Musings from Students of the Pardes Institute of Jewish Studies in Jerusalem
Posted on June 9, 2011 by Pious Antic
Last week, I spoke briefly at Pardes’ closing lunch, and I have adapted what I remember of them, since I never actually got around to typing them up ahead of time, here: Two years ago, when I first arrived at Pardes, I was struck by something our dean, David Bernstein said during one of the Continue Reading »
Posted on June 4, 2011 by Pious Antic
Yom Yerushalayim, which was observed this week, celebrates the reunification of the old city of Jerusalem under Jewish control in 1967, after 19 years in which the city was divided between Jewish and Arab control. Unsurprisingly, given the historical, political and moral complexity of the events it commemorates, Yom Yerushalayim is not a universally beloved Continue Reading »
Posted on April 9, 2011 by Pious Antic
What is t’shuvah? The word is often translated as repentance, but that doesn’t quite capture it. T’shuvah comes from a root meaning to return, and it connotes the idea of turning away from sin and returning to one’s true values, to the best version of oneself, as well as the idea of figuratively returning to Continue Reading »
Posted on April 5, 2011 by Pious Antic
Last year, my chevruta and I were in the Beit Midrash, studying a section of Gemara dealing with the obligations of a husband to his wife when we came across the phrase משמשין מטותיהן. In a hurry to finish the section before our next class, my chevruta quickly translated the phrase as “Sweet Apricots”. This Continue Reading »
Posted on March 28, 2011 by Pious Antic
When I first left for Israel, and perhaps even more so when I decided to come back for a second year, many, if not most, of my friends and family back home simply couldn’t understand why I would want to come here to spend my days studying dusty old ancient texts. To be frank, after Continue Reading »
Posted on March 24, 2011 by Pious Antic
In my halakha (Jewish Law) class last semester, we looked at a piece of gemara in which one rabbi asserts that an averah (sin) which is done for the sake of heaven (lishmah) is superior to a mitzvah (a good deed) that is done not for the sake of heaven. It is then countered that Continue Reading »
Posted on March 15, 2011 by Pious Antic
Living in Israel, it’s impossible to escape the national preoccupation with the plight of Gilad Shalit, an Israeli soldier who was abducted by Hamas in 2006, and continues to be held hostage today. Today, advocates for Shalit’s release called for people all over Israel to come outside at exactly eleven o’clock and block traffic for Continue Reading »
Posted on February 8, 2011 by Pious Antic
Rabbi Yitzhak Frank gave a lecture on Aramaic grammar at Pardes last week. The casual reader of this blog could be forgiven for failing to leap out of his chair in excitement after reading the above sentence. I, however, was simply giddy when I walked into the beit midrash and saw Rabbi Frank standing there Continue Reading »
Posted on December 3, 2010 by Pious Antic
This is a cross-post from my personal blog. This week in my Talmud class, as we approach the close of Chapter Four of Tractate Sanhedrin, we were looking at the talmud’s discussion of the warning given to witnesses in dinei nefashot, or capital cases. Among other injunctions, the mishnah states that witnesses are warned not Continue Reading »
Posted on November 27, 2010 by Pious Antic
This is a cross-post from my personal blog. Earlier this week, in Judy Klitsner’s Bereshit class, we were looking at the issue of Noah’s naming. When he names him, his father Lemech explains the name, saying “this one will give us relief from our work and the toil of our ands from the land which Continue Reading »
