Musings from Students of the Pardes Institute of Jewish Studies in Jerusalem
Posted on November 20, 2011 by Barer
Naomi grew up in a Modern Orthodox community in South Miami, where her family helped found a Young Israel. She was immersed in Judaism from a young age – shul, day school, day camp – but rarely in a community as diverse as Pardes. It is in a Modern Orthodox community that Naomi feels most Continue Reading »
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 3, 2011 by Barer
This week’s parsha contains many famous and thought-provoking stories, but I would like to focus on what I see as an emerging motif in the Rashbam, where he criticizes his grandfather’s reading of a verse before offering an alternate interpretation which he sees as sticking more closely to the pshat, the simple reading of the Continue Reading »
Posted on October 28, 2011 by Barer
The end of this week’s parsha, like last week’s, details the lineages leading to the main protagonists of Bereishit, mainly those of Noach’s children. Unsurprisingly, for those who know the story that comes next, the lineages rush through the generations in between Noach and Avram and then slow down just in time to talk about Continue Reading »
Posted on June 24, 2011 by Barer
[Cross-posted from my blog, where you can find a parsha haiku every week] Reading this week’s parsha with Rashi brought up an interesting point for me, one to do with how the early commentators read the text more than with the topic of this week’s parsha specifically (the haiku reflects the theme of the parsha). Continue Reading »
Posted on June 21, 2011 by Avi Strausberg
in this week’s parsha, there is a fair amount of death. entire families are swallowed up by the earth. a raging fire consumes two hundred and fifty men. an infectious plague spreads wildly and kills fourteen thousand and seven hundred people. this is the price for challenging authority. these deaths are all in retaliation for Continue Reading »
Posted on May 15, 2011 by Tamara Frankel
Dear Friends, This past Monday I visited Mount Herzl in Jerusalem with my classmates to commemorate Yom Hazikaron, Israel Remembrance Day. We visited the graves of young soldiers who had fallen recently and those of heroic figures like Hannah Senesh. Many questions raced through my mind as we walked among the graves: Where am I Continue Reading »
Posted on April 15, 2011 by Barer
Rashi, in his first comment on the parsha (16:1), asks the perennial question: Why, after two parshiyot talking about the details of ritual impurity, does the text remind us so clearly that Aaron has recently lost his two eldest sons? Rashi quotes the book Torat Kohanim (The Book of Priests, 16:3), the main collection of Continue Reading »
Posted on March 27, 2011 by David Bogomolny
Pardes Alum Ben Barer has followed Avi Strausberg‘s lead, and written a poem for the ‘Haiku Torah Project’. Check it out below: After secluding Aharon and his sons for seven days, this week’s parsha begins with the first official atoning sacrifices. Rashi, bolstered by the Re”em (sp?) note that it is not by accident that Aharon Continue Reading »
Posted on March 14, 2011 by Tamara Frankel
Dear Friends, I must tell you that it feels a little strange to write this email to you from the other side of the ocean. Thank God, I arrived safe and sound in New York on Wednesday (even though I had to wait for almost an hour in the INTERNATIONAL customs line!) But, once I Continue Reading »