Musings from Students of the Pardes Institute of Jewish Studies in Jerusalem
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 16, 2013 by The Director of Digital Media
Sara Brandes (Year ’01, Fellows ’02, Elul ’05) shares her Pardes reflections: I met my friend, teacher and fellow Pardes alumna Rabbi Shawn Fields-Meyer during the summer before I arrived at Pardes, as a participant in the Brandeis Collegiate Institute. Inspired by her teaching and hungry for more, I sought her out. When I told Continue Reading »
Posted on December 14, 2012 by Adam L Masser
A classic example in the spirit of channukah–Shammai and Hillel on how to light a menorah. Shammai takes a literal reading, deduces logically that the miracle provided for 8 days of oil and so tells us to start with 8 flames and reduce each night. Hillel holds the opposite–start with 1 light and add a Continue Reading »
Posted on December 14, 2012 by David Bogomolny
We spent last Shabbat with a friend and his partner. He is a Jewish convert who is currently not halakhically observant, but his Jewish identity is very important to him, and his attitude towards Jewish tradition and halakha is very respectful. His partner is a woman whose father is halakhically Jewish, but she is not halakhically Jewish herself. Therefore, she must go through Continue Reading »
Posted on December 5, 2012 by David Bogomolny
Fixed prayer is a salient element of halakha (Jewish law). Jews committed to halakha pray 3x every day (morning, afternoon, evening), and for many it is challenging to find meaning in the mandated, daily recitation of standardized liturgy. A couple of years ago, I took a class that explored various spiritual practices in Hasidic and Continue Reading »
Posted on September 14, 2012 by David Bogomolny
Over the summer, I worked for an amazing summer program called Genesis at Brandeis University. One of the programs that we developed for our participants was called ‘iDentity’, and each of the six community educators modeled this project for the community, each sharing something of ourselves in different media. The question we all had to Continue Reading »
Posted on September 8, 2012 by Leah Kahn
In looking back at our Poland Heritage Trip in January, it’s quite difficult to fathom just how much we witnessed in 5 short days. We began with the colorful tapestry of Jewish life that existed in Warsaw and Lublin, which was hardly a foreshadowing of what was to come. We tapped into the spirituality of Continue Reading »
Posted on July 30, 2012 by Andrea Wiese
(From “You’ve given me the most beautiful set of wings.”) This is very rare that I have such a long absence from blogging, but thus is life, and it happens. Since my classes ended at Pardes, I was working for NFTY. http://www.nftyisrael.org/ It’s reform Judaism’s summer trip to Israel. This was my third summer working Continue Reading »
Posted on June 13, 2012 by Sam Blumberg
By Sam Blumberg, PEP ’12 Over the last three years at Pardes, I have learned a ton. I’ve learned Torah, Talmud, Mishna, pedagogy, philosophy– all things that I knew little about before my time in the Pardes Educators Program. But I didn’t come here to learn. I came here to teach. In the thirteenth chapter 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 »
