Torah Balance

Posted on April 29, 2013 by Stu Jacobs

Yesterday was a special day at Pardes. Not because Meir was roaming the halls with a mass of students, singing at the top of his lungs, although that was part of it. Not because there was dancing in the beit midrash, although that was part of it as well. The occurrences above, while special, have been seen from time to time at Pardes before.

But, this time, the spirited nigunnim sung in the halls and the circle dancing in the middle of the beit midrash were in celebration and commemoration of a Hachnasat Sefer Torah, the welcoming in of a Torah that was given to the Pardes community. This sefer torah was brought into our community with a number of meaningful rituals: It was brought, under the shade of a tallit, to every classroom where Torah was being learned that morning; it was escorted through the halls in which endless conversations referencing the impact of Torah study can be heard; and it was passed, from person to person, around the beit midrash, out to Continue reading →

Hachnasat Sefer Torah

Posted on April 28, 2013 by Annie Matan Gilbert

Passing and imprinting on and from the new Pardes Sefer Torah

Today at Pardes, we had the honour and the pleasure of dancing our new sefer Torah, (donated in honour of a recent Bat Mitzvah) around the school. We heard lovely divrei Torah from Pardes student, Dr. Aileen Heinberg and from Rav Landes. There was some mention made of the fact that a Hachnasat Sefer Torah is a brit and like at a brit milah, we stand for the ritual. Later, when we passed the Torah from one person to the next, I was reminded of a brit milah I attended years ago where the baby was passed from one family member to the next as he was brought into the room. Continue reading →

[Alumni Guest Post] How is Kaddish related to mourning?

Posted on April 23, 2013 by admin

Chanan Kessler (Year 1985-86) shares 
the following reflection with us in 
his mother's memory. Chanan is a NYC 
school teacher, and lives in The 
Bronx.

During the year that I recited the Kaddish after the death of my beloved mother, Hinda Yael bat Yosef v’Chaya, may her memory always be with us, I asked myself many questions. What was the purpose of saying Kaddish? For whom was I saying Kaddish (myself or my mother)? How was Kaddish related to mourning? In her honor and to help process my thoughts and feelings, I kept a blog in which I mused about these and other questions.

Nothing in life prepares you for mourning the loss of a parent. The idea that the person who gave you life is no longer in the world is incomprehensible. I had nineteen months after my mother was diagnosed with pancreatic cancer to get used to the idea, and I understood that I’d soon be a mourner. But there is an existential divide between the “regular” world and the one occupied by mourners.

Becoming a mourner and living without my mother was and continues to be uncharted emotional territory. One of my mother’s many life messages was to strive continuously for Continue reading →

A Peek into the Black and White World

Posted on April 13, 2013 by Naomi Bilmes

From my blog:

I have Haredi cousins.

I did not know this until last Friday night, enjoying couch-conversation with one of said cousins before Shabbat dinner.

So many different types of Jews…

“So what do people in this neighborhood call themselves?” I asked, wondering (after seeing all the black hats and streimels) which sect of Ultra-Orthodoxy I had resigned myself to for Shabbat.

“Mostly Haredi,” she replied. “Some Hassidish and Chabad, but most people are Haredi.” She paused, then added, “I’m Haredi.”

What is “Haredi”? According to the Oxford University Press, Haredi is defined as: “a member of any of various Orthodox Jewish sects characterized by strict adherence to the traditional form of Jewish law and rejection of modern secular culture.” Therefore, I was very surprised to find out that my cousin works for Continue reading →

[Alumni Guest Post] The Purpose of Two Seders

Posted on April 3, 2013 by admin

Posted by Ben Barer (Fall '10, Fellows '12):

Having only one seder last year, while in Israel, followed by having two this year, has led me to reflect on why this custom is maintained, and how best to perpetuate it as a meaningful one. Like the other holidays that are celebrated one extra day outside of Israel, this practice originated because of a lack of clarity about the calendar. If the new moon was spotted, and the news was rushed to Jerusalem and verified there, there might not be enough time to get that news out to Babylonia (or wherever Jews were in exile). As a cautionary measure, then, those Jews celebrated an extra day to be sure that they did not treat the actual holiday as a normal day, and work on it. While we now have a set Jewish calendar, and I could tell you when Pesach will fall in the year 5973 (2213), the custom has persisted in most of the Jewish community.

While seders specifically are a ritual that requires a lot of preparation, and therefore having an extra can feel cumbersome at times, Continue reading →

[Alumni Guest Post] Intrafaith Engagement

Posted on October 17, 2012 by admin

by Ben Barer (Fall 2010, Fellows 2011-12)

Cross-posted from his blog.

“All Jews are friends”

I came across this article recently, and the tenor of the article greatly disturbed me. My friend and fellow Pardes alum did a wonderful job setting the record straight, but I see the underlying problem as requiring more thought as well. Why are we so quick to demonize fellow Jews? This is not a case of unaffiliated Jews who see no particular connection between themselves and other Jews, nor is it a case of questioning whether criticism of the State of Israel is legitimate coming (loudly) from a Jewish voice. This is the question of whether committed Jews from various denominations in the global Jewish community can see that there is much to be lost from sniping at each other, and much to be gained by trying to understand one another, despite our differences.

In the Crimson article, the following were among the inflammatory words that appeared: “endangered,” “anathema,” “medieval,” and “parochial zeal.” I struggle to understand what the goal of inciting such antagonism is. The author himself states that the Orthodox community is the dominant demography in Judaism today. While he claims that Reform and Conservative Judaism stand for tikkun olam — repairing the world — the concept of כל ישראל ערבים זה לזה (Sanhedrin 27b), that all Jews are inextricably bound up in each others’ lives, has been sidelined.

I am not arguing that, if only Jews would all unite, there would be peace in the Middle East — or anything similarly grandiose. I actually think that the people who stand to benefit most from Jews making a concerted effort to decrease a rhetoric of hate and increase understanding are Jews. The Jewish tradition stands to be enriched by having Jews of all backgrounds come together and grapple with the issues that animate our lives. This is in large part because there are so many different, institutionally sanctioned ways of Continue reading →

[Student Profile] Kyle Lebell

Posted on May 21, 2012 by Barer

Kyle was raised in Berkeley, CA to a father who had rejected his Jesuit upbringing and faith altogether, but remained knowledgeable through his work as a publisher of religious books, and a Jewish mother who did not have a strong traditional upbringing. While Judaism as such did not play a positive, central role in her early life, God and spirituality certainly did. Her mother taught her the Shma as a blessing to allay her fears, and she still instinctively recites it when appropriate.

Attending bi-weekly Hebrew school a half-hour drive away from home during her primary school years, Kyle felt that: “Judaism was a building I attended Hebrew school in.” Nevertheless, her mother did not abandon the hope that Judaism would play a central part in Kyle’s life, and her efforts paid off.

While attending a private high school — education was and continues to be one of the highest values in the household — Kyle participated in the New Jewish Film Project, bringing together Jewish high school students from the Bay Area to create a film to be shown at the San Francisco Jewish Film Festival in the summer of 2002. They created a documentary, Not Another Jewish Movie, about what it was like growing up Jewish in the Bay Area, and it was screened widely. Continue reading →

And you shall love the Lord, your God, with all your heart

Posted on May 8, 2012 by aliza

וארשתיך לי לעולם, וארשתיך לי בצדק ובמשפט ובחסד וברחמים. וארשתיך לי באמונה, וידעת את הי

And I will betrothe you to me forever and always, and I will betrothe you to me in righteousness and in justice and in loving-kindness and in compassion. And I will betrothe you to me in faith and belief and reliance, and you will know God.

I remember when I first read this passage. I had just inherited my great-grandfather’s tefillin and I was sitting in my room trying to learn how to put them on correctly. At first, I thought I could just figure it out intuitively. When that didn’t generate a great deal of success, I pulled out my lap top and my Art Scroll. Open on my screen were diagrams for wrapping the tefillin, and I was carefully cross-checking my siddur for the appropriate order of actions and the blessings. I was completely engrossed in the particulars of how-to and was in the process of wrapping the leather bands around my arm rather perfunctorily when my eyes touched upon this last bit of text. My heart was stolen. In that moment, I forgot to continue wrapping the straps or to say the bracha. I dropped the leather and sat in wonder, marveling at the beauty of the text before me. Continue reading →

אמור

Posted on May 4, 2012 by Barer

In this week’s parsha, all the holidays are described in order (starting with Pesach). Immediately afterwards, the text details the rituals associated with the objects within the קודש, the Holy on the Mishkan and later the Temple. Mussaf Rashi, a compilation of scattered commentary attributed to Rashi, notes that this is a hint to the celebration of the holiday of Channukah from the Torah – and the Menorah is the first object detailed right after the rest of the (biblically prescribed) holidays. To modern ears, this sounds a little far-fetched, but Yosef Hayim Yerushalmi, in his book Zakhor, explains that Rashi is hardly unique in this way of relating to Jewish history:

On the whole, medieval Jewish chronicles tend to assimilate events to old and established conceptual frameworks. Persecution and suffering are, after all, the result of ancient sins. It is important to realize that there is also no real desire to find novelty in passing events. Quite to the contrary, there is a pronounced tendency to subsume even major new events to familiar archetypes…

Viewed in this light, it is understandably comforting to the father of medieval commentary to see the desecration of the Temple and the resultant Hasmonean victory as being anticipated in our parsha. This is a much more nuanced way of approaching Rashi, who, when making comments like this, is normally viewed as hyper-Orthodox and out of touch to the modern reader.

The new and the old:
The new, part of God’s intent;
The old, predicted

The Fow Ti’s special practice

Posted on May 1, 2012 by AdAm

First posted on my blog:

Every morning the Fow Ti would go out to a near by lake, and sit down with his feet in the water. In the winter the water would be cold, but still, he would stick his feet in the water. He would sit this way for some time before getting up and walking back to begin the rest of his day. He said that his feet were like fish, they needed to breathe in the water. He said that when one allows his feet to immerse themselves in water every day such a person will grow up thirsty for knowledge. He said that one who wears shoes all day and do not let one’s feet breathe will never be thirsty, and will never drink.

I wonder sometimes.

When I stand to pray my feet are united into one foot – like the angels. My feet are rooted in the ground, and even when I get lost in prayer my feet are always there to guide me back to where I am standing. I find this spiritual practice to be very helpful. It expands me. I can, at a single moment be in more than one place. My feet are on the ground as my head soars above – out of this world. And into places unknown. Or places known.

My feet are wet.

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