These and Those

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

Archive: November 2010

Rabbi Rabinowitz's Hannukah Blog

Posted on November 27, 2010 by Joel D.

http://youtu.be/J19Pfh0Mvaw

[Take 5] on Gratitude by Heena Reiter

Posted on November 27, 2010 by The Director of Digital Media

What I Learned at Pardes This Week #6

Posted on November 27, 2010 by Pious Antic

This is a cross-post from my personal blog. Earlier this week, in Judy Klitsner’s Bereshit class, we were looking at the issue of Noah’s naming. When he names him, his father Lemech explains the name, saying “this one will give us relief from our work and the toil of our ands from the land which Continue Reading »

Reckless youth?

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 »

[Student Profile] Kara & David "Bookie" Bookbinder

Posted on November 25, 2010 by David Bogomolny

Although they both hail from Los Angeles, Kara and David only met in college at UC Santa Barbara. As a child, Kara attended Christian Science church every week with her mother, but she became skeptical about religion as a teenager, and came to identify herself as culturally Jewish. David was raised in the Conservative Jewish movement, Continue Reading »

ירושלים של זהב

Posted on November 25, 2010 by Joel D.

Traipsing on the Tayelet I peered a curious & precious treasure. It caught, as queer contrivances often do, my one open eye. The other eye of course closed for causes inconceivable, Yet yearning as I do to quench my quizzical conquests I came upon it. Little & late was I for it was lost & Continue Reading »

פטישיזם

Posted on November 25, 2010 by Jean

Now Joseph was well built and handsome. After a time, his master’s wife cast her eyes upon Joseph and said, ‘Lie with me.’ But he refused… On such a day, he came into the house to do his work. None of the household being there inside, she caught hold of him by his garment and Continue Reading »

Parshat Vayeishev

Posted on November 24, 2010 by Francesca

My post at Uri L’Tzedek below: In Parshat Vayeishev, after Yosef is captured by his brothers and sold into slavery, the Torah digresses to the esoteric story of Tamar and Judah. After the death of Tamar’s husband Er, Judah’s firstborn, she marries Er’s younger brother Oran. When Onan also dies, Judah instructs Tamar to wait in Continue Reading »

Personal Reflection: Memorization

Posted on November 24, 2010 by Shibley

Memorization is a powerful tool. Usually we associate memorization with preparation for tests. I want to associate it with prayer. For now, I am going to leave aside the potential halakhic problems that may arise from memorizing prayer, which is fair game for a later post, and instead share my own memorization journey. Last year, Continue Reading »

וישב, vayeshev

Posted on November 24, 2010 by Avi Strausberg

in this week’s parsha, וישב, our attention focuses on yaakov’s slew of sons .  it seems there is something about yosef, the 11th son, whose very name’s is rooted in the word to add (אסף), that intensifies the experiences and emotions of those around him.  with yosef, you seem to either love him or hate Continue Reading »