These and Those

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

Tag Archives: humor

A Complicated Love Affair

Posted on September 19, 2015 by Ma'ayan Dyer

Three weeks ago, I made aliyah. It had been a long time coming, something that I have been thinking about, dreaming of and longing for since I was first faced with saying goodbye to Israel after a year of living in Jerusalem in 2012. Back then, months before I even had to go back to Continue Reading »

Everything’s Better on Shabbos….Even My Hair

Posted on September 17, 2014 by Ariella Siegel

From my blog: I have pretty normal, brown, curly-girl Jew hair. Nothing special, not terrible, regular curls. I do my best to condition, to take care of them, and style them in a manageable (and hopefully acceptable) way, and I tend to do pretty good job at that. However, on Shabbat, something special happens. My Continue Reading »

Dear incoming Pardes students

Posted on July 11, 2014 by Elana Shilling

Dear incoming Pardes students nervously biting your fingernails while watching rockets fly on their TV screens, I won’t lie. Israel is at war. Rockets are terrorizing the country and ground troops are waiting for the okay to enter Gaza. It’s a tense time for Israel. That being said, this morning I woke up to my Continue Reading »

Dun, dun… DUN! To the Beit Midrash!

Posted on March 20, 2014 by Max Einsohn

From the 2014 Purim Shpiel: I mixed the voice of our amazing teacher Levi Cooper, energizing us with a powerful “To the Beit Midrash!!” each day before we enter our Chevruta learning. I just felt like every time he said “To the Beit Midrash!!” that we were going off to fight crime or something… So Continue Reading »

[Staff Guest Post] Let it Be… Pray with Me

Posted on March 4, 2014 by Arlene Harel

by Arlene Harel (Year ’85), staff member since ’03 Most people think that on Purim we get dressed up in costumes. But it’s really not that way. All year long we wear masks. On Rosh Hodesh Adar, the Pardes “staff ladies” decided to take off their masks, and become “real”. What you are seeing here Continue Reading »

Hashem’s Golden Bong

Posted on March 2, 2014 by Yisrael Ben Avraham

Is it just me, or does the opening of Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas sound a lot like the Torah’s ingredient list for the incense offering? We had two bags of grass, seventy-five pellets of mescaline, five sheets of high-powered blotter acid, a salt shaker half full of cocaine, and a whole galaxy of multi-colored Continue Reading »

Uncircumized Lips in Song

Posted on February 17, 2014 by Max Einsohn

Have you ever wondered what Moses would have said to Pharaoh, as he led the Israelite people out of Egypt? Last week, in our Chumash class, our teacher Rabbi Levi Cooper challenged us to reflect in writing on some of the “big picture” questions that arise from our Exodus story. During class, a few of Continue Reading »

10 FAQS ABOUT BEING GAY AT PARDES

Posted on February 16, 2014 by Avi Benson-Goldberg

1. WAIT, YOU’RE GAY? I WOULD NEVER HAVE GUESSED! Probably I don’t get this as much as I feel like I do, but hey, we are all humans and so sometimes I go to work in my normal pants and sometimes I go to work in my garish neon-rainbow-flag leather tuchus-less chaps! This is really Continue Reading »

Third Story: Jacob and Essau

Posted on February 5, 2014 by Tani Cohen-Fraade

Daniel Roth presented our ‘Judaism and Conflict Resolution’ class for Jewish Educators with this assignment, and below is the ‘Third Story’ that I wrote about Jacob and Essau: It was the day of Reuven’s Bar Mitzvah. All of the brothers were there. Things had been a little awkward between the family and Uncle Esav and Continue Reading »

German Colony Blues

Posted on February 4, 2014 by Yisrael Ben Avraham

“I just don’t get it,” remarked Ya’akov Schmuckwitz as he sighed. A 29 year old resident of the German colony, Ya’akov could be considered most eligible bachelor in Jerusalem.  He starts his day as a criminal defense attorney for high profile clients; that is, clients that can afford his rate of 3000 shekels an hour.  Continue Reading »