Musings from Students of the Pardes Institute of Jewish Studies in Jerusalem
Posted on September 23, 2011 by Derek Kwait
(X-posted to my home blog Yinzer in Yerushalayim on the side column.)
I can’t write about last weekend’s Shabbaton at the Beit Yehuda Hostel in the southwest of Jerusalem. To properly capture an experience so jam-packed and uplifting, with so much bonding, learning, singing, eating, hiking, swimming, laughing, I would need to write a song or a poem about it, but fortunately for you, I am not going to try since I’m terrible at both. Instead, I’ll try to show it through an experience.
When we first got to the hostel (though it was really a resort) Thursday night, we went for a small hike to see the sunset over the Judean Hills. Imagine the group in the top picture singing these two* songs** while looking at something like the Jerusalem sunset in the bottom only 10,000 times more spectacular.
Then you might know what the whole weekend was like.
* “The Lord is my strength and my song, He has become my salvation,” Exodus 15:2, from the Song at the Sea.
** “It is good to give thanks to the Lord, to sing of your kindness in the morning and your faithfulness in the nights,” from Psalm 92:1-2.
(Hat-tip to Evan Remer for the photos.)
