Musings from Students of the Pardes Institute of Jewish Studies in Jerusalem
Posted on September 6, 2011 by Avi Strausberg
parshat ki tetse brims with examples where the men make decisions that crucially impact the women, while their opinions are completely absent from the equation. in fact, their voices have been so successfully silenced, that often unless you were looking for them, you might not even notice they were missing in the first Continue Reading »
Posted on June 23, 2011 by Tamara Frankel
Dear Friends, The scene: the Pardes bet midrash. The time: Thursday afternoon, an hour or so after class dismissal. The players: a bunch of students and big pile of books. Oddly I find myself at home in this lonely place. The books and the buzz of learning, although minimal as it is “off season” Continue Reading »
Posted on June 21, 2011 by Avi Strausberg
in this week’s parsha, there is a fair amount of death. entire families are swallowed up by the earth. a raging fire consumes two hundred and fifty men. an infectious plague spreads wildly and kills fourteen thousand and seven hundred people. this is the price for challenging authority. these deaths are all in retaliation for Continue Reading »
Posted on June 10, 2011 by Avigail H-P
This year at Pardes, I volunteered at the Yaakov Maimon program, & I wrote 2 posts about it on my blog, which I’d like to share here: #1. volunteering. Dec. 21, 2010 in Jerusalem I have lots to learn about the Ethiopian immigration to Israel – and will likely start by reading this wikipedia article. Continue Reading »
Posted on April 11, 2011 by Avi Strausberg
i would’ve wanted more. two parshiot later after the death of aharon’s sons, parshat achrei mot, picks up at the moment following their deaths. back in parshat shimini, where we actually learn of the boys’ all-too-close encounter with foreign fire, God speaks directly to aharon in a rare moment of personal revelation. okay, at least Continue Reading »
Posted on April 2, 2011 by Tamara Frankel
Much ink has been spilled over the seemingly cryptic laws of ritual purity and the illness of tzaraat recounted in Parshat Tazria. Actually I learned this week from Chief Rabbi Jonathan Sacks (of the UK) that the original translation of the disease of as “leprosy”. This is a misnomer since the biblical disease of tzaraat Continue Reading »
Posted on March 18, 2011 by J. Belasco
Here are a few links to some writing by some of my favorite disability activists: This is a piece by Harriet McBryde Johnson, about her debate with Princeton philosopher Peter Singer (who believes that parents should be allowed to kill their disabled babies). This is the website of Laura Hershey, another activist who passed away Continue Reading »
Posted on February 8, 2011 by Avi Strausberg
in this week’s parsha, aharon is instructed to kindle lamps inside the אהל מעוד, the tent of meeting, to burn from evening until morning. each night, he must light the lights and each morning, he must put out their flames as a law for all generations. aharon, as the lamplighter of the jewish people, Continue Reading »
Posted on January 27, 2011 by Avi Strausberg
this week’s parsha entitled mishpatim translates to law in english. and this parsha is aptly titled as the bulk of the parsha is a long, long list of rules that it is quite easy to get lost in. topics covered include but are not limited to goring oxes, tunneling thieves, uncovered pits, and virgin-seducers. but, Continue Reading »
Posted on December 15, 2010 by Zach
After the overview of my Chanukkah break, I wanted to go into a bit more depth about one of my day excursions. A good friend of mine, Zak, a Palestinian Christian who owns a shop in the old city, and I were talking, and I mentioned that I wanted to see some of the West Continue Reading »
