This week, Rabbi Daniel Roth discusses Parashat Tzav and Shabbat HaGadol in “Family Unity and Elijah’s Role.”
Shabbat shalom!
[Pardes from Jerusalem Podcast] Tzav and Shabbat HaGadol 5773: Family Unity and Elijah’s Role
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Tag Archives: Rabbi Daniel Roth
A Jewish Day of Constructive Conflict
On the 9th of Adar, the Pardes Center for Judaism and Conflict Resolution (PCJCR) sponsored its first annual Jewish Day of Constructive Conflict. According to the Shulchan Aruch, this was the day that the arguments of Bet Hillel and Bet Shammai deteriorated from a respectful difference of opinion into violence. Rabbi Daniel Roth prepared sources for the day, which was observed in numerous venues around the globe.
At Pardes, alumna Malka Landau (Kollel ’00-’02) facilitated a workshop in which the entire student body practiced skills of deep listening, asking open questions, and mirroring, essential elements in constructive dialogue. After the workshop, students broke into discussion groups where they had the opportunity to Continue reading
You’re at Pardes, Charlie Brown
[Pardes From Jerusalem Podcast] Truma 5773: Mutual Respect or Conflict?
This week, Rabbi Daniel Roth discusses Parashat Truma in “Mutual Respect or Conflict?”
Click here for more information about the first-ever Jewish Day of Constructive Conflict sponsored by the Pardes Center for Judaism and Conflict Resolution on February 19 (9 Adar), including the resources referenced in the podcast.
Shabbat shalom!
Abraham’s Family (A Prose Poem)
This is a poem inspired by what I’ve
been learning in Daniel Roth’s
Chumash / Mediation class. I read it
on our last day of class this semester.
Abraham’s Family
(a prose poem)
Isaac have I loved for he has filled my days with laughter and through him God heard my cry giving me a son in my image strong, free, fierce as a ram my true progeny. Older, darker, different you orchestrated all our childhood games I was happy then, to play along- but no more! Our family needs a new leader now and I am the chosen one, there can be no other- even if you are my brother. While you were growing up I was shielding you from the harsh desert sun I protected you from our father’s bouts of madness I saw myself as a second dad to you; And now that you are grown, you don’t need me anymore. I’m just your brother from another life, when your life wasn’t yet your own. Go in peace, my child. May God be there when we meet again.
[Student Profile] Aileen Heinberg
Aileen Heinberg grew up in a Modern Orthodox community in Brooklyn, NY, and graduated from the Yeshiva of Flatbush, which she’d attended since kindergarten; Torah learning was so woven into the fabric of her environment that she came to take it for granted.
Nevertheless, the young woman eventually grew to appreciate Jewish learning as a student at Columbia University, and elected to take several courses in Jewish studies, even as she pursued her psychology degree. In retrospect, she appreciated the emphasis that her yeshiva education had put on the Jewish value of chesed (kindness), as she volunteered very actively during her college years with Nightline Peer Counseling, Peace Games, and America Reads – serving both her local and extended communities.
At Columbia, Professor Walter Mischel strengthened Aileen’s thirst for exploration; she became more excited about research, learning and teaching, as she observed him during class and worked in his lab after college graduation. She wrote her honors thesis on learning strategies, and became interested in how to shape children’s positive development. After college, she also worked on projects involving child and adolescent psychology at the Columbia Health Sciences Center, and two years later she began a doctoral program in psychology at UCLA.
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Noah Story – Character Narratives
Chumash Class Narrative Summary: Noah v. Ham
An integral part of R. Daniel Roth’s חוּמָשׁ class (this year’s first installment of the Peace and Conflict track) is the summaries that students are asked to create at the end of a unit. Rabbi Roth gives free creative reign to his students to use whatever methods speak to them most—written mediation notes, art work, essays, etc.—to understand the conflict from multiple perspectives. This is often achieved by speaking directly through the key actors in a given unit. Below is one such summary from a second year PEP student who seeks to understand the main narratives in the familial conflict in פרשת נח based upon the insights of the commentators (Jubilees, Philo, Targumim, Baruch, Targum Neophyti, בראשית רבה, מדרש תנחומא, בבלי סנהדרין, רש”י, ספורנו, ראב”ע, רמב”ן, רד”ק, Cassuto, Gunkel, Armstrong).
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Creation of the Third Story (Mediation in the Chumash)
Avigayle Adler (2012) oil pastels
I drew this picture as part of a unit summary in Daniel Roth’s Chumash class; Mediation in the Chumash. We spent a couple of weeks learning through the Adam and Eve story including an exhaustive study of the meforshim (both modern and classic as well as many in-between). At the end of the unit (as usual), Daniel challenged us to create what he calls a “third story”. In mediation terms, the third story implies an alternate version of the narrative to which each character could sign on, agreeing that the story’s author gets them. We were then challenged to look at the text from the perspective of Adam, Eve and the snake and create a picture or a piece of writing where each character is given the opportunity to defend his or her actions.
Staring at the blank piece of paper, I decided to follow my own teacherly advice and just put anything down, just get that hand moving, and let your subconscious do the work. Often getting one’s hands moving, is a great way to put the intellect (and self-judgements, read: “this isn’t art…its terrible…you can’t draw…it will never be right so why start…you call yourself an artist…etc..) to rest. And so I began to draw a large tree in the middle of my paper. I should also make it clear that at the outset, I had no idea of the picture that I wanted to create or any vision of how it would end up. Therefore most of the following thoughts came mostly after I stepped back to look at the finished piece, or during…
I knew at the outset that Eve would be the main central character and that Adam would be a very minor bleep in the background, if present at all. So, after the tree, I drew the shape of a woman, standing naked and alone. In showing the back of her head, rather than her face and her hands reaching out, I tried to convey some of the ambiguity that she might have felt as she weighed her Continue reading
Genesis/ בראשית
In discussion with my chevrutah, we posited that the snake character of the narrative was rather puzzling. Why would a snake be in conversation with human beings? Moreover, why would a snake have such a pivotal role in גן עדן setting off a series of events and changing the course of humankind?
We came to the startling conclusion that in this story the snake is a metaphor for sexual energy between אדם and חוה. Only such an energy would result in their becoming aware of their nakedness and more significantly manifest in their being “like God”— having the power to create life.
My pictorial representation includes male (green) and female (red) energies with the נחש, sexual energy (blue), between the two. As I was creating this, a space appeared in the midst of these energies. I realized that by including a space for God (and how lovely that the space was heart-shaped) the union was complete. All of the characters of גן עדן were accounted for and present.
I chose to contain this representation in the shape of a רמון (pomegranate) for several reasons. Primarily, it is a symbol of fertility which is a central element of the narrative. Furthermore, pomegranates are in season in Israel at this time of year and are eaten often during ראש השנה, the holiday which commemorates the creation of the world. Finally, some scholars believe that the fruit from the tree in גן עדן was actually a pomegranate.
Post-Modernity’s Footnote to Modernity
I just had the immense privilege of watching Footnote (הערת שוליים) with some fellow Pardesniks followed by a discussion with faculty who have intimate personal knowledge of the culture being described in the film. First, I highly recommend watching the trailer and, if you are even remotely interested, watching the movie before reading what I have to say (in other words: spoiler alert).