These and Those

Musings from Students of the Pardes Institute of Jewish Studies in Jerusalem

Archive: June 2016

Shouting Down From the Women’s Balcony, a Latter-Day Yentl Discovers That Prayer is Protest

Posted on June 13, 2016 by Andrea Wiese

This article originally appeared on The Sisterhood blog on the Forward. I have always been adamant that my personal prayer was not a protest or a fight for something. Then a recent interaction with a rabbi — me on the women’s balcony, him down below in the men’s section — made me rethink my stance. Continue Reading »

[Alumni Post] Going Home.

Posted on November 30, 2014 by Andrea Wiese

לֶךְ לְךָ מֵאַרְצְךָ וּמִמּוֹלַדְתְּךָ וּמִבֵּית אָבִיךָ אֶל הָאָרֶץ אֲשֶׁר אַרְאֶךָּ: בראשית יב:א “Go forth from your land and from your birthplace and from your father’s house, to the land that I will show you.” Genesis 12:1. HaShem tells Avraham to leave his land, his birthplace, his father’s home and go to another land. HaShem continues Continue Reading »

[PCJE Graduation] Three are the Mamas

Posted on June 8, 2014 by Andrea Wiese

My PCJE graduation speech: My dvar Torah is based on “threes”…for example, As the third speaker, I have 3 minutes to sum up my three years at Pardes.  So let’s not waste any time. Four years ago when I came to Pardes for the first time, I sat in on Tovah Leah’s Personalizing Prayer class. Continue Reading »

What’s Chumash?

Posted on May 29, 2014 by Andrea Wiese

Here are my parting words from the final community lunch of the year: I don’t know if you remember, but at the beginning of the year, we all had meetings with our morning class teachers. Three years ago, my meeting was with Rav Meir… I’m sure you could imagine. Him smiling, his arms crossed, leaning Continue Reading »

Finding Self in Love & Torah

Posted on May 18, 2014 by Andrea Wiese

My dvar Torah from the Final 2013-14 Shabbaton: In Leviticus 26:42 (ויקרא כו:מב): וְזָכַרְתִּי, אֶת-בְּרִיתִי יַעֲקוֹב; וְאַף אֶת-בְּרִיתִי יִצְחָק וְאַף אֶת-בְּרִיתִי אַבְרָהָם I will remember the brit of Yakov, even the brit of Yitzchak, and even the brit of Avraham. What I want to focus on here is that the text doesn’t just say Avot… it Continue Reading »

A Grey Kotel

Posted on May 9, 2014 by Andrea Wiese

I originally posted this on the Grey Zone Blog: I have felt to be in a Grey Zone before. There have been times that I felt that I didn’t fit in. But last Rosh Chodesh at the Kotel with Women of the Wall may have made me feel to be in the “greyest” zone of Continue Reading »

Judy visits JDS

Posted on March 26, 2014 by Andrea Wiese

From my blog: I was lucky that my faculty check in during student teaching landed right in the middle of my student teaching. It is really easy to get overwhelmed (especially as a second year, in my case third) with teaching, but also interviewing and juggling life. Not only was Judy a great observer and Continue Reading »

JDS hockey team plays Israel!

Posted on March 12, 2014 by Andrea Wiese

From my blog: Last night, after school, I went with the Director of Jewish Life and her five year old son to watch a hockey game between JDS (the school where I’m doing my student teaching) and Israel. I didn’t know that Israel had a youth hockey team, but they were touring DC all the Continue Reading »

First day of student “teaching”

Posted on March 11, 2014 by Andrea Wiese

From my blog: I put teaching in quotations because even though it was my first day at Charles E. Smith Jewish Day School (JDS for short) in Rockville, Maryland, I definitely didn’t teach. I observed, a lot.

Best dad in the world.

Posted on March 4, 2014 by Andrea Wiese

From my blog: Last Thursday I received an email from my dad. (This is normal, we email a lot.) The email said, “i am getting plates and bowls for you, do you need separate silverware? please let me know your dietary needs. what do you want to eat while you are here? what can you Continue Reading »