Musings from Students of the Pardes Institute of Jewish Studies in Jerusalem
Posted on May 28, 2019 by Branden Charles Johnson
This has been the most difficult blog post to write this year. As I type these words, I can’t even believe they’re describing reality. That we just returned from the final Shabbaton of our year at Pardes feels like the awkward punchline to a joke someone told back in September. “This year is going to Continue Reading »
Posted on May 20, 2016 by Elana Weiner
It was one of those days at Pardes on the moon. It was a lazy, unfocused kind of day and everyone in the Beit Midrash was bitulin Torah, even Shmeir Meiger. He just couldn’t focus—the thunder outside was deafening, every time he looked at his page of Gemara, a flash of lightning would distract him and he’d lose Continue Reading »
Posted on March 8, 2016 by Melinda Jones
Every Friday is a rush in my family. Everyone runs backwards and forwards getting ready for Shabbat. In order to have a peaceful and relaxing Shabbat, it seems we need to have lots of stress and much too much shouting. So nothing makes the point of having a day of rest better than that moment when we light candles Continue Reading »
Posted on January 18, 2016 by Rachel Cohn
Our rabbis say that on shabbat we receive an extra soul. This shabbat, I learned what it looks like when a whole community gets an extra soul. We spent this shabbat davening, singing, eating, and offering “l’chaim”s with members of the Ortokay synagogue in Istanbul. What made this shabbat particularly special, however, was the way Continue Reading »
Posted on March 30, 2015 by Ariela Haim
Today was our 5th day in Istanbul with the warm and welcoming Turkish Jewish community. For the majority of us, it was our first Shabbat in Istanbul and a rather interesting experience considering that the majority of us were also not familiar with Sephardi prayer services and keeping Shabbat without an eruv. But despite these Continue Reading »
Posted on January 28, 2015 by Nate Goldman
From our trip to Poland, we definitely had our share of sad sights. Through the five days of our tour of the country we visited countless ghettos, camps, and graves. The stories about life as a Jew during the Shoah were tragic and horrifying. Other stories, like the Warsaw Ghetto Uprising, seemed heroic. Seeing Schindler’s Continue Reading »
Posted on October 2, 2014 by Binyamin Cohen
This year Yom Kippur falls on Shabbat: the two holiest days in the Jewish calendar at the same time. However, the ethos of Yom Kippur and the ethos of Shabbat are contradictory. How do we negotiate these differences, and how do we find compromise between them? Before we answer those questions, we must first address Continue Reading »
Posted on September 29, 2014 by Binyamin Cohen
Night Seder Chevrutas Binyamin Cohen and David Wallach join together to reflect on this week’s parshah. דְּבָרִים לב:א “הַאֲזִינוּ הַשָּׁמַיִם, וַאֲדַבֵּרָה; וְתִשְׁמַע הָאָרֶץ, אִמְרֵי-פִי.” “Listen heaven, and I will speak! Earth, hear the words of my mouth.” Ha’azinu is an interesting parsha, both in structure and in language. The parsha is presented in the Torah Continue Reading »
Posted on September 28, 2014 by Ariella Siegel
From my blog: 9/22/14 (Pictures below!) This past weekend was the first shabbaton, or retreat, of the year with school. It was a really nice way of getting to know people outside of the school environment (which can be intense). Looking at our very scheduled weekend, I was concerned I wouldn’t have enough time for Continue Reading »
Posted on September 22, 2014 by Sarah Marx
In the last week, hovering on the edge of Rosh Hashanah, I’ve heard and sung songs that shook me to my core. In the coming weeks, I’ll be faced with many more – liturgy for the High Holidays, its passion and fear barely contained by the melodies’ majesty, or zemirot sung around the Shabbat table. Continue Reading »
