Musings from Students of the Pardes Institute of Jewish Studies in Jerusalem
Posted on November 19, 2011 by Soffer
Posted at Darkeynu just before Shabbat: One of my favorite parts of camp is the Learner’s Minyan every Shabbat morning. In addition to the special community that we build, it also affords us a zman kavua (set time) to really struggle with fundamental questions about prayer. This summer, each week we discussed a different question Continue Reading »
Posted on November 17, 2011 by Barer
This week’s parsha, with bookends describing the death of Sarah and the other descendents of Avraham and the descendents Yishma’el, deals mainly with the mission of Avraham’s servant to find a wife for Yitzchak. Reading the text, I was struck by how repetitive the story is. First, Avraham tells his servant what to do in 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 »
Posted on November 8, 2011 by Heligman
Too often the shades of our life are drawn and God’s magnificent colors are missed. I am taking on this project as a means to stop and enjoy God’s brilliance. For the month of November, each day I will document the evening sunset from the Pardes Beit Midrash. I hope you will stop and notice Continue Reading »
Posted on October 31, 2011 by Heligman
Too often the shades of our life are drawn and God’s magnificent colors are missed. I am taking on this project as a means to stop and enjoy God’s brilliance. For the month of November, each day I will document the evening sunset from the Pardes Beit Midrash. I hope you will stop and notice Continue Reading »
Posted on October 24, 2011 by Suzi
I wrote this last Friday, after Sukkot: Someone dear to me used to say I saw the big picture bigger and the details as if through a microscope, but couldn’t see the real world as it exists in front of me. Is that why I set off happily for the shuk today, oblivious to the Continue Reading »
Posted on October 22, 2011 by Derek Kwait
Originally posted on Yinzer in Yerushalayim for Sukkot (6 days ago): My Mishna teacher had our class over for a party in the sukkah last night. I gave the d’var and thought I would share a slightly modified version of it with you: I remember last year, a member of my synagogue remarked that whereas the Continue Reading »
Posted on October 4, 2011 by Avi Strausberg
this week’s ve’zot ha’bracha, in which moshe blesses each of the tribes individually and makes his final good-byes, marks the closing parsha of our yearly torah cycle. he then hikes up to the top of mount nevo where God shows him the entirety of the land that was once promised to abraham, isaac, and jacob. after Continue Reading »
Posted on September 22, 2011 by Barer
This week’s parsha is a short one (though on non-leap years it is read in conjunction with the next parsha), that reads more as a concluding statement on all of the activity of last week’s blessings-and-curses-filled parsha than anything else. A number of famous refrains are in this parsha, most notably the idea that the Continue Reading »
Posted on September 20, 2011 by Avi Strausberg
parshat ki tavo, in which God reveals His master plan of divine reward and punishment, is a doozy to read. and by doozy, i mean incredibly difficult and theologically challenging. God unleases a litany of curses that will befall the israelites if they fail to obey the covenant. and lest you think “hey, this curse Continue Reading »
