Musings from students of the Pardes Institute of Jewish Studies in Jerusalem
Posted in Uncategorized on Feb 21st, 2012
Dear G-d, I’m going to write to You now to review our shared experience of the last hour. I preceded my hitbodidut discussion with a quiet meditation in the yard by my apartment. I meditated for twenty five minutes or so, and I was very pleased to find that my alarm signaled the end of [...]
Posted in Uncategorized on Feb 21st, 2012
Many of us who fall under the label ‘modern liberal Jew’ view women’s role (or lack thereof) in traditional Judaism to be a serious affront to our notions of egalitarianism. ‘How can it be’ we ask, ‘that anyone could live in a Western democracy in the 21st century and subject women to secondary-citizen status in [...]
Posted in Uncategorized on Feb 17th, 2012
In a parsha full of laws, a mere few verses of which are the basis of years worth of Gemarah study (Seder Nezikin), I came across an episode having nothing to do with the minutiae of laws that I do not remember reading before. Near the end of the parsha, there is a scene described where [...]
Posted in Uncategorized on Feb 14th, 2012
The Poster – Let’s fill it up! Kalie & Jordan collecting donations during community lunch (18 NIS per student!) Tweet
Posted in Uncategorized on Feb 14th, 2012
She was sitting on an adjacent couch, typing on her computer. Her weekly post was due, and they had completed their session within the past hour. They both thought that posting soon after their experience would be easier – while the thoughts and feelings were still fresh. Her phone rang, and she picked it up. [...]
Posted in Uncategorized on Feb 10th, 2012
This week’s parsha, among a few other things that regularly and justifiably receive less attention, contains the עשרת הדברות (never called any title in the text itself), somewhat loosely translated as the Ten Commandments (more literal would be the Ten Utterances). What stood out to me reading them this year was the conditional nature of [...]
Posted in Uncategorized on Feb 8th, 2012
On Sunday (which is not the weekend here) I attended the protest written about and filmed here (you can see me in the background). As the first real protest I have ever attended, I think what I found most striking was that it was not in a country in which I have citizenship. In some [...]
Posted in Uncategorized on Feb 7th, 2012
He was sitting at a cafe in Jerusalem, typing on his laptop. He had meditated for only the third time ever that same evening, and he was ready to write about the experience, but he wasn’t sure where to begin. He was overwhelmed. Life had changed for him recently, and change, especially drastic, transatlantic, soul-searching [...]
Posted in Uncategorized on Feb 6th, 2012
I find that I would like to explore more intensively the question of where flexibility exists within halacha and what to do with conflict between the halachic system and my other values. This is particularly important for me right now, since I am on the brink of moving out of the bubble of Pardes and [...]
Posted in Uncategorized on Feb 3rd, 2012
In this week’s parsha the Israelites truly become free, as they finally and unmistakably escape from the Egyptians, singing jubilantly after seeing the Egyptians drown in the Red Sea. Immediately after the Song of the Sea, we are introduced to one of the motifs of the time in the midbar (while traditionally translated desert, there [...]
