Musings from Students of the Pardes Institute of Jewish Studies in Jerusalem
Posted on December 25, 2013 by Alana Bandos
Together in Paris. That’s what Anastasia’s grandmother says to her before their family is torn apart in the hit animated feature film Anastasia (which is not actually a Disney movie). It’s on the necklace the young girl wears through to adulthood and it helps her reclaim her true identity as heir to the Russian throne. Continue Reading »
Posted on December 25, 2013 by Jessica Baverman
From my blog: Prayer is a topic that I feel constantly comes up at school, and I’m amazed at how many people say they truly struggle with it. I never thought that prayer was something religious people struggled with. You either do it and love it or don’t feel connected to it at all and Continue Reading »
Posted on December 24, 2013 by Dorielle Parker
From my blog: I was recently given the task of writing my own “autobiography” for a final paper in one of my classes. Below is an excerpt from my introduction: It is told: There are tiny cracks in the ether that makes up our Universe. It is how all of the light from the Cosmos Continue Reading »
Posted on December 8, 2013 by Itay Zaidenberg
Living in Jerusalem, it’s easy to feel like Israel is abundantly observant. But when I get off the 480 at Tel Aviv’s Arlozorov bus station, I’m immediately reminded, it’s not. And if I didn’t take the 480 so many times that I now recognize several of the bus drivers, I don’t think I would have Continue Reading »
Posted on December 5, 2013 by Ariel Eliach Forman
This weeks Parsha marks the beginning of the Israelites impending enslavement in Egypt. It also happens to be a portion of the Tanach that I have long struggled with. After Yoseph finally reveals himself to his brothers, he reassures them that God in fact sent him to Egypt initially, to be in a position to Continue Reading »
Posted on November 25, 2013 by Max Einsohn
G0D by Max Jared November 2013 Many Jews today struggle with the concept of “God.” Some even squirm at the thought of approaching this subject in their life. That’s why, when I walked into my Self, Soul, and Text class during the first few weeks, I was taken aback by the comfort at which the Continue Reading »
Posted on November 14, 2013 by Jeremy Borovitz
I’ve been suffering for some years now from a self prescribed disease known as “Shtetl Nostalgia.” Perhaps unique to 4th generation Ashkenazi Jewish Americans of the Galician frontier, it mainly consists of an intense longing for a time and a place that I never knew and that wasn’t nearly anything like I imagine. Yet I’m Continue Reading »
Posted on October 31, 2013 by Ahava Zarembski
This is a song of gratitude and request As I flow into the next phase of life May I integrate all of the various pieces of myself May I share it with others may I share it with myself May I stand in fullness in all of the fragments That once shattered into being And Continue Reading »
Posted on September 28, 2013 by Eva Neuhaus
i am convinced that judaism contains within it all of the spiritual technology we need to heal the wounds we have experienced in the history of our people. i notice the survival patterning in my body–my inability to stop running and striving and lurching forward for fear that i will die–how hard it is for Continue Reading »
Posted on September 19, 2013 by Ben Schneider
From: my blog The strangest prayer in the siddur is printed with Birkat Kohanim, the section of the repetition of the amidah in which the descendants of the priestly class bless the congregation. As they say their blessing, the siddur instructs one to speedily say this prayer (Koren translation): Master of the Universe, I am Continue Reading »
