Musings from Students of the Pardes Institute of Jewish Studies in Jerusalem
Posted on April 15, 2012 by Heligman
It is with excitement that we present the new and improved community davening policy. We hope that these new guidelines will create a more inclusive davening space that will support all members of the community and remain grounded within a halachic framework. Community Davening–A Halachic Partnership Minyan Policy: A minyan is defined as Continue Reading »
Posted on April 12, 2012 by David Bogomolny
Rob Murstein comes from a ‘very liturgical’ family; they attend Shabbat services every Friday evening, Saturday morning, and Saturday afternoon until havdalah. Rob’s father is a regular Torah reader at shul, his brother studied chazzanut with their cantor, and Rob himself read Torah at shul for the first time when he was six years old; and then again at Continue Reading »
Posted on April 6, 2012 by Derek Kwait
Long story short, I was accepted to be a Pardes Fellow next year, charged to be a leader in the community and run the blog while getting paid a generous stipend. Of course this is what I wanted to do, but the question keeping me up at night was whether or not it is what Continue Reading »
Posted on April 3, 2012 by David Bogomolny
I picked an amount of money to donate that was more than I felt comfortable donating, and I took the cash from the money that I’d put aside to pay for my Poland trip. I have enough funds available to me to cover my upcoming Poland adventure, but when I first decided to donate X Continue Reading »
Posted on March 30, 2012 by Barer
This week’s parsha continues to detail the different sacrifices, this time focusing on who can and cannot eat them. The second half of the parsha (ch. 8) moves from commandment to narrative (or sorts) as the text describes the actual anointing of Aharon and his sons as active priests. While the text is repetitive and Continue Reading »
Posted on March 26, 2012 by David Bogomolny
I committed myself to davening 3x per day with the beginning of the Pardes school year, and I’ve been pretty good about davening consistently since then. My commitment to myself was not simply to daven 3x per day – it was also to create a meaningful davening experience for myself, and I’m happy to say 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 23, 2012 by Barer
It is always hard exegetically to transition from Bereishit and Shmot to Vayikra (from Genesis and Exodus to Leviticus). However tough it might be to draw a message from repeated details about building the Mishkan (Tabernacle), it is nothing compared to the density of chapter after chapter detailing how much blood – from non-human animals Continue Reading »
Posted on March 21, 2012 by Esther Mazal
Since I lifted off from the Holy Land on February 23th, life has definitely been a whirlwind on what I affectionately like to refer to as “My Whirlwind North American Tour” (sounds snazzy, huh?). From New York City to Boston to Detroit (to Toronto for an impromptu drop-in in my hometown, then back to Detroit 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 »