These and Those

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

Tag Archives: change

[PCJE Dvar Torah] Laura Marder – Parshat Bo

Posted on January 17, 2013 by Laura Marder

In Parshat Bo we are given the first Mitzvah from G-d. The mitzvah of being aware and sanctifying time with Rosh Chodesh. “This month shall be to you the head of the months; to you it shall be the first of the months of the year”. Bo 11:2   While reading BO I tried to Continue Reading »

Some Initial Thoughts on Halakha

Posted on January 16, 2013 by David Bogomolny

One Aspect of Halakha that is Particularly Meaningful to Me “Anyone who identifies as Jewish today only need go back three or four generations to find observant Jews in their family. And from there an unbroken chain of Jewish living that goes back more than three thousand years. Not that everyone has always been observant. Continue Reading »

snow covered hills

Posted on January 11, 2013 by Shoshana Rosen

Posted yesterday on my blog: I should be cleaning my room, but this is more fun. In case you don’t know, it is snowing currently in jerusalem. After almost 4 days of non stop cold rain storm, it finally started to snow. For a country who when war breaks out, life continues, but snow, watch Continue Reading »

[Alumni Guest Post] Alissa Thomas: ‘It’s More Than a Feeling’: A Reflection on Zionism

Posted on January 6, 2013 by The Director of Digital Media

Zionism has become a touchy subject for many people in today’s post-modern culture, but here’s a beautiful, articulate piece that describes Pardes alum Alissa Thomas’ (Spring ’11) personal relationship to the concept of Zionism and the modern state of Israel: From alum Alissa Thomas’ Sh’ma Blog: As expected, everyone is thinking, talking, and praying about Continue Reading »

[Alumni Guest Post] Sara Brandes: Newness

Posted on January 1, 2013 by The Director of Digital Media

Sara Brandes (Year ’01, Fellows ’02, Elul ’05) wrote this blog post for New Years 2013… Enjoy! It takes the body seven to ten years to regenerate. Skin cells, heart cells, brain cells – almost all are are replaced over the course of a ten year period – which means, there literally is no part Continue Reading »

[Alumni Guest Post] Ben Barer – Why I Wear a Kippah II: Staying in the Conversation

Posted on November 6, 2012 by The Director of Digital Media

Cross-posted from Ben Barer‘s (Fall ’10, Fellows ’11-’12) blog: Last year, I posted a short reflection on why I wear a kippah, but there is another major aspect of publicly identifying as Jewish that I would like to fill in now. I believe that, in addition to the freedoms and decrease in antisemitism that have Continue Reading »

[Alumni Guest Post] D’var Torah: Bereishit

Posted on October 15, 2012 by The Director of Digital Media

Naomi Adland (Yr. Prog. ’09-’10, & former Ass’t Dir. of Recruitment) postedthis: This is the d’var torah I gave last Friday night at Shir HaMa’alot, a minyan here in Brooklyn. If you’ve read other things I’ve written, you might think that some of this sounds familiar – and you would be right, because I completely, unashamedly Continue Reading »

A Month of Firsts!

Posted on September 25, 2012 by Stuart Matan Lithwick

(Cross-posted from my blog) Hello world! This is the first post of my first ever blog on my first studymoon with the first person in my life, Annie. This first month has gone by so incredibly fast, and so much has happened, I hope I can capture at least some of it here. Jerusalem is Continue Reading »

My Dvar Torah from the Shabbaton

Posted on September 16, 2012 by Shanee Michaelson

“Atem Nitzavim Hayom Kulchem.” You stand this day, all of you. All of us are standing together today in Jerusalem. From small towns, larger cities, from North America and from Europe. Having grown up in different Jewish denominations, or unaffiliated, whether Ashkenazic or Sephardic, Reform or Orthodox,We have come here together, to this unique country Continue Reading »

Shofar and God’s Love of Israel

Posted on September 10, 2012 by The Director of Digital Media

by Rabbi Alex Israel Cross-posted from his blog Thinking Israel On the one hand, the cycle of the Jewish year is predictable and familiar: The solemnity of Yom Kippur, the smells and feel of the Sukka and the 4 species, the warmth and intimacy of Hannuka, Purim’s raucous frivolity, the tunes and tastes of Seder Continue Reading »