Musings from Students of the Pardes Institute of Jewish Studies in Jerusalem
Posted on April 24, 2015 by Shira Sacks
Following the Yom Ha’atzmaut ceremony at a Jerusalem elementary school (affiliated with the national religious, or Dati Leumi, movement), I sat in a processing session at Pardes. I told my teacher how I had been feeling blank, seemingly without much emotion or intellection since Yom HaShoah the previous week, and how this was atypical for Continue Reading »
Posted on April 21, 2015 by Michael Sager
67 years ago, May 15th 1948, David Ben Gurion declared the independent state of Israel. There were 600,000 Jews. There should have been more. But 6 million were killed by the Nazis. Many of these could have been saved. But the British closed the gates, fearing Palestinian Arab violence if Jews were let into Palestine. Continue Reading »
Posted on April 21, 2015 by David Curiel
Yesterday’s was a quiet early morning walk through the Old City. Shops weren’t yet open. The sun was peeking through the haze just enough to make the covered sections of walkway seem black. Hardly anyone was about, but there were two women just ahead of me, talking animatedly in Hebrew. When they got to the Continue Reading »
Posted on March 23, 2015 by Geo Poor
My favorite service of the whole year is Hallel, a special service we add to certain holidays and to the seder. Hallel has a strange structure. It starts out by saying we are commanded to praise God. Why would be commanded to praise? Does praise really even count if it is not done by choice? Continue Reading »
Posted on March 15, 2015 by Jacob Haas
Below is a Dvar I wrote for Moishe House. As Pardes and Moishe House have a new partnership I thought it would appropriate to share this with the Pardes community as well. “This is the decree (Hok) of the Torah, which God has commanded, saying: Speak to the Children of Israel, and they Continue Reading »
Posted on February 17, 2015 by Derek Kwait
Derek Kwait is an alumni from Pardes (Year 11-12, Fellow 12-13), former editor of These and Those, and currently the editor of the magazine New Voices. DLK said the atmosphere felt just like his bar mitzvah except he liked everyone there. Meesh, in a more positive formulation, said it felt like her wedding. For me, Continue Reading »
Posted on February 11, 2015 by Mollie Feldman
This week’s parasha, Mishpatim, is essentially a long list of laws laid out for the Jewish people following the revelation at Sinai. Often, the laws seem understandable (if a man leaves their animal with a neighbor for safekeeping and the animal is killed/hurt/disappears, the neighbor must make an oath that he had no hand in Continue Reading »
Posted on February 6, 2015 by Daniella Adler
In this week’s parsha, פרשת יתרו, God tells Moshe ואתם תהיו–לי ממלכת כהנים וגוי קדוש, “and you will be to Me a kingdom of priests and a holy nation” (Exodus 19:6). What does this statement mean?
Posted on January 9, 2015 by Elana Shilling
As I write this D’var Torah, it is nearly noon on Wednesday January 7th. A storm is coming… Pardes and the rest of Jerusalem educational institutions are closed. The roads in and out of Jerusalem have been closed in anticipation of motorists getting stuck. Emergency vehicles are on standby as are 150 snowplows.
Posted on January 8, 2015 by Suzanne Hutt
This week’s parsha, Shemot, is the first in the Book of Exodus. It tells of the beginning of Moshe’s life and the story of Passover. In the beginning of the parsha, we hear of Pharoah’s evil decree, in which he commands the midwives to kill all of the male Hebrew babies. The midwives, however, do Continue Reading »
