Musings from Students of the Pardes Institute of Jewish Studies in Jerusalem
Posted on November 16, 2011 by Derek Kwait
(X-posted from my home blog, Yinzer in Yerushalayim) My Bubbie died Tuesday morning. The funeral will be Friday. As I am in Israel, I will not be able mourn with my family or attend. But this is life, this is what happens. It was not a shock, she had been sick for about a month Continue Reading »
Posted on November 11, 2011 by Derek Kwait
(X-posted from my home blog, Yinzer in Yerushalayim) This was a dark week in Israel. As it happens, the anniversaries of both Yitzhak Rabin‘s assassination and Kristallnacht fall this week, and at Pardes, we had presentations on both. Tuesday, during Group Lecture, two of our rabbis discussed the impact the assassination had on them. Rabin’s Continue Reading »
Posted on November 5, 2011 by Derek Kwait
(X-posted from my home blog, Yinzer in Yerushalayim) It’s finally hoodie weather here in Jerusalem. It had been getting progressively cooler each day for the past two weeks–at first, it was just cold at night, but this week, for the first time, I needed to wear a hoodie any time I went outside, even in Continue Reading »
Posted on October 29, 2011 by Derek Kwait
Ever since I’ve arrived here there’s been stuff I wanted to talk about but just didn’t have room for in that week’s blog post. Since this was a relatively slow week, I thought this would be a good opportunity to share some of them, but I’ll start with the biggest story from this week: *So Continue Reading »
Posted on October 29, 2011 by Derek Kwait
Once upon a time, a Middle-Eastern nation wanted to build a tower with its top in the heavens to make a name for itself. This tower would be a powerful monument to their civilization’s unsurpassed greatness and modernity. They even refused to announce what the final height of the building would be until it was Continue Reading »
Posted on October 25, 2011 by Derek Kwait
(X-posted from my home blog Yinzer in Yerushalayim) We had all of Sukkot off, plus 3 days, making for 2 weeks of free time. Many of my peers went on trips through the country of went camping. While I didn’t do either of those, I had an adventurous holiday nonetheless. The adventure started before Sukkot Continue Reading »
Posted on October 22, 2011 by Derek Kwait
Originally posted on Yinzer in Yerushalayim for Sukkot (6 days ago): My Mishna teacher had our class over for a party in the sukkah last night. I gave the d’var and thought I would share a slightly modified version of it with you: I remember last year, a member of my synagogue remarked that whereas the Continue Reading »
Posted on October 12, 2011 by Derek Kwait
(X-posted from my home blog Yinzer in Yerushalayim) There is nothing like Yom Kippur in Israel. During a community guest lecture about 2 weeks ago, Jeremy Benstein, director of the Heschel Center gave us a chart showing Israeli energy usage hour-by-hour during Yom Kippur, it virtually flat-lines For 25 hours, the entire country shuts down. Continue Reading »
Posted on October 7, 2011 by Derek Kwait
(X-posted to my home blog, Yinzer in Yerushalayim,) Rosh HaShana was amazing. The services at Yedidya (which is a lot like YPS except much bigger, and, frankly, younger) were filled with singing and soul, and I got to attend lots of fantastic meals– in terms of both food and company–at the homes of a Pardes Continue Reading »
Posted on September 28, 2011 by Derek Kwait
(X-posted to my home blog, Yinzer in Yerushalayim.) Just after I posted last Friday, it all hit the fan. The entire day post-posting forced it to hit home in a big way for the first time that I really am in a foreign country now. It is also when I fell in love, twice over. Continue Reading »
