Musings from Students of the Pardes Institute of Jewish Studies in Jerusalem
Posted on May 29, 2014 by AdAm Mayer
Here are my parting words from the final community lunch of the year:
גּלֵעינַי וְאִַבּיָטה נְִפָלאוֹת, ִמתּוָֹר ֶתָך“Roll open my eyes that I might look at wonders from your Torah.”
t’hilim 119:18 (Psalms)
And aren’t they wonderful!
Imagine you are making a kosher meatloaf. If one small piece of non-kosher ground meat falls into your kosher meatloaf, as long as the piece of non-kosher meat is less than 1/60 of the entire loaf, we render the loaf kosher.
Is this because the non-kosher meat is greatly diminished and now makes up less than 2% so we just don’t care about it anymore? 98.6% is kosher enough for me?
Or does this principle rabbincally obliterate the non-kosher crumbs and make them no more, rendering the meatloaf 100% kosher.
In other words: Are we living in an observe reality, or are we creating and recreating the reality in which we live?
For me, this question is a wonder – is wonderful.
גּלֵעינַי וְאִַבּיָטה נְִפָלאוֹת, ִמתּוָֹר ֶתָך“Roll open my eyes that I might look at wonders from your Torah.”
And I believe that each of us has had moments of wonder this year: in the beit midrash, in Israel.
For me, learning Torah, Hevruta study, Connection with Community and Spiritual Practice all contribute to my experiences of wonder.
I believe these things are why we had such a wonderful year at Pardes.
גּלֵעינַי וְאִַבּיָטה נְִפָלאוֹת, ִמתּוָֹר ֶתָך“Roll open my eyes that I might look at wonders from your Torah.”
Such wonders, such treasures of Torah that I never knew existed are now a part of who I am, as an individual and as part of the Jewish People.
And together, we have created the most amazing community with its foundation rooted strongly in Torah.
גּלֵעינַי וְאִַבּיָטה נְִפָלאוֹת, ִמתּוָֹר ֶתָך“Roll open my eyes that I might look at wonders from your Torah.”
I bless us all that we may utter this prayer every day, wherever we may live – that it give us strength to continue to reveal wonders of Torah -באשר הם שם- wherever they might be waiting for us.
גּלֵעינַי וְאִַבּיָטה נְִפָלאוֹת, ִמתּוָֹר ֶתָך“Roll open my eyes that I might look at wonders from your Torah.”
