Musings from Students of the Pardes Institute of Jewish Studies in Jerusalem
Posted on March 27, 2015 by Geo Poor
The chuppah travels down the isle, carried by the youth of Istanbul. Dozens of people walk with it, surrounding it on all sides as if they would prop it up with their tightly-packed selves – many shoulders for the chuppah to lean on. On each side, the crowd, parted like the Red Sea, stands cheering Continue Reading »
Posted on March 23, 2015 by Geo Poor
My favorite service of the whole year is Hallel, a special service we add to certain holidays and to the seder. Hallel has a strange structure. It starts out by saying we are commanded to praise God. Why would be commanded to praise? Does praise really even count if it is not done by choice? Continue Reading »
Posted on December 3, 2014 by Geo Poor
Forms dart and flow drip and flight not liquid quite not the light of sight but a charged shadow byte that drift up and down, in and out bringing energy – dangerous healing energy life giving – kivyachol
Posted on November 28, 2014 by Geo Poor
ויחלום והנה סלם מצב ארצה וראשו מגיע השמימה והנה מלאכי אלהים עלים וירדים בו In Parshat Vayetze, Jacob has a dream about a ladder, some angels, and God. The common interpretation is that the angels are traveling up and down the ladder, but the Hebrew is actually rather vague. When it says “bo,” the direct Continue Reading »
Posted on November 9, 2014 by Geo Poor
Four Men stood before the Watchers the angels placed by God to observe and record the deeds the facts of all that walk this Earth
Posted on October 30, 2014 by Geo Poor
(Spoiler Alert) I live 0.93 miles from the Green Line. For those who don’t know what that means, I live, in a perfectly normal suburban(ish) area that is less than a mile from an area that is called by some “occupied.” An area that looks just like this, and many other cities, and yet if Continue Reading »
Posted on October 1, 2014 by Geo Poor
Dear Men, Staring through the eyes of 50% of the Y-chromosome-holders in the Egalitarian Minyan, I wonder a question that I have never before thought but have heard from the other gender: “Where are all the guys?” Why is it that while the Mechizta Minyan has some 12 men and 2 women, the Egalitarian Minyan Continue Reading »
Posted on September 28, 2014 by Geo Poor
There was a wise man who wanted to deliver a speech, so he thought and he prepared himself and he stepped forward and built a Stage.
Posted on September 17, 2014 by Geo Poor
Parshat Nitzavim starts with the children of Israel nitzavim – standing – before God and community, ready to enter into covenant, a covenant with rights and responsibilities, in order to become established as a people. At first glance, this seemed to me like a perfectly logical entrance to a covenant, but then it occurred to Continue Reading »
