Musings from Students of the Pardes Institute of Jewish Studies in Jerusalem
Posted on May 3, 2012 by David Bogomolny
This is an additional thought I had about ‘mindful eating’. I’ve been running my tongue along whatever food items I’ve been using during my practices, pausing to enjoy their shapes and textures, and I’ve noticed that my mouth automatically reacts to food by filling with saliva and pushing the bits with my tongue against the Continue Reading »
Posted on April 30, 2012 by David Bogomolny
The dancing activity brought up some interesting issues for me, which I haven’t entirely sorted through. I was dancing alone in a corner for the duration of three dances, and I felt very free to move about as I wanted to. I had my eyes closed for much of the time, and I was focused Continue Reading »
Posted on April 23, 2012 by David Bogomolny
The practice of visualizing Hashem is not very powerful for me; I strongly prefer to have no image of the Divine. When I focused upon visualizing a particular character trait, I saw an image of a woman that I have romantic feelings for. I believe this has something to do with being motivated to be Continue Reading »
Posted on April 17, 2012 by David Bogomolny
The Tachanun practice that we learned in class has shaped my daily davening. It took my a few minutes in class to take the practice seriously – to really relate to the idea of being dead, rather than just playing dead – but after a while, I was able to see my mat as a Continue Reading »
Posted on April 12, 2012 by David Bogomolny
Rob Murstein comes from a ‘very liturgical’ family; they attend Shabbat services every Friday evening, Saturday morning, and Saturday afternoon until havdalah. Rob’s father is a regular Torah reader at shul, his brother studied chazzanut with their cantor, and Rob himself read Torah at shul for the first time when he was six years old; and then again at Continue Reading »
Posted on April 10, 2012 by David Bogomolny
The ‘desire’ exercise was, at first, relatively comfortable, illuminating and affirming for me. I came to the conclusion that my ‘deepest’ desire to be accepted as myself (both by myself and by others). Having thought about this further, I think this desire ties into a defining feeling I live with, which I call ‘existential loneliness’ Continue Reading »
Posted on April 3, 2012 by David Bogomolny
I picked an amount of money to donate that was more than I felt comfortable donating, and I took the cash from the money that I’d put aside to pay for my Poland trip. I have enough funds available to me to cover my upcoming Poland adventure, but when I first decided to donate X Continue Reading »
Posted on March 26, 2012 by David Bogomolny
I committed myself to davening 3x per day with the beginning of the Pardes school year, and I’ve been pretty good about davening consistently since then. My commitment to myself was not simply to daven 3x per day – it was also to create a meaningful davening experience for myself, and I’m happy to say Continue Reading »
Posted on March 20, 2012 by David Bogomolny
My mother tells me that when I was a child, I would stand on the perimeter of the playground, mouth agape, watching the children play with one another. She’d have to nudge me towards them before I’d move. In retrospect, I think I went through my childhood feeling overwhelmed by sensory and emotional inputs. Every Continue Reading »
Posted on March 13, 2012 by David Bogomolny
I spent last Shabbat at Rabbi Shlomo Carlebach’s moshav near the city of Modi’in, where my grandparents and other close family members live. This Shabbaton was particularly convenient for me because it allowed me to visit my family without worrying about rushing back to J’lem for Shabbat (especially during the winter). It was also quite Continue Reading »
