Musings from Students of the Pardes Institute of Jewish Studies in Jerusalem
Posted on October 24, 2013 by Josh Pernick
Yes, that Avraham. The Jewish world has been afire in recent weeks with responses to the new Pew survey on American Jewish life which shows an increasing rate of secularism, intermarriage and the like within the Jewish community. In one of the more inflammatory responses, Gabriel Roth of Slate.com advises American Jews to “embrace your Continue Reading »
Posted on October 18, 2013 by Anna Pomson
Oh God said to Abraham, “Kill me a son” Abe says, “Man, you must be puttin’ me on” God say, “No.” Abe say, “What?” God say, “You can do what you want Abe, but The next time you see me comin’ you better run” Well Abe says, “Where do you want this killin’ done?” God Continue Reading »
Posted on October 15, 2013 by The Director of Digital Media
From my blog: You can’t really know me at this point and not know that I spent a summer in Uganda working for the American Jewish World Service or AJWS. If that’s the case, we should talk some more! AJWS is a non-profit organization supported mostly by American Jewry that works to realize human rights and Continue Reading »
Posted on October 13, 2013 by Hannah Joy
From my blog: This past week’s Torah portion, Lech Lecha, made me think of my own decision to take a year to study in Israel. The first verse reads as follows: וַיֹּאמֶר יְהוָה אֶל-אַבְרָם, לֶךְ-לְךָ מֵאַרְצְךָ וּמִמּוֹלַדְתְּךָ וּמִבֵּית אָבִיךָ, אֶל-הָאָרֶץ, אֲשֶׁר אַרְאֶךָּ. Vayomer Hashem el-Avram Lech Lecha me’artzecha umimoladetecha umibeit avicha el-ha’aretz asher ar’eka. “And Continue Reading »
Posted on October 10, 2013 by AdAm Mayer
So many of us are Searching – see ourselves somewhere along our Jewish Journey. This post-modern cultural phenomenon with which we are all too familiar, I would argue, is not a modern ‘phenomenon’, rather began in ~1948 (~1813 B.C.E.) with Avraham. Or to put it another way, Avraham was the first to successfully share his Continue Reading »
Posted on October 7, 2013 by The Director of Digital Media
From my blog: RELATIONSHIPS. Relationships with just anyone and relationships with Hashem. I’m hoping that if I sit down at the end of the day to try and process all of my thoughts and create a semi-coherent train of thought, it will help me to sort the things that I’ve learned and retain the information better. Continue Reading »
Posted on October 7, 2013 by Naomi Bilmes
(From the Pardes Opening Shabbaton): When I was a junior in college, I had to take a semester off from school. The reason? Stomach problems. I felt sick all of the time, I was gradually losing weight, and had lost all hope that the symptoms would ever abate. For an over-achiever like me, the decision Continue Reading »
Posted on October 6, 2013 by The Director of Digital Media
Daniel Shibley reflects: Our parasha last week, Noah, contains the famous story of the flood. However, I would like to focus instead on two words that border the flood narrative. The words in question appear in a number of other places in the Torah. More often than not, the appearance of these words is immediately Continue Reading »
Posted on October 6, 2013 by David Bogomolny
I presented this dvar at our Shabbaton yesterday: Parshat Noach contains one of my favorite Biblical stories: that of the Tower of Babel. Together with you, I’d like to tease a few details out of the p’shat (the simple reading of the text), explore two midrashim (early rabbinic exegesis), and suggest a metaphor for the Continue Reading »
Posted on October 3, 2013 by Andrea Wiese
I will be sharing this dvar Torah at the Pardes Shabbatonthis weekend – enjoy! Maybe everyone has read the parsha already, but if not, at the end there is a very short story of the Tower of Bavel. And they said: וַיֹּאמְרוּ הָבָה נִבְנֶה-לָּנוּ עִיר, וּמִגְדָּל וְרֹאשׁוֹ בַשָּׁמַיִם, וְנַעֲשֶׂה-לָּנוּ, שֵׁם: פֶּן-נָפוּץ, עַל-פְּנֵי כָל-הָאָרֶץ. ‘Come, let Continue Reading »
