Musings from Students of the Pardes Institute of Jewish Studies in Jerusalem
Posted on April 6, 2012 by Derek Kwait
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 Continue Reading »
Posted on April 4, 2012 by J. Belasco
About a month and a half ago, I went to Hevron for Shabbat with a few Pardesniks to visit a fellow student’s wife’s family. His wife actually grew up in Hevron; and her parents still live there today. I was very grateful for the family’s generosity and hospitality, and for the chance they gave me to experience Continue Reading »
Posted on April 3, 2012 by J. Belasco
Most people who know me know that I am active in the field of disability rights. While it has taken me a while to connect to a disability community here in Jerusalem, I have recently begun to do so through the Jerusalem Center for Independent Living (מרכז לחיים עצמאיים), which is located in a decently-sized, Continue Reading »
Posted on April 3, 2012 by David Bogomolny
I picked an amount of money to donate that was more than I felt comfortable donating, and I took the cash from the money that I’d put aside to pay for my Poland trip. I have enough funds available to me to cover my upcoming Poland adventure, but when I first decided to donate X Continue Reading »
Posted on March 30, 2012 by Barer
This week’s parsha continues to detail the different sacrifices, this time focusing on who can and cannot eat them. The second half of the parsha (ch. 8) moves from commandment to narrative (or sorts) as the text describes the actual anointing of Aharon and his sons as active priests. While the text is repetitive and Continue Reading »
Posted on March 26, 2012 by David Bogomolny
I committed myself to davening 3x per day with the beginning of the Pardes school year, and I’ve been pretty good about davening consistently since then. My commitment to myself was not simply to daven 3x per day – it was also to create a meaningful davening experience for myself, and I’m happy to say Continue Reading »
Posted on March 23, 2012 by Barer
It is always hard exegetically to transition from Bereishit and Shmot to Vayikra (from Genesis and Exodus to Leviticus). However tough it might be to draw a message from repeated details about building the Mishkan (Tabernacle), it is nothing compared to the density of chapter after chapter detailing how much blood – from non-human animals Continue Reading »
Posted on March 20, 2012 by David Bogomolny
My mother tells me that when I was a child, I would stand on the perimeter of the playground, mouth agape, watching the children play with one another. She’d have to nudge me towards them before I’d move. In retrospect, I think I went through my childhood feeling overwhelmed by sensory and emotional inputs. Every Continue Reading »
Posted on March 19, 2012 by Barer
This week’s parsha details – again – the various vessels that were built for the Mishkan (Tablernacle). While the question of why such repetition is in the Torah is a good one, I want to focus instead on the short narrative section of the parsha. After repeating a few of the central laws to the people, Continue Reading »
Posted on March 14, 2012 by Heligman
Last December I attended the first of a series of Meditation Retreats in Hannaton (co-led by Pardes faculty member James Jacobson-Maisels). It’s been about 2 months now since experiencing the awakened state of being that defines “Retreat”. I call it an awakened state because the sensitivity you develop during these retreats can be described in Continue Reading »
