Musings from Students of the Pardes Institute of Jewish Studies in Jerusalem
Posted on June 6, 2014 by AdAm Mayer
My PCJE graduation speech:
Thank you to all of my most amazing and wonderful peers and colleagues. You all have inspired me and taught me so much! Thank you to Judy, Gail, and all the incredible and supportive faculty, mentors and teachers at Pardes! You are true enablers! And Thank you to my wife Chana for supporting me along the way, taking care of our family, and for coming on this adventure to the U.S.
My passion for teaching comes from my excitement for learning, which comes from my love for living.
(אבות ד:ו) רבי ישמעאל אומר, הלומד תורה על מנת ללמד, מספיקין בידו ללמוד וללמד. והלומד על מנת לעשות, מספיקין בידו ללמוד וללמד לשמור ולעשות.Rabbi Yishmael taught: one who learns Torah in order to teach is then able to learn and teach. But one who learns Torah in order to fulfill it- is then able to learn, to teach, to keep and to fulfill.
As we continue on our paths as Jewish educators, One of the most important things we can do is to keep on learning. We must be lifelong learners.
And our learning MUST always help us to better understand God, ourselves and the world around us that is what will lead us to learn in order to fulfill. ללמוד ע”מ ללמד
That’s what made our time at Pardes so amazing we were learning all day long!
And now, thanks to our years at Pardes we have the skills and inspiration to learn, to teach and to relate to every Jewish text.
As we continue to learn, there will be times when we do so because that is our job ללמוד ע”מ ללמד
BUT more importantly, we must create the time to do so because that is who we are! ללמוד ע”מ לעשות
My final words of thanks are to my teacher and mentor of the past 7 years, and the next 47 years ב’ה, Rav Daniel Landes, The Rosh Yeshiva of Pardes, My Rav and my model for ללמוד ע”מ לעשות.
