These and Those

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

Tag Archives: Pardes

Hillel in the snow.

Posted on December 13, 2013 by Andrea Wiese

There is a very famous story about Hillel, which follows: “Most famous perhaps is the incident which occurred before his rise to leadership, when he was not yet a scholar, but had a burning desire to study Torah. At that time, Torah study was tightly controlled and limited only to those of the highest caliber Continue Reading »

Torah is keeping us warm!

Posted on December 12, 2013 by Andrea Wiese

We have a snow day, but we’re staying warm with Torah! Pardes’ beit midrash is full! Not only that, we even came early to daven. Talk about dedication. No better place to study. Thank you, Pardes community!

[Staff Guest Post] The Magic of Chanuka

Posted on December 9, 2013 by Debra Weiner-Solomont

by Debra Weiner, staff member since 1998 Pardes is more than a place to work, Pardes is family. Staff and faculty are connected outside of the office and Beit Midrash. This year I had the special zechut (privilege) to spend the last night of Chanukah with Arlene Harel. Arlene lives in the Nachlaot neighborhood of Jerusalem, Continue Reading »

Creating Together

Posted on November 17, 2013 by Melissa Scholten-Gutierrez

Today is the fourth annual Global Day of Jewish Learning and this year’s theme is “Creating Together: Jewish Approaches to Creativity and Collaboration.” Two very broad and important things in my life, and as I sit here attempting to consolidate them with my experiences at Pardes this year, their coalescence becomes so obvious to me. When Pardes’s weekly Continue Reading »

What animal is the JFNA like?

Posted on November 17, 2013 by Ben Schneider

This past week, I had the privilege of being a member of the Masa delegation to the Jewish Federations of North America General Assembly. The JFNA is the largest Jewish charity, and I believe the largest charity of its kind in the world, and its primary purpose is to raise money and distribute it in Continue Reading »

Questions

Posted on October 26, 2013 by Hannah Joy

From my blog: A Day in the Life My days here have been filled with questions. Questions posed to and by teachers, classmates, guest speakers, and ourselves. Questions about minute details, major moral issues, and everything in between. Questions that we can easily answer right away and questions that we fiercely debate. Questions that create Continue Reading »

[Guest Post] Jewish Studies, a Poem by Abraham Leibson

Posted on October 17, 2013 by The Director of Digital Media

Early in 2013 my wife Sharon and I visited Israel for the first time. We rented an apartment in Jerusalem (Rehavia), and used it as a base to explore as much as we could in one month. I had prepared a long list of objectives and almost all of the objectives were achieved. One of Continue Reading »

Go For Yourself

Posted on October 13, 2013 by Hannah Joy

From my blog: This past week’s Torah portion, Lech Lecha, made me think of my own decision to take a year to study in Israel. The first verse reads as follows: וַיֹּאמֶר יְהוָה אֶל-אַבְרָם, לֶךְ-לְךָ מֵאַרְצְךָ וּמִמּוֹלַדְתְּךָ וּמִבֵּית אָבִיךָ, אֶל-הָאָרֶץ, אֲשֶׁר אַרְאֶךָּ. Vayomer Hashem el-Avram Lech Lecha me’artzecha umimoladetecha umibeit avicha el-ha’aretz asher ar’eka. “And Continue Reading »

What Sarah thinks Judaism Has to Say About….

Posted on October 7, 2013 by The Director of Digital Media

From my blog: RELATIONSHIPS. Relationships with just anyone and relationships with Hashem. I’m hoping that if I sit down at the end of the day to try and process all of my thoughts and create a semi-coherent train of thought, it will help me to sort the things that I’ve learned and retain the information better. Continue Reading »

A Name for Us / A Name for You

Posted on October 6, 2013 by David Bogomolny

I presented this dvar at our Shabbaton yesterday: Parshat Noach contains one of my favorite Biblical stories: that of the Tower of Babel. Together with you, I’d like to tease a few details out of the p’shat (the simple reading of the text), explore two midrashim (early rabbinic exegesis), and suggest a metaphor for the Continue Reading »