From my blog:
I am in the US and today with my mom and my great great aunt Eki, we made (homemade) gefilta fish! I always have a hesitation when coming home because I have become more observant over the past four years in Israel, but today, I felt very Jewish and really proud of my family’s Jewish identity.
This bowl is famous and massive. There is about 15 to 20 pounds of fish in here!
In this week’s Torah portion, we move from the exciting and relatable narrative in the books of Bereshit (Genesis) and Shmot (Exodus), into the legalistic and methodical book of Vayikra (Leviticus).
In the first Torah portion, God tells Moses how the Children of Israel should go about establishing a holy community, a “kingdom of priests.” In doing so, it offends the modern sensibilities of many of us, explaining in vivid detail how the newly freed Jewish people should serve God through animal sacrifices:
“And Aaron’s sons, the priests, shall offer the blood, dashing the blood against all sides of the altar.” Gross.
“The burnt offering shall be flayed and cut up into sections.” Ugh.
“The priest shall bring it to the altar, pinch off its head, and turn it into smoke on the altar; and its blood shall be drained out against the side of the altar.” I can’t even. Stop.
Lucky for me (and my wishy-washy vegetarian ideals), the Jewish practice of animal sacrifice stopped at the destruction of the Second Temple (70 CE). So if animal sacrifices are no longer a part of religious devotion, what relevancy does this Torah portion have for us today? Continue reading
From my blog, written before Shabbat:
Stories from the week…
…still on air from serendipity. It was on a Thursday, on which we presumably do organized chesed projects, but on one specific Thursday, I chose to simply organize myself: carrots, sweet potatoes, scallions, cumin, coriander, cumin, whirr whirr whirr in a blender that doubles as a food processor but we can’t figure out how the food processor part works…pour the steaming orange into a container, rubber-band it, plastic-bag it, can’t let any of the precious leak out…halt halt grrr on the bus at rush hour, getting off and gratefully walking, turning my map over and out, cautiously padding up quiet white steps, knock knock knock…no answer…knock knock again…”one minute”…”I’m looking for -”…”She doesn’t live here anymore, she moved out three months ago”… Continue reading
A thought about halakha by Jeremy Sorgen (Spring '11):
When one cooks for another, one cooks with love. Cooking becomes an act of devotion and the food tastes better because it is made with a key ingredient: care.
One must strive to do everything this way, that is, as a means of expressing love. Devotion and care shine through in the quality of one’s work.
That is the brilliance of Halakha, or Jewish law–and its diminishment as commanded duty or even a “good deed” (as it’s often translated into English). One does not carry the law because it is good or right or beautiful. The law is not an end but a means, a means to deeper worship, a means to cleave oneself to God through love. Greek thought–the Platonic Good, Eudaimonian Happiness–never went far enough. The Good Idea, the Happy Self–all is idolatry and false worship.
One must become perfect by loving others through devotional practices.
I made homemade Little Debbie oatmeal sandwiches. If you don’t know what Little Debbie is, click here.
Nothing with this much butter could be bad, but they were delicious!!
YUM!
This past Shabbat, Joseph, my roommate, and I had the honor of hosting 10 new Pardes students at our home. We were really excited about the prospect and really went all out. We had the most amazing evening, and even though we really tried to create a beautiful Shabbat space and atmosphere, and even ate outside, I feel like the people really made all the different to the oneg (joy) we felt at Shabbat. There are a few pictures below of the food, and table. (And Joseph, you are an amazing chef!)
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(X-posted from my home blog, Yinzer in Yerushalayim)
I came to Israel wanting to learn Torah, and I have. Thank God, I’ve learned tons of Torah here and am privileged to learn more each day. But now that it’s May and I’m entering into the home stretch of my first year in Israel, I’ve gotten to thinking about some of the other things I’ve learned since coming here nine months and one lifetime ago, the bonus features of my Israel experience, those unexpected extra scoops of ice cream that have made spending nearly all my savings on this crazy adventure even more worthwhile.
While here, I’ve also learned:
Continue reading
Long story short, I was accepted to be a Pardes Fellow next year, charged to be a leader in the community and run the blog while getting paid a generous stipend. Of course this is what I wanted to do, but the question keeping me up at night was whether or not it is what I should do. The deadline for deciding is when we come back from break, but I was determined to make my decision by Pesach so I could actually enjoy my holiday. This combined with anxiety over buying, cleaning, preparing for Pesach, cast two long shadows of anxiety over the start of the first full week of Pesach break. Sunday and Monday, as I weighed my options what are you just sitting around for, you can barely walk in your room without getting chametz all over your socks! You really think you’re going to feel like doing it all in one day! You’re not going to be prepared at all in the back of my mind, I longed for the seder Friday night, when I would be free of all this worry.
Sitting in my room, alone with the pros and cons of whether or not to stay next year and Continue reading
After a night of crazy Shushan Purim it was so nice to get together with people from Pardes and re-live the night before. Kendra, Nikki and I had a great time prepping hard for our Seuda and it was all well worth it. My living room was filled with fun breakfast food, mimosa’s, balloons, hamentashen and conversation on Friday afternoon. It was so interesting to hear all about the different parties that occurred around Jerusalem from the night before.
I would advise future Seuda hosts to go with the breakfast theme. We were able to create a fun menu of French toast, egg soufle, hash browns, muffins, biscuits, fruit and salad. The menu was tasty, easy and asthetically pleasing! Especially when a Seuda is held early the morning after Purim celebrations this theme works great!
Being semi new to Pardes I really felt excited to be an active part of the community by hosting. It was such a great opportunity to get to know everyone better. Though we may not have done such a traditional Seuda, I think we all felt the spirit of Purim in Jerusalem! Thank you Pardes for helping facilitate such a fun experience, and thank you to everyone who came and helped make it such a special memory!
“I’m very adamant about a pluralistic model of Jewish practice.”
-Stu Jacobs
In 5th grade, a teacher inspired Stu Jacobs to explore and gradually start keeping more mitzvot, and throughout his youth the young man strived to connect to and practice a new mitzvah every single year. His teacher had said that ‘he didn’t have to jump into the deep end’ – he could try out different practices to see if they appealed to him – and Stu still recalls his childhood mentor as a factor in his decision to become a Jewish educator.
Stu decided to return to his Solomon Schechter Day School in 8th grade despite the tiny class size, and it turned out to be a great year for him. The school offered very traditional Judaic studies, and a modern, egalitarian approach to Judaism. He grew in terms of leadership, learning and friendship, and was only disappointed in the school’s lack of a Talmud curriculum… the young man’s itch to study Talmud only increased as he approached college.
Raised in a traditional Jewish household, leading Shabbat services and reading Torah at the Beachwood Kehilla, and attending Jewish day school until high school, it was natural for Stu to attend the Alexander Muss High School (AMHSI) in Israel during the summer before his senior year of high school. It was a formative experience; through that program Stu developed an even deeper connection to Jewish history and the land of Israel, and he would return to AMHSI as a madrich (counselor) during the summer before his senior year at the University of Michigan.
After Judaism, Stu’s greatest passion was for cooking and working in the restaurant industry. He had been cooking for fun since the age of twelve, interned under a pastry chef at a fine dining establishment during senior year of high school, and continued working in restaurants during his summers as bus boy, waiter, and restaurant management intern. He even arranged his organizational psychology major in such a way as to prepare himself for a career in the restaurant industry.
Before embarking on his career after college, Stu wanted to work at AMHSI once more for a whole semester – a role that required a more skilled madrich – but after the bombing at Hebrew University in 2002, most parents pulled their kids out of the program… and Stu had to look for another way to get himself to Israel.
When the young man heard of Pardes from a friend, a light went off in his mind, and he recalled his itch for Talmud study. He arrived before Yom Kippur, and after his first semester he decided to remain at Pardes for the rest of the year. Rabbi Aryeh Ben David was Stu’s Talmud instructor, and he recalls attending one of Rabbi Ben David’s very first spirituality retreats – a precursor to his mentor’s unique, spiritual ‘Ayeka’ organization. That year, Rabbi Ben David suggested that Stu consider joining the Pardes Educators Program (PEP), but the young man still wanted to pursue a career in the restaurant industry.
Happily for Stu, he began dating his wife Aviva that year while she was a Dorot Fellow, and they maintained a long distance relationship for the following year while he worked as restaurant manager and catering director at a kosher café in Manhattan and she remained in Israel to work for the Nativ program. Finally, Aviva moved to NYC in 2004, and the young couple was married in early 2006.
After four years of working for a family operated catering business, Stu gradually realized that the he didn’t want such a hectic life for his future family. When Aviva began her doctoral program in psychology in 2007, and they moved to San Francisco, Stu was recruited by a PEP alum to become the new head of food service at the Jewish Community High School of the Bay (JCHS) . At JCHS, Stu also became the assistant head coach of the varsity basketball team, and led annual week-long class trips for the students. Another PEP alum on the JCHS Judaic studies faculty mentored Stu for an entire school year, and, towards the end of that year, he was given the opportunity to teach a unit on King David and Bathsheba to the juniors and seniors.
Recalling his time at Pardes, Stu already had an interest in becoming a Jewish educator, and he came back for the Summer Program of 2008 with the same good friend who had introduced him to Aviva. Learning at Pardes, working at JCHS, and the young couple’s heavy involvement in the Mission Minyan (an independent minyan) all whetted Stu’s desire to enroll in the PEP program… and when Aviva completed her class work in 2011, the young couple and their daughter Elinoa (born May 31, 2010), moved to Jerusalem so that Stu could pursue his dream - to feed inspire future generations of Jewish day school students! 
