Musings from students of the Pardes Institute of Jewish Studies in Jerusalem
Posted in Uncategorized on Feb 19th, 2012
(Mostly X-posted from my home blog, Yinzer in Yerushalayim) * For Tuesday’s group lecture, Robby Berman, head of the Halakhic Organ Donor Society came to give a riveting, inspiring, infuriating talk. I’ll sum it up in brief: There is no valid Jewish (or non-Jewish) reason to not save lives by being an organ donor. If [...]
Posted in Uncategorized on Feb 12th, 2012
(X-posted from my home blog, Yinzer in Yerushalayim) Some of my fondest Jewish childhood memories are of Tu B’Shvat. Every year in Sunday School, we at Beth Israel Center threw a huge seder, with tens of species of exotic and familiar fruits, and a student-made Hagadda. Every year I looked forward to watching the grape [...]
Posted in Uncategorized on Jan 30th, 2012
Hi Friends, Please donate and help bring new and inspiring music and prayer to those who need it. The Nava Tehila community in Jerusalem has been a 2nd home to me in Israel, but more than that they have been an inspiration and have shown me that it is possible to bring true love and [...]
Posted in Uncategorized on Jan 27th, 2012
(X-posted from my home blog, Yinzer in Yerushalayim) Despite popular belief, the Creation narrative in the Bible does not depict creatio ex nihilo, a creation of something out of nothing, or יש מאין (yeish mayain), as we say in Hebrew. In fact, as even the most cursory glance at Genesis 1 will tell you, before [...]
Posted in Uncategorized on Jan 16th, 2012
(X-posted from my home blog, Yinzer in Yerushalayim) As I end my first semester in Israel, I am surrounded by reminders of where I come from and how I got here. It started last Thursday night, when I made halushki, a Central/Eastern European dish popular in Western Pennsylvania, at my friend מיכאל’s (pronounced “Mee-kha-el”) apartment [...]
Posted in Uncategorized on Jan 12th, 2012
Originally posted here. For the past 7 years, I’ve lived in the little town of State College, Pennsylvania. One of the primary modes of transportation around the Penn State campus is the CATA bus system. If you’re not familiar with it, allow me to paint a picture: The bus makes two loops around campus: [...]
Posted in Uncategorized on Jan 8th, 2012
After getting over Hevron, the subject on everyone’s minds and lips all last week was the craziness in Beit Shemesh. I was going to write this blog post with a lot of complaints about how more people aren’t speaking out against this behavior, but since I could have attended the protest and did not, perhaps [...]
Posted in Uncategorized on Dec 25th, 2011
I was curious about why there are so few hard cheeses in this region, and after investigation, I started looking into making soft cheeses and realized just how easy it is to make yogurt (which can be Lebnah, or even a nice replacement for cream cheese). I’ve told a few people that I make yogurt, and [...]
Posted in Uncategorized on Dec 22nd, 2011
When I made aliyah a year ago, I knew that I was doing so on the grounds that it would be challenging, not only financially or emotionally, but because Israel is difficult. There is nothing easy about Israel, and maybe that is where her true beauty comes from. Pardes set up a trip for [...]
Posted in Uncategorized on Dec 19th, 2011
From my blog: In Jerusalem, everyone has a *guy: “You want to buy fish? Oh you HAVE to go see my guy in the shuk.” “My cheese guy is the BEST. He let’s you try whatever you want.” “Time for a haircut? You have to go to my guy on Emek!” The fun, and perhaps [...]
