Life At Pardes - Pardes Moments
Pardes Space
When you walk into the front door of Pardes, you are confronted with an immediate decision: do you turn right or left?
If you turn to the right, you walk into our dining area. Early risers gather here for breakfast before class. The coffee machine is also here, and people recharge all throughout the day in order to keep up their energy level for learning, check email or shmooze. Communal lunch once a week, as well as other festive meals throughout the year, all take place here.
Really, the dining area is our communal meeting space. Just yesterday during lunchtime, I sat at a table where two friends were memorizing the jive talk scenes from "Airplane!", watched a student gather a committee together made of students and staff in order to ask them what she should do with her life, and I spoke with another friend about possible ideas for a Purim spiel.
Almost all the classrooms converge on this spot. Before, between, and after classes people swarm in here, continuing conversations begun during class or asking the opinion of someone in another class, discussing Shabbat plans or how the film at the Cinemateque was last night, or chatting with a teacher about how Rambam would react to modern feminist theory. It is the social center of our community.
If you turn to the left, you walk into our beit midrash. It is the
intellectual center of our community. It is a large room with dozens of small tables and walls covered with windows with an amazing view of the sunset over the hills of Jerusalem. The majority of our class time is spent in here, wrestling over text with our chevruta (learning partner). Whether it be Talmud or Chumash, halacha or philosophy, the room is abuzz with talking, disagreements, exclamations of understanding.
Though we study in pairs, learning is a team effort. We consult each other all the time, sharing the obscure meaning of a word if it took a long time to find, or asking what a particular parable is doing in the middle of a commentary by Rashi. Teachers are constantly walking around, and whether you are in their class or not, they are happy to answer questions and clarify any topic. We also have the advanced students who are always available to help.
When I walk into the beit midrash I am surrounded by hundreds of books which encapsulate Jewish tradition and history. But I am also part of the process of making Jewish tradition and history. Every time we engage a text or even encounter a new word, we are bringing Judaism to life, creating a living relationship with our past and future. There is something truly magical about it. I am not sure if my words have done justice to that sense of pride and hope that follow me into the beit midrash.
May we have the joy of learning together soon in Jerusalem...
Kate P.
Johns Hopkins University
Year Program 03
Fellow 04