Review of ‘Relics for the Present: Contemporary Reflections on the Talmud’ by Levi Cooper

Posted on March 16, 2013 by Derek

Think of it as divrei Torah for the Talmud. Rabbi Dr. Levi Cooper’s Relics for the Present is an innovative, insightful, and thoroughly practical look at Mesechet Brachot that is sure to provide inspiration for Talmudic newcomers as much as long-time scholars. Whether read cover-to-cover or piecemeal, whether you’ve ever studied Tractate Brachot, or any other part of the Talmud, you are sure to have no trouble finding meaning in this book. Moreover, for beginner students especially, Relics can serve as the perfect introduction to the personalities of the Talmud and of it’s many commentators.

While in the Preface, Rabbi Cooper says he published his book on Tractate Brachot to coincide with the renewal of the Daf Yomi, or daily Talmud cycle,there seems to be more to the selection than this. If Tractate Brachot and its placement as the introductory section of the Talmud teaches us anything, it’s that the importance and problematics of Jewish prayer has not changed in the last 2,000 years. As such, Relics provides a refreshing modern voice in the ongoing Jewish conversation on how best to converse with God that should prove meaningful to Jews of all stripes. Continue reading →

[Alumni Guest Post] Ben Freedman — Building Upon my Pardes Experience

Posted on January 23, 2013 by admin

BF (2) The semester I spent at Pardes was among the most important periods of personal growth that I’ve ever had. Upon my return to the US, when family or friends would ask about it, I could only create impressions of how I had grown or what I had truly learned. I would say, “imagine six months of uplifting, inspiring, Jewish group therapy with 120 of the most engaging and supportive and genuinely caring individuals you’ve ever met.” Needless to say, that sort of explanation usually generated more confusion than clarification.

In an attempt to build upon my Pardes experience having moved back to Washington, DC, I began attending the DC Beit Midrash (DCBM), a welcoming, pluralistic and diverse learning community that meets every week at the DC JCC. I had heard about DCBM from my Pardes classmates and was curious to learn why they spoke so enthusiastically about the group. Continue reading →

Empty Notebook

Posted on December 4, 2012 by Bogo

I doodled once on the cover of my notebook, but I didn’t take any notes. Every time we met with a speaker, I brought my notebook and pen with me, but I never once wrote down what they were saying. I’m not sure that I couldn’t have; I’m only sure that I didn’t want to.

The two days of our Perspectives Israel trip were completely packed with speaker after speaker. We ate lunch on the bus because otherwise we wouldn’t have made it back before Shabbat on Friday. And we really stuck to our schedule. They spoke, we asked, they answered, and we left for the bus. Speaker after speaker after speaker.

I think my concern was mostly about being present with them.

Continue reading →

Book Review: ‘Relics for the Present’

Posted on October 21, 2012 by Leah Kahn

When I read Relics for the Present, I am quickly enamored with the ancient wisdom of our tradition. Levi Cooper intricately and intelligently interlaces the p’shat of the text together with the interpretations of a variety of commentators, which results in meaningful interpretations that the Talmidei Chachamim may have actually wished to convey to future generations. With his choice of commentators, Cooper brings texture to the arguments and stories of the Talmud. He could easily stop there, but doesn’t, adding one more piece to his thoughtful tome that simply makes the book magical. Bringing his own ideas and interpretations to the meaning of the questions and challenges posed by the Talmud, Cooper offers new wisdom for the modern Jew, deeply rooted in the ancient text. This last element transports readers straight to the Beit Midrash, as if they are sitting across from Cooper, pouring over the Talmud with him in chevruta. Readers will come away from the encounter with a fresh charge for living a Jewish life in the modern world.

Pardes Experiential Educators Program ’13

Dvar Torah from Salon Pardes

Posted on October 14, 2012 by Derek

Last night I held the first-ever Salon Pardes in my living room. The Salon provides a safe, supportive environment for Pardes students to share their creative endeavors with other students and receive constructive criticism and feedback. The event was a rousing success, with more than 10 students presenting their art, poetry, photography, music, singing, writing, and drawing and around 15 more there to watch, critique, and lend support. In true Pardes fashion, I kicked-off the event with the dvar Torah below. Pictures will be soon to follow.

When I was looking for a date for this event, my only criteria was that it be as soon as possible after the Chagim; it was not intentional that the Salon be right after the Shabbat Bereshit. In retrospect, though, I don’t think it could have worked out better. Parshat Bereshit is all about the creative process–God’s Creation, and then ours, because what could being made in God’s Image possibly mean other than maybe the one thing humans can do that other animals cannot, namely, create art for its own sake? This idea of the spirituality of Creation is especially prevalent in more mystical sources. In the Tanya, it speaks about the three stages of Creation: that initial spark of inspiration, the further teasing out of an idea out of that flash, then finally, the action, the “doing” of the idea, the part that turns that initial spark of inspiration into a physical reality. The Tanya relates this process to both God and man in the creative process.

In his dvar for this week, Chief Rabbi Jonathan Sacks talks about the fundamental importance of the creative endeavor to Judaism and spirituality, writing, “Since G-d transcends nature – the fundamental point of Genesis 1 – then He is free, unbounded by nature’s laws. By creating human beings in His image, He gave us a similar freedom, thus creating the one being capable itself of being creative. The unprecedented account of G-d in the Torah’s opening chapter leads to an equally unprecedented view of the human person and our capacity for self-transformation….

[T]he great truth of Genesis 1 remains…. The Torah remains G-d’s supreme call to humankind to freedom and creativity on the one hand, and on the other, to responsibility and restraint – becoming G-d’s partner in the work of creation.” The ability to make art can make us God-like, but it comes with responsibility. This reminds me of one of my favorite lines from Dante, when he wrote, “Art is God’s grandchild.” My blessing to us all (and me too, why not) is that through this Salon tonight, we should be inspired to use our talents to give God grandchildren He will really kvell over.

[Take 5] My Poland Trip in Perspective

Posted on October 11, 2012 by Lauren S.

This past Sunday night was Simchat Torah. I spent the evening in the Pardes beit midrash, dancing and singing, along with many of you. The energy in the room was palpable, and filled me up with a feeling of pure joy. I experienced a particularly moving moment when the singing shifted to “Am Yisrael Chai: The People of Israel Live.” I stood there, and I watched people jumping up and down, dancing faster and faster in circles, shouting “Am Yisrael Chai” with all of the energy they could muster.

At first, I couldn’t dance. I couldn’t move. I was instantly reminded of the last time that I heard this song. I was standing with my peers in the Auschwitz concentration camp on the Pardes heritage trip to Poland.

When I was asked to give a “take 5” on the Poland trip, I felt both honored and nervous. I am not sure that my words can do adequate justice as to how this trip has affected me, my Jewish identity, and the way that I walk through the world. But I’ll try.

After some hesitation, I decided to sign up for the Poland trip because I saw it as an opportunity to bear witness to the events of the Shoah, connect to my heritage, and simply because I felt in my gut that this was something I needed to do.

The whole trip, from beginning to end, was a powerful educational experience. Even before the trip, the group was committed to creating an atmosphere where each of us had a role in educating one other. One of my highlights of the trip was learning about all the different Poland personalities that my peers had researched, whether they were Torah giants, contributors to Yiddish culture, or righteous gentiles who risked their lives during the war.

Also, I was appreciative of the balance of the trip. While a significant amount of time was spent visiting concentration camps and holocaust sites, we also spent a significant amount of time learning about the vibrancy of pre-War Poland, Hassidut, and visiting important sites of Torah learning. Another highlight of mine was having an evening to study Torah in a yeshiva in Lublin, one that only a few decades ago had all of their books burned on the front lawn.

While I had many impactful moments on the trip, the greatest, and most unexpected, takeaway from the trip was what happened when I returned to Pardes. On the trip, we had the privilege of seeing many graves and important sites of Torah learning, which laid foundations for Torah study as we know it today. Because of this my learning was infused with new depth, and may separate aspects of my studies were weaved together. My eyes were open in a new way, and I was reading texts differently, and with more enthusiasm than before.

More importantly than this, I now, more than ever, see my learning in the beit midrash as an incredible privilege. And perhaps, going one step further, I see my Jewish identity as a gift, one that I am so incredibly grateful for.

In hindsight, choosing to go on the Poland trip was probably THE most important decision that I made last year. If you have any inkling of interest, I encourage you to go to the meeting on Monday, or talk to students who went on the trip last year. While we all experience things differently, I think that this trip can be an important and transformative trip for anyone.

So, as I stood in the beit midrash on Simchat Torah, I was at first frozen, flashing back to Poland, Auschwitz, the Holocaust, disaster, despair. But as I watched everyone singing and dancing around me, I felt the experience with such depth and emotion that I began dancing, too, and was reminded what it truly means to sing “Am Yisrael Chai,” on Simchat Torah, in Jerusalem.

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Being Cool and Staying in School!

Posted on October 10, 2012 by Heather K.

Originally posted on Sept. 19:

Hello friends and family!! I’ve finally started school, and it’s been keeping me so busy I haven’t had time to update my blog. So, here’s the past two weeks in a nutshell: 1)SO MUCH LEARNING 2)SO MANY NEW FRIENDS!

School: It’s been a combination of challenging and rewarding so far. I finally switched my classes around so that I’m happy with my schedule. I’m taking a class on Genesis, the “Megillot” (Song of Songs, Ruth, Lamentations, Ecclesiastes, and Esther), one morning of Mishna (Jewish Oral Law), Turning Points in Modern Jewish History, a “Parshat HaShavua” (Torah portion of the week) class which is ALL IN HEBREW, AHHHH!, a Rabbinic Thought class, and a Teaching Prayer class. I’m also taking a class on Trope (how to chant the Torah), a Chasidut class, and a class about “Neviim Rishonim” (First Prophets – Joshua, Judges, Samuel, Kings). Needless to say, I am busy and exhausted and my brain hurts after a long day (sometimes 8:30am-9pm) but it’s been lots of fun so far. As everyone keeps saying, “all beginnings are hard,” but I’m really enjoying myself so far.

Friends and other adventures: We had a Shabbaton (weekend-long retreat) for the whole school and I really bonded with a lot of people over the weekend. Everyone is so nice and so welcoming, and I’m having so much fun. I’ve really been enjoying getting to explore Jerusalem the past few weeks. The Ben Yehuda Street area has TONS to do – bars, shops, frozen yogurt… the essentials. It’s about a 15-minute bus ride from where I live and there’s always a new friend who wants to go hang out down there. There’s also a great street close to where I live, about a 5-10 minute walk, which is a fun place to go and obviously much closer to home. For Shabbat and holidays I’ve been getting to go to lots of different friends’ houses for meals and go to lots of different styles of services, which has been fun.

Sukkot is coming up, which means a nice long break from school. Originally, I was planning on traveling with a few other girls and hoping to get a last-minute deal to Turkey, Spain, Italy, or Greece, but we can’t seem to find anything cheap enough so I think I may end up going to this festival in the desert for a few days just to get out of Jerusalem for a bit. I’m sure whatever I end up doing, I’ll have a good time

Miss y’all so so much, and I’m really wishing I could be with everyone at Doak this weekend to watch the Noles dominate Clemson… but I do know that this is right where I’m supposed to be for the next year!! Wishing everyone a Happy New Year, and GO FSU!!!!

Dvar Torah from the Shabbaton

Posted on September 19, 2012 by Derek

Shabbat shalom. My dvar hangs on the verses from the Parsha, “Neither with you only do I make this covenant and this oath, but with those that stand here with us this day before the Lord our God, and also with him that is not here with us this day,” which means us, and “All of you are standing today in the presence of the Lord your God—your leaders and chief men, your elders and officials, and all the other men of Israel, together with your children and your wives, and the aliens living in your camps who chop your wood and carry your water.” This means that no matter who you are or what you do, there is a Torah that you have to teach.

We’ve already spoken a lot about how fortunate and blessed we are to live and to study Torah in Israel, but I want to talk also about how blessed we are to live in the countries we come from. In America or Canada or England, or wherever we come from, we can go to any school or hold any job, and we can do so as Jews. This is something unheard of in history. Last year,in Turning Points in Modern Jewish History, Dean Bernstein talked a lot about what he calls the “bargain of Emancipation”that, 250 years ago, Jews could be citizens or they could be Jews, but they couldn’t be both. This is an incoherent notion today, we can study or do anything—writing, bio-stats, art, business, psychology, and more, we can do it as Jews. And not only that, the non-Jews we live with aren’t trying to kill us or convert us, but are legitimately our friends

Forget 250, even 70 years ago, who could have imagined that there would someday be Jews like us; we are the Jews no other generation of Jews could have possibly imagined. This new reality deserves a Torah no other generation of Jews could have possibly imagined, one where we go into the world and we make it holy, doing our jobs Jewishly, with all the love, honesty, kindness, and holiness that demands.

But by coming to Pardes, you are affirming that this is possible, that Judaism is up to this challenge, that you can take what you learned before coming to Pardes, integrate Torah into it, and make the world a holier place.

So my blessing to you (and me too, why not?) is that this coming year, we can live as the Jews no other generation of Jews could have possibly imagined to work together towards creating a Torah worthy of this unprecedented moment in history to ultimately make the world an unimaginably holier place

Symbolism: Reflections on my Pardes Poland Trip

Posted on September 8, 2012 by Leah Kahn

In looking back at our Poland Heritage Trip in January, it’s quite difficult to fathom just how much we witnessed in 5 short days. We began with the colorful tapestry of Jewish life that existed in Warsaw and Lublin, which was hardly a foreshadowing of what was to come. We tapped into the spirituality of the Chasidic leaders through visiting the tombs of Hassidic masters, such as Rav Elimelech of Lezajsk. We visited Krakow, and painted a picture of the colorful tapestry of Jewish life that existed by experiencing the beautiful old shuls and telling stories about the scholars who led the community. We stepped into the horror and disbelief that is Belzec, Majdanek and Auschwitz, facing head on the reality of what happened on cold winter nights while the feeling of death lingered in the air. We explored the concept of heroism through studying the Warsaw Ghetto Uprising, and re-defined what it meant to have courage and conviction in the face of bleak circumstances. We searched for some sort of redemption, as we learned about righteous gentiles like Oskar Schindler while standing outside of his factory, and realized just how much individuals like him risked to save a few Jewish souls.

The journey our group took during those 5 days forced us to confront a tragedy in our collective history that is painful to address. It would have been much easier to stay in the Beit Midrash. But in freezing temperatures, we trudged through the snow, intent on searching for some sort of answer to our existential questions. I came away from the experience with more questions and less answers than ever before. However, as I was standing in Birkenau trying to fathom what was before me, a chance occurrence gave me a sliver of clarity. As our tour guide’s words pelted us with the alarming numbers of death and cruelty that occurred in the exact spot where I stood, the snow started to fall. I happened to look down and saw on my glove a snowflake in the shape of a Magen David. While it wasn’t an answer, it felt like a still, small voice, perhaps even a quiet charge. And my realization was this: I was standing, by my own choosing, in a place where hundreds of Jews wanted to be freed from their suffering. And through the consistent development and commitment to my personal Jewish identity, Torah study and service in the community, I could in some small way honor and uplift their memory. While it wasn’t an answer to the many questions racing through my head, it was at least a direction gleaned from a symbol that connected me to previous generations.

Today when I enter the Beit Midrash to embark on deepening and expanding my Torah knowledge, I am aware that my small actions are easily taken for granted and that I am privileged to carry on our tradition. My Jewish brothers and sisters can no longer carry this on, and in memory of those who perished, I will hopefully begin to regain a tiny fraction of the communal knowledge, culture and vibrance that was destroyed in the Shoah.

Lost in the Rhythm

Posted on May 30, 2012 by Andrew Lustig

Originally posted on the Masa Blog:

I came to Israel – to the Pardes Institute for Jewish Studies – 10 months ago, so that I could study and become familiar with Jewish text. I wanted very much to live a ‘Jewish life.’ I just didn’t know what that entailed or meant.

Judaism, for me, has been like a dance. It wasn’t so much fun when I didn’t know the steps. There was very little spiritual fulfillment. It was frustrating and confusing.

But as I started to learn the steps I started to lose myself in the rhythm. The movements took on meaning. And that has led to very special experiences and insights.

Part of this learning process is and has been happening through Torah study, in many of its very different permutations, at Pardes.

Chumash class, of course. Talmud, of course. But there’s also Self, Soul, and Text. And Modern Jewish Thought. And Jewish Meditation. And the Social Justice track. The Peace and Conflict class.

The other part of this discovery is happening through thinking hard and honestly about Continue reading →

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