Musings from Students of the Pardes Institute of Jewish Studies in Jerusalem
Posted on February 4, 2013 by Andrea Wiese
One thing that is very real lately at Pardes is the Jewish life cycle; particularly, the end. Last week many students traveled to Alon Shvut to support Zvi Hirschfield at the funeral of his father. And just last night, many students and people from the community gathered in the Beit Midrash for an azkara or a type Continue Reading »
Posted on January 29, 2013 by The Director of Digital Media
From Alissa Thomas’ (Spring ’11) S Blog: Teshuvah is a lifelong work in progress. Every year during Elul and the Yamim Noraim, I find myself digging deep into the process of teshuvah. I think to myself that I would love to feel such an intense spiritual desire toward growth and tikkun year-round. But each year after the chagim pass and I get more entrenched Continue Reading »
Posted on January 28, 2013 by Avi Benson-Goldberg
(Part 1, Part 2, Part 3) It’s been quite a long time since we last checked in. As you might recall, in parts one and two, we looked at what Meir and Rahel had to say about praying. The arrangement of the shiur was fascinating, because we heard first from a very capable prayer, and Continue Reading »
Posted on January 27, 2013 by Laura H.
Dear Marla and Ben: I feel connected to you even though I never knew you. The moment that you were killed was a powerful moment in my own personal narrative relating to Israel. I was scheduled to come to Israel for a semester of high school in the fall of 2002. All summer, I was Continue Reading »
Posted on January 24, 2013 by The Director of Digital Media
Rochel Joanna Czopnik (Year ’05, PEP ’07) shares the story of how she ended up back in Poland after graduating from the Pardes Educators Program (PEP): After graduating from PEP, I was scared and quite anxious about my first job. I moved to Baltimore and for the first time was to live in the US Continue Reading »
Posted on January 23, 2013 by The Director of Digital Media
The semester I spent at Pardes was among the most important periods of personal growth that I’ve ever had. Upon my return to the US, when family or friends would ask about it, I could only create impressions of how I had grown or what I had truly learned. I would say, “imagine six months Continue Reading »
Posted on January 21, 2013 by Naomi Bilmes
From my blog, posted after the Arava Tiyul: One year ago, I was about to take a semester off from college. I was the thinnest I had ever been; I could no longer run or bike; the slightest bit of yoga made me dizzy. My stomach twisted and turned every day, and I hated my Continue Reading »
Posted on January 19, 2013 by Ma'ayan Dyer
From my blog: After seven months in the States, living a solitary Jewish lifestyle (meaning, an incredibly hollow one, sans community), day after day of ten hour shifts of packing candy on assembly lines, sitting on my tuchus in a call center selling fruit baskets and truffles to rich elderly folks, and waitressing a few Continue Reading »
Posted on January 19, 2013 by Naomi Bilmes
From my blog: (written two days ago) So, last night, I sat around a crackling fire with a group of religious people chanting incantations in ancient languages while passing around a hand-carved knife and letting the blood from our left pinkie fingers drip over the hot, scalding flames… Okay, that was an exaggeration. But I Continue Reading »
Posted on January 17, 2013 by The Director of Digital Media
A thought about halakha by Jeremy Sorgen (Spring ’11): When one cooks for another, one cooks with love. Cooking becomes an act of devotion and the food tastes better because it is made with a key ingredient: care. One must strive to do everything this way, that is, as a means of expressing love. Devotion Continue Reading »
