Musings from Students of the Pardes Institute of Jewish Studies in Jerusalem
Posted on November 7, 2013 by Elana Shilling
I don’t really know what happens when two men fight, having never been a man and thus never had a man fight. But alas! After painstaking research via observation of the male species, surveying video clips on the popular site YouTube, and absorbing pop culture, I have managed to create what I believe to be Continue Reading »
Posted on November 3, 2013 by Avi Benson-Goldberg
Josh Pernick plays doubles tennis at the Israel Tennis center, and needs a regular partner. When I mention that this fact will be making it into the final piece, Josh points out that last night is the first time he’s managed to play doubles, and he played with David Levine. This profile, of course, will Continue Reading »
Posted on November 2, 2013 by Candace Mittel
About Jerusalem Medley Three Unlikely Falafel Men I encountered these three men eating falafel together at a little place on Yafo. The story below mainly centers Barak (on left) who spoke to me in Hebrew, and although I understand Hebrew fairly well, his friend and “PR person” Adam (on right) insisted on translating every few Continue Reading »
Posted on October 31, 2013 by Heather Kantrowitz
“Yitzhak pleaded with the Lord on behalf of his wife, because she was barren.” The Torah doesn’t tell us what his prayer consisted of, only that God answered his pleas and Rivka conceived. This led me to wonder what it entailed, especially because his requests were accepted by God. One of the reasons I think Continue Reading »
Posted on October 24, 2013 by Josh Pernick
Yes, that Avraham. The Jewish world has been afire in recent weeks with responses to the new Pew survey on American Jewish life which shows an increasing rate of secularism, intermarriage and the like within the Jewish community. In one of the more inflammatory responses, Gabriel Roth of Slate.com advises American Jews to “embrace your Continue Reading »
Posted on October 18, 2013 by Anna Pomson
Oh God said to Abraham, “Kill me a son” Abe says, “Man, you must be puttin’ me on” God say, “No.” Abe say, “What?” God say, “You can do what you want Abe, but The next time you see me comin’ you better run” Well Abe says, “Where do you want this killin’ done?” God Continue Reading »
Posted on October 14, 2013 by Elana Shilling
Posted on October 14, 2013 by Jeff Amshalem
From my blog: From Levi Yitzhak of Berditchev Kedushas Levi, Perushei Aggadot When you say the words of the living God in studying Torah, or engage in the holy work of prayer, you should intend to cleave to the blessed Creator. But you must consider the question, how can a person of flesh and blood cleave Continue Reading »
Posted on October 10, 2013 by AdAm Mayer
So many of us are Searching – see ourselves somewhere along our Jewish Journey. This post-modern cultural phenomenon with which we are all too familiar, I would argue, is not a modern ‘phenomenon’, rather began in ~1948 (~1813 B.C.E.) with Avraham. Or to put it another way, Avraham was the first to successfully share his Continue Reading »
Posted on October 9, 2013 by The Director of Digital Media
What do diabetes and Pardes have in common? For you, probably nothing. But I’ve been at Pardes for two years, with one more to go. And for me, these two are intrinsically linked! See, in the last month of my first year at Pardes, I was mistakenly diagnosed with Type 2 diabetes. I left for Continue Reading »
