Musings from Students of the Pardes Institute of Jewish Studies in Jerusalem
Posted on October 31, 2012 by Eric Feldman
From my blog: After months of putting it off, I finally made it down to Ein Gedi last Friday. I went with some friends from college park, and we left at 4:30 am to drive down to the hike. As we were passing the dead sea on the drive down, I looked out the car Continue Reading »
Posted on October 9, 2012 by Laura Marder
Do you ever feel like there is a cage around you? Like you can carry it around but sometimes it gets heavy and tires you down. Perhaps it restrains you from moving in a comfortable way or running to what you really desire. I hadn’t really thought of myself in a cage at all before Continue Reading »
Posted on September 9, 2012 by The Director of Digital Media
by Andrew Lustig, Year Program 5772 Just send me back to Pardes. Please, please, please. I promise I’ll learn at Night Sedar every week. And I won’t take a lot of bathroom breaks. And I wont distract my friends. And I wont use conversations with Robby and Donna and Joanne as clever ways to get Continue Reading »
Posted on May 30, 2012 by Andrew Lustig
Originally posted on the Masa Blog: I came to Israel – to the Pardes Institute for Jewish Studies – 10 months ago, so that I could study and become familiar with Jewish text. I wanted very much to live a ‘Jewish life.’ I just didn’t know what that entailed or meant. Judaism, for Continue Reading »
Posted on May 14, 2012 by Derek Kwait
(Mostly X-posted from my home blog, Yinzer in Yerushalayim) The weekend before last was the retreat Shabbaton for Self, Soul, and Text class at Kibbutz Hanaton, our teacher James’ home, in the Galil. The schedules Friday and Saturday were nearly identical, each day going like: 9-9:45: Sit. 9:45-10:30: Walk. 10:30-11:15: Sit. 11:15-12:30: Lunch. 12:30-1:15-Sit. It Continue Reading »
Posted on May 7, 2012 by Derek Kwait
(X-posted from my home blog, Yinzer in Yerushalayim) I came to Israel wanting to learn Torah, and I have. Thank God, I’ve learned tons of Torah here and am privileged to learn more each day. But now that it’s May and I’m entering into the home stretch of my first year in Israel, I’ve gotten Continue Reading »
Posted on March 25, 2012 by Derek Kwait
(X-posted from my home blog, Yinzer in Yerushalayim) Sunday night Pardes made history as the first yeshiva ever to host the launching event for a new edition of the New Testament. The Jewish Annotated New Testament, co-edited by friend of Pardes and Gene Wilder look-alike, Mark Z. Brettler, is actually a lot like the original Continue Reading »
Posted on March 14, 2012 by Heligman
Last December I attended the first of a series of Meditation Retreats in Hannaton (co-led by Pardes faculty member James Jacobson-Maisels). It’s been about 2 months now since experiencing the awakened state of being that defines “Retreat”. I call it an awakened state because the sensitivity you develop during these retreats can be described in Continue Reading »
Posted on February 21, 2012 by David Bogomolny
Dear G-d, I’m going to write to You now to review our shared experience of the last hour. I preceded my hitbodidut discussion with a quiet meditation in the yard by my apartment. I meditated for twenty five minutes or so, and I was very pleased to find that my alarm signaled the end of Continue Reading »
Posted on February 7, 2012 by David Bogomolny
He was sitting at a cafe in Jerusalem, typing on his laptop. He had meditated for only the third time ever that same evening, and he was ready to write about the experience, but he wasn’t sure where to begin. He was overwhelmed. Life had changed for him recently, and change, especially drastic, transatlantic, soul-searching Continue Reading »