Pardes from Jerusalem

During a holiday where there is both darkness and light, where we retreat indoors and shine brightly from the windowsill, go on a journey with Pardes North America to find meaning in the discord within our tradition. Night 6 - "More is More" vs. "Less is More" Featuring Rabbi Jonathan Leener This d’var Torah explores the different methods of dealing with evil in the world through the teachings of...

During a holiday where there is both darkness and light, where we retreat indoors and shine brightly from the windowsill, go on a journey with Pardes North America to find meaning in the discord within our tradition. Night 5 - The Window or the Table: Spreading Light to Eradicate Hate Featuring Rabba Shani Gross Learn how the Talmudic sages wrestle with the question of how to balance the deep year...

During a holiday where there is both darkness and light, where we retreat indoors and shine brightly from the windowsill, go on a journey with Pardes North America to find meaning in the discord within our tradition. Night 4 - The Light of Hanukah: Let's Light Up the Streets! Featuring Rabba Yaffa Epstein, Senior Scholar and Educator in Residence at the Jewish Education Project Learn how an obscur...

How do we connect the story of Yosef to Hanukah? Join Yiscah Smith and Rabbi Zvi Hirschfield in an exploration of Yosef's journey from a dreamer to an interpreter. In a parsha where we see Yosef hiding himself, what can we learn about bringing our own light out into the world? Credits: Yiscah Smith and Rabbi Zvi Hirschfield - Pardes Faculty  

During a holiday where there is both darkness and light, where we retreat indoors and shine brightly from the windowsill, go on a journey with Pardes North America to find meaning in the discord within our tradition. Night 3 - "More is More" vs. "Less is More" Featuring Rabbi Leon Morris The Rabbis debated the precise way of performing the mitzvah of Hanukkah candles in ways that leave a treasure...

During a holiday where there is both darkness and light, where we retreat indoors and shine brightly from the windowsill, go on a journey with Pardes North America to find meaning in the discord within our tradition. Night 2 - Rediscovering the Minimalism of Hanukah Featuring Professor Ziva R. Hassenfeld Learning how to reclaim the simplicity of the mitzvah of lighting the Hanukkah candles.   Musi...

During a holiday where there is both darkness and light, where we retreat indoors and shine brightly from the windowsill, go on a journey with Pardes North America to find meaning in the discord within our tradition. Night 1 - Forgetfulness that Leads to Blessed Discord Featuring Rabbi Dr. Meesh Hammer-Kossoy Rav Hutner suggests that the Greek campaign to make us forget Torah succeeded, and that w...

In this week's parsha, we learn the story of Yosef and Potiphar's wife, and the events leading up to Yoseph's imprisonment. Just what happened between Yosef and Potiphar's wife? Did Yosef desire her, and if so, did he actually give in to that temptation? Credits: Rabbi Brent Spodek and Professor Ziva Hassenfeld - Pardes North America Faculty  

Yaakov returns from Lavan's house to meet Esav, and he is petrified. Esav is coming with 400 men. Is he seething with hatred and violence, or has he possibly missed his brother and is instead coming to welcome him. The parsha is filled with ambiguity. Aviva and Alex discuss the nuances of the biblical and rabbinic personalities of Yaakov and Esav as they apply these paradigms to the topic of antis...

How can we understand the setting of this week's parsha? What is this place that Ya'akov comes to, and why at nighttime? Rabbi Leon Morris and Rabbi Daniel Reifman discuss the journey the journeys and travails of Ya'akov in this week's parsha podcast. Credits: Rabbi Leon Morris, Pardes President, and Rabbi Daniel Reifman, Pardes Faculty.  

Credits: Judy Klitsner and Rabbi Elchanan Miller – Pardes Faculty  

Parashat Chayei Sarah and Preparing for Thanksgiving.   Credits: Tovah Leah Nachmani and Rabbi Zvi Hirschfield – Pardes Faculty  

Are we blinded by our reading of the text? When we read about characters that are often portrayed negatively, such as Ishmael, are we truly giving them a chance? And what about our heroes? Are we allowing figures, such as Abraham, to be fully complex figures, both positive and negative? Credits: Rabbi Brent Spodek and Professor Ziva Hassenfeld – Pardes North America Faculty

The Jewish Story Season 6 Episode 4: Electoral Dysfunction Part III Here is the final installment in the series detailing the evolution of Israel’s electoral system. It brings us almost all the way to the present, touching on topics like the Oslo Accord, electoral reform and Israel’s Supreme Court along the way. If you want to have a better understanding of our current electoral dysfunction, then...

In this week's Torah portion, we examine a story that many today would consider jarring. How do we take the afflictions placed upon the Egyptians for Sarah's kidnapping? Was Sarah a victim of Pharoah and patriarchy, or were the Egyptians victims of deception? Credits: Rabba Nechama Goldman Barash and Rabbi Elhanan Miller – Pardes Faculty  

Rabbis Meesh Hammer-Kossoy and Elisha Ancselovits bring poetry, midrash, Talmud and a Nobel Prize winning economist into dialogue about how Noah and the 7 Noahide laws are relevant to our current climate crisis. Credits: Rabbi Dr. Meesh Hammer-Kossoy and Rabbi Dr. Elisha Ancselovits– Pardes Faculty  

Bereishit takes us from Creation to God's decision to destroy the world. From "Tov" - a world filled with good - to "Ra" - a world in which evil prevails. How do we get there? In this podcast, Alex Israel and Zvi Hirschfield discuss the process of sin, and the tricks our minds play with us in succumbing to our desires. They discuss choices, human autonomy, and the human potential for great good, a...

Sukkot 5783 - Sukkot and the Secret of Jewish Happiness This podcast is a republication of last year's Sukkot special.  Why is Sukkot described as the "Season of our Rejoicing"? What is the objective of sitting in the Sukka? What messages does it have to our technological and materialistic age? Download the Pardes Sukkot Holiday Companion Please let us know your comments and thoughts about the pod...

Ha'azinu speaks of God as a parent, as the Being that created and formed us all. What implications does this fact have for our spirituality and consciousness? Yiscah Smith presents a teaching of the Hassidic master - the Piazecne Rabbe, and Alex connects Ha'azinu to the upcoming holiday of Sukkot. Credits: Yiscah Smith and Rabbi Alex Israel – Pardes North America Faculty  

How do we approach the complicated dynamic in the High Holiday liturgy? What is the dynamic between Rosh Hashana's haftarah reading of the Binding of Isaac and Yom Kippur's reading of the Book of Jonah? You can also enjoy reading an article written by Rabbi Brent Spodek on the topics discussed in this podcast here. Credits: Rabbi Brent Spodek and Professor Ziva R. Hassenfeld - Pardes North America...

This Rosh Hashana podcast is sponsored by Ricki and David Bernstein in memory of Ricki’s parents, Beatrice and Murray Kirschblat, survivors of Auschwitz and Buchenwald, respectively. Beatrice and Murray were each the sole survivors of large families which perished in the Shoah. How does the story of the Binding of Isaac and Sodom and Gomorrah relate, and how do we bridge what appears to be an ethi...

Love learning Jewish history? Join Rav Mike Feuer for the Jewish Story Live! The Jewish Story Season 6 Episode 1: Prologue: A New Perspective Season 6 of The Jewish Story has finally begun! Here is a prologue to help frame the chapter to come. In it I touch on the power of prophetic sight, the Biblical Book of Daniel and why in the Hebrew month of Elul we say that the King is in the field.

How does the law of bikkurim (sacrifice of the first fruits) relate to the Exodus from Egypt? Why does the blessing from the farmer use the plural tense, and why would a farmer who had never experienced the Exodus need to mention it? What can this parsha reveal to us regarding the Jewish view of history? Credits: Dr. David Bernstein and Rabbi Michael Hattin – Pardes Faculty  

This week's parsha depicts four modes of administration in ancient Israel. What are these four centers of societal leadership, and how do they interact? How does our parsha give us room to consider our own political climate? What does this say about our contemporary leadership? Credits: Rabbi Alex Israel and Rabbi Zvi Hirschfield – Pardes Faculty  

In this week's Pardes Parsha Podcast, Aviva Lauer joins Rabbi Michael Hattin to discuss parashat Re'eh. As the people of Israel prepare for their entry into the land of Israel, Moses teaches them that God will choose the place for them to worship, that there will be one location in all of Israel where they will bring their sacrifices. Today, we know that place to be Jerusalem and the Temple Mount,...