Musings from Students of the Pardes Institute of Jewish Studies in Jerusalem
Posted on December 30, 2010 by Mosheh
The Psalmist is in love, with G-d, with his earthly lover, with being fully Alive.* The Prophet is intimately connected with the Divine Plan and with his community, he / she is deeply pained by our distance, fear, shame, inadequacy, and disconnect from our souls and the Divine Spirit. So he engages, she calls us Continue Reading »
Posted on December 30, 2010 by Mosheh
V’ahavta et Hashem elochecha!* How do you command love? Can you command love? Yes, actually you can. The command, however, is to listen (Shema!), and thus form a relationship. Have you ever really listened? I mean really, really, really listened? Have you ever really listened, really heard someone’s heart of hearts and not fallen in Continue Reading »
Posted on November 26, 2010 by Mosheh
We see a fascinating and at first glance disturbing pattern in Joseph’s life this week. He tells his brothers about multiple dreams where he is not only in a place of tremendous power and success, but where the brothers are in a place of subjugation. Could he not have left the latter part out? We Continue Reading »
Posted on October 28, 2010 by Mosheh
It’s been recently pointed out to me that there is a tradition of doing netilat yadayim (ritual hand washing and blessing) before prayer, just as we do before eating bread. Apparently, it is not so common for people to follow this custom, which is why I hadn’t noticed it before, but it does exist. Moreover, Continue Reading »
Posted on September 22, 2010 by Mosheh
Before coming to learn at Pardes I lived in Chicago for five years. Having moved from the suburbs of Detroit, I was quite taken aback by actually living in the ‘big city’ for the first time in my life. One of the things which really struck me was all the homeless people on the streets. Continue Reading »
Posted on May 13, 2010 by Mosheh
Hebrew has traditionally been written without vowels, allowing us freedom to make connection between different words with the same constantans but different pronunciations. Rabbi Elazar said in the name of Rabbi Hanina: “Scholars increase peace throughout the world” (and what is the scriptural proof of this?) for it is said in Isaiah: “All your children Continue Reading »
Posted on December 5, 2009 by Mosheh
One central aspect of religion and tradition is ritual. Regardless of one’s theological perspective on the meaning of religious ritual, ritual in and of itself plays a primary role in human life. People have both religious and not-necessarily-religious rituals for waking up, leisure time, family time, important life transitions (such as a bar mitzvah or Continue Reading »
Posted on November 9, 2009 by Mosheh
I just want to say one thing: I love our tradition. The following is commentary, so buckle in. I love our tradition because of the way it normalizes and honors imperfection – the real, as opposed to idealized, experience of our lives. We will start with examples in Halakhah and then move on to our Continue Reading »
