These and Those

Musings from Students of the Pardes Institute of Jewish Studies in Jerusalem

Tag Archives: Parsha / Parasha

וזאת הברכה, ve’zot ha’bracha

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 »

האזינו, ha’azinu

Posted on October 2, 2011 by Avi Strausberg

the language of parshat ha’azinu seems to be in a poetic world of its own, amidst the torah verses that surround it.  a prophetic moshe, nearing the end of both his journey and his life, spews forth a mixture of his own words with God’s in another rage against the people’s disobedience. according to moshe, Continue Reading »

וילך/נצבים, va’yelech/nitzavim

Posted on September 25, 2011 by Avi Strausberg

in this week’s double parsha nitzavim and va’yelech, we edge closer and closer to our separation with moshe and our coming together in the land of israel.  as God runs through His final instructions with moshe, He reveals that no sooner than moshe dies and the people enter the land, they are going to sin, Continue Reading »

[PEP Student] Parshat Nitzavim-Vayelech: Double Hitter

Posted on September 23, 2011 by Tamara Frankel

Dear Friends, I hope you are all well. For those of you who don’t know, I had a computer “emergency” last week – my laptop fell at school and I had to replace my hard drive. So due to technical difficulties, no dvar Torah last week. My apologies. Trust me, I wish I would have Continue Reading »

נצבים

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 »

כי תבא, ki tavo

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 »

כי תצא

Posted on September 8, 2011 by Barer

This week’s parsha contains a panoply of laws, customs, and rituals, in no readily ascertainable order.  Given the mixed nature of the parsha, a theme is harder to come by than in most weeks.  I want to focus on a repeated phrase appearing in connection to a number of the negative commandments that I think Continue Reading »

Psalm 27: A Personal Reflection II

Posted on September 8, 2011 by Shibley

With the onset of Rosh Hodesh Elul, we will begin the twice daily recitation of Psalm 27, along with the daily blasts of the shofar. Sephardic communities begin the recitation of slichot (liturgical poems for forgiveness), and the gradual ascension from Tisha b’Av to Rosha Hashana increases its gradient. As such, I thought it would Continue Reading »

כי תצא, ki tetse

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 »

שופטים, shoftim

Posted on September 6, 2011 by Avi Strausberg

in this week’s parshat shoftim, moshe ensures the people that he will not be the last prophet to walk among them and speak the word of God.  rather, God will raise up another prophet to serve as a guide for the people, placing His words in his mouth and acting through him. for forty years, Continue Reading »