Musings from Students of the Pardes Institute of Jewish Studies in Jerusalem
Posted on August 26, 2012 by Derek Kwait
This week was my last back at my shul Young People’s Synagogue, which last year, raised around $7,000 to send me to Pardes for a year. Yesterday, I delivered this speech to let them know how their investment turned out. So, how have you all been? For those who don’t know, from September through the Continue Reading »
Posted on April 19, 2012 by Barer
This testimonial was written by Pardes alumnus Daniel Schwartz (Year ’10-’11): Jeff’s reaction to Orthodox Paradox? Noah Feldman had been too easy on the yeshivas of his youth. I can’t help but look back on the bulk of my yeshiva education with bitterness. My teachers smoothed over all the tensions that animate contemporary Judaism, petrifying Continue Reading »
Posted on January 31, 2012 by Barer
[Cross posted from my blog] Last week at Pardes marked the end of a four-part lecture series given by professor James Kugel, one of the preeminent scholars of the Bible alive today. He painted an extremely interesting picture in answering the question that titled the lectures: Has Modern Biblical Scholarship Killed the Bible? The lectures Continue Reading »
Posted on January 27, 2012 by Derek Kwait
(X-posted from my home blog, Yinzer in Yerushalayim) Despite popular belief, the Creation narrative in the Bible does not depict creatio ex nihilo, a creation of something out of nothing, or יש מאין (yeish mayain), as we say in Hebrew. In fact, as even the most cursory glance at Genesis 1 will tell you, before Continue Reading »
Posted on January 8, 2012 by Derek Kwait
After getting over Hevron, the subject on everyone’s minds and lips all last week was the craziness in Beit Shemesh. I was going to write this blog post with a lot of complaints about how more people aren’t speaking out against this behavior, but since I could have attended the protest and did not, perhaps Continue Reading »
Posted on November 9, 2011 by Barer
This is PEP student Rabbi Julie Gordon‘s presentation on her theological views presented today in Zvi’s Critical Issues in Modern Jewish Thought class, responding to the following questions: Where does the Torah come from? What is God’s role, if any? And how do you deal with the challenges of biblical criticism? What authority does the Continue Reading »
