in the beit midrash, in Israel.

For me, learning Torah, Hevruta study, Connection with Community and Spiritual Practice all contribute to my experiences of wonder.

I believe these things are why we had such a wonderful year at Pardes.

גּל­ֵעינַי וְאִַבּיָטה­­  נְִפָלאוֹת, ִמתּוָֹר ֶתָך

“Roll open my eyes that I might look at wonders from your Torah.”

Such wonders, such treasures of Torah that I never knew existed are now a part of who I am, as an individual and as part of the Jewish People.

And together, we have created the most amazing community with its foundation rooted strongly in Torah.

גּל­ֵעינַי וְאִַבּיָטה­­  נְִפָלאוֹת, ִמתּוָֹר ֶתָך

“Roll open my eyes that I might look at wonders from your Torah.”

I bless us all that we may utter this prayer every day, wherever we may live – that it give us strength to continue to reveal wonders of Torah -באשר הם שם- wherever they might be waiting for us.

גּל­ֵעינַי וְאִַבּיָטה­­  נְִפָלאוֹת, ִמתּוָֹר ֶתָך

“Roll open my eyes that I might look at wonders from your Torah.” ­