These and Those

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

Tag Archives: leprosy / tzarat

[PCJE Dvar Torah] Pillars of New Homes

Posted on April 3, 2014 by Josh Pernick

“I’m not totally sure what the appropriate response is” was all that I could come up with in the moment. How could I effectively convey my feelings towards my friend, who had just informed me that she was going to be moving halfway across the country? While moving to new cities has become a way Continue Reading »

[PCJE Dvar Torah] Blurred Realities by Daniel Wolf

Posted on March 27, 2014 by Hirsch Fishman

Parshat Tazria presents the laws of zara’at (leprosy). This lengthy exposition that continues into next week’s portion highlights the difficulties in learning (and teaching) the Book of Vayikra (Leviticus). The detailed laws of kosher animals from last week’s portion are complicated enough. But over one hundred and fifty verses about lepers and bodily discharges overwhelmingly stretch our Continue Reading »

On Those We Love

Posted on May 27, 2013 by Tadea Klein

My dvar Torah from the Galil Shabbaton: First of all, I would like to thank Adam Masser (Spring ’12, Year ’13), who gave me the perfect set up — and we didn’t even plan it. I also am going to talk about lashon ha-rah, specifically the consequences of it. I believe that the most telling Continue Reading »

[Alumni Guest Post] My First Biblical Love

Posted on February 22, 2013 by The Director of Digital Media

Please enjoy this Dvar Torah by Mordechai Rackover (PEP ’03)! Mordechai Rackover is a Pardes Alum, a member of the PEP 3rd Cohort. He currently lives in Providence, RI with his wife Nechama Lea and their four kids. He is the associate university chaplain for the Jewish community of Brown University and the Rabbi of Continue Reading »

מצורע

Posted on April 8, 2011 by Barer

This weeks parsha largely continues the topic of last weeks: ritual impurity due to the affliction of tzara’at.  This week it extends to the case of tzara’at showing up on a house or clothes, and the resultant procedures of cleansing the clothes, or demolishing the house. A house, or body הוא טמא עד הערב Marked Continue Reading »

מצרע, metsora

Posted on April 5, 2011 by Avi Strausberg

in this week’s parshat metsora, we continue to delve in-depth into the procedure of ridding a leprous person of his eruptive affections.  after reading pages and pages of how to determine whether a person is unclean and therefore off-limits to society, i was bewildered when i arrived to the conundrum of how to detect a Continue Reading »

[PEP Student] Reach Out and Push Out

Posted on April 2, 2011 by Tamara Frankel

Much ink has been spilled over the seemingly cryptic laws of ritual purity and the illness of tzaraat recounted in Parshat Tazria. Actually I learned this week from Chief Rabbi Jonathan Sacks (of the UK) that the original translation of the disease of as “leprosy”. This is a misnomer since the biblical disease of tzaraat Continue Reading »

תזריע

Posted on March 31, 2011 by Barer

Inspired by Avi’s haiku project, I began writing weekly haiku’s for each parsha, which I will now share here as well as at my own blog: This week’s parsha, and next, talk in detail about the laws surrounding leprosy after briefly explaining the ritual days of impurity and purity a woman goes through immediately following Continue Reading »

תזריע, tazria

Posted on March 29, 2011 by Avi Strausberg

this week’s parsha, parshat תזריע, focuses on the nitty gritty details of how the cohen diagnoses someone as unclean, either as result of some scaly infection, inflammation, or good ol’ leprosy.  after analyzing the tell-tale signs on the skin, more than not, the confirmed or even suspected leprous person is sent out of the camp Continue Reading »

Thoughts on Gemara

Posted on February 21, 2011 by Zach

About a month ago, we began our second semester at Pardes, giving us the chance to switch up our class schedules.  I had been studying Tanakh (in the Intensive Tanakh Track), and enjoying it, but I didn’t find the Tanakh course offerings for the new semester very interesting.  Instead, I decided to take advantage of the Continue Reading »