My Ayeka Journey

Posted on April 2, 2013 by Annie Matan Gilbert

Among the many blessings I have experienced this year is the Ayeka course facilitated by David Bogomolny. I share here some of my favourite take-aways from the course (handily preserved in my writing exercises and reflections.)

This module was about bringing God back to the conversation. I felt like it gave me a place to engage with my relationship with God and my beliefs in a spiritual way amidst a year of otherwise mostly intellectual pursuits. I always manage to find my way back to faith and my relationship with God but in the Ayeka sessions, God was our starting point, not only the destination.

Session 4, on the conversation or hitbodedut, took place during the Pillar of Cloud preparations. According to my reflections, hitbodedut at this time came as a welcome relief during a time of confusion, when I felt inarticulate and confused. Here is what I wrote: Continue reading →

[PCJE Dvar Torah] Parshat Vayikra by Lauren Schuchart

Posted on March 15, 2013 by Lauren S.

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 →

Pesach Mitzvah re: Ugandan Jews!

Posted on March 6, 2013 by Rachel Rosenbluth

Hello Pardes Friends!

I’m writing to you guys in preparation for the Passover Seder, to present an opportunity for doing a really special mitzvah, and to share a unique Pesach experience that I had in East Africa.

Two years ago, I had a far-from-trypical pesach seder.

It took place far away, in a remote and extremely impoverished village called Namutumba, which is one of the Abayudaya Jewish communities in Uganda. The experience was intense, powerful, and eye opening… The seder meal was eaten on benches and on the floor. The meal was one bowl of rice, which people stuffed into bags to save for the following day. There was little available water for Rachtzah, so people pretended to wash their hands in the air. The seder plate had an egg and karpas, the rest of the plate was bare. One box of matzah was shared between 75 people.

It seemed crazy to me, to be celebrating freedom in a place without basic human rights of food, water, education etc., yet the Jews of Namutumba celebrated freedom with such passion and love and kavannah. They reflected on their relatively newfound freedom from religious oppression (Jewish were trageted under Idi Amin), they celebrated their freedom to be Jewish. Continue reading →

On “I’m Sorrys”

Posted on February 16, 2013 by Tadea Klein

I first presented this on the Arava Tiyul,
in a slightly different form.

Around the middle of the first semester, someone said something like this: “I’m sorry, but I won’t pray in a place that doesn’t accept me all the time.”

This person was not sorry at all. And whether or not I agree with their choice, I do wish that they had not felt the need to apologize for that opinion.

Pardes is a warm, wonderful, kind and caring community of people… that sometimes seem unwilling to say “This is what I believe, and I will go no further.” So I would like us to think about those words “I’m sorry,” and how we have perhaps we have come to devalue them by using them with such abandon.

When I say “I’m sorry,” I want it to mean, from the depths of my heart, “I have wronged you, and I wish that I had not. Please forgive me.” I do not want it to mean “I have said what I believe, and I am afraid that you are offended.” When we say that, we are not only minimizing the impact of the words themselves, but we are undermining our own intent. We are saying that we do not actually care so very much about what we just said, because it is more important that we avoid friction than sticking to what we believe.

But friction is necessary, in order to keep stagnation at bay. In order to keep a community active and alive, rather than complacent, we have to be able to argue—to sharpen each other’s arguments, if only for the day when we all find ourselves in places less congenial to differences of opinion. So my blessing on us all is that we should know when to say “I’m sorry,” and when to say “This far I will go, and no further.”

What’s in a (Jewish) name?

Posted on February 10, 2013 by Megan D.

From my blog:

With the tenth of February just around the corner, it’s hard to believe that I’ve been in Israel for a month already. I have big plans for my time abroad, and while I’ve mostly been happily consumed with Jewish studies at Pardes, I feel like there’s still just so much for me to accomplish and experience in the short months that I have here this time around. Either time really does fly by too quickly when you’re enjoying your life, or I’m just not taking the initiative to make it all happen in the allotted time that I have to be a Jerusalemite, until that distant, undetermined date of aliyah arrives. More than likely, it’s a bit of both.

Now that I’ve returned to Jerusalem, several of the things that I had planned to do or decisions I’d planned to finalize have crept up on me and now stare me in the face as they remain unresolved. Moving abroad for five months takes some serious planning, and hopefully I’ve learned a thing or two from my previous trips abroad, like how to not run out of money; turns out, you need the stupid stuff to live on. For me, most planning involves crossing things off of lists that were hastily made in a late night panic after unsettling nightmares that remind me that things need to get done–things to shop for, things to not forget to pack, and things to take care of before leaving the country and find you should have done too late, such as notifying your bank that you are leaving the country, and will use the ATM while you’re gone, so please, please, please, don’t Continue reading →

A Chanting Journey from Mitzrayim to Tzion

Posted on January 5, 2013 by Annie Matan Gilbert

From my blog:

This past week, I taught my first Peer Teaching lesson at Pardes. It was a chanting workshop on the personal experience of Yetziat Mitzrayim. Often, when I lead chanting workshops, I offer kavannot once the group is lost in the chant. Words of yearning or blessing that float about the sounds of chanting voices. (Chanting workshop resource sheets are available on my website.

These are the three that I prepared for the workshop.:

Theme 1: Mitzrayim – Calling out from the narrow place (read over Min Hametzar)

God, have You forgotten me?

I have forgotten how to breathe.

The air here is tight around me

Each day presses in and tomorrow feels impossibly far away

I long to feel Your wide, wide love

To feel hard earth beneath my cracked feet, shade on my bent back, cool mist on my sun-scorched skin

I long to hear sweet words

For respite from the sting that forces me into this pit and keeps me here

Day after day

God, though my voice is barely a broken whisper, I am calling out

In remembering

You

Please remember me

Remember my family

And our ancestors

Bring us home to You

Turn us back toward Your embrace

And fold us in

We have been lost so long

And now, we are ready

Find us

Remember us

At night we sing a secret song of breath and cooling shadows

By day we squint our eyes and hope that when we open them

You will be here, a hand on our brow

A breath of wind at our backs

We sing to You

Please

Hear our song

Please

Come and bring us home.

Continue reading →

[Alumni Guest Post] The Word “Jew”

Posted on December 20, 2012 by admin

Originally posted on the Ayeka blog
By Aryeh Ben David (Year '80):

Sometimes I start a workshop by asking people if they know what the word “Jew” means. It is amazing how many people do not know what it means.

thk I checked a few encyclopedias, googled it, and was surprised to see how many theories exist regarding where the word came from and how it came to be used as a reference for the people of Israel.

But then I decided not to let these theories complicate my life. There’s really only one definition that I like. There’s really only one that I want to think about when I hear the word Jew.

And that comes from the name Judah, which comes from the word l’hodot, which means to be thankful. I like to think of the word Judaism as meaning – the practice of being grateful.

That doesn’t mean that I don’t still kvetch. I still grumble over why Continue reading →

What is a prayer? [pt. 1 in a series]

Posted on December 19, 2012 by Avi Benson-Goldberg

(Part 1, Part 2, Part 3)

Pardes students daven mincha at Mitzpe Rimon.
(*click* for larger photo)

Pardes was rocked by a shiur clalli (public class) about prayer in the Jewish world, particularly as experienced by three of our teachers: Rahel Berkovits, James Jacobson-Maisels, and Meir Schweiger. It was certainly an honor to see these teachers of ours open themselves up and expose the real humans inside! Some of us had to go on tiyyul to experience that truth–the rest of us just stayed put and knew that it would happen inside the walls too!

David Bernstein moderated, as it were, and opened the discussion with three questions: what does t’fillah (prayer) mean to you? How does t’fillah challenge you? What’s your best suggestion for the rest of us in the room?

The panel, though prepared, was definitely uncomfortable with these questions–in the way that all questions that require answers from the heart, true answers, make one uncomfortable.

For tonight, let’s listen to what Meir had to say. Keep checking in to see what the rest had to say.

Meir began with a story of a little boy participating in Jr. Congregation for chocolate bars! Well, maybe not just for chocolate bars, but the smile on his face as he recalled the chocolate proved that it was more than just Continue reading →

Notes By ShiraBee: A Directed Heart (Mishnah)

Posted on December 17, 2012 by Shira Bee

Originally posted on my blog:

Second Mishnah in Brachot: With Direction/Intention of the Heart
The balance of our relationship to God/Divine/Energy and our relationship to humanity.
Shema as the essence of being present, of setting direction, and of having intention.
(Click to see more notes!)

Kavuah T’filah

Posted on December 5, 2012 by Bogo

Fixed prayer is a salient element of halakha (Jewish law). Jews committed to halakha pray 3x every day (morning, afternoon, evening), and for many it is challenging to find meaning in the mandated, daily recitation of standardized liturgy.

A couple of years ago, I took a class that explored various spiritual practices in Hasidic and other Jewish traditions, and I came across the following quote:

R. Kook

“The perpetual prayer of the soul continually strives to… become revealed and actualized… Prayer is only as it should be when it arises from the awareness that the soul is always praying. At the moment of actual prayer the perpetual prayer of the soul is revealed in action. She then resembles a rose which opens her gentle petals toward the dew or the rays of the sun that shine upon her.”

Rabbi A. I. Kook, 1865-1935, Jerusalem
Introduction to Olat Ra’aya