They are leading and creating organizations and businesses of all kinds, responding to humanitarian crises, writing novels, educating at all levels, creating works of art, and so much more! In celebration of Pardes’s 50th, we are highlighting 50 standout alumni whose accomplishments exemplify the rich texture of the Pardes community worldwide.
Rav James Jacobson-Maisels is the founder and executive director of Or HaLev: Center for Jewish Spirituality and Meditation, teaching Jewish meditation, spirituality and a living Jewish path to authentic wholeness across the world.
CAN YOU SHARE A SPECIAL PARDES MEMORY?
I remember doing Shacharit on the roof one beautiful spring day and looking out over the city of Jerusalem as we prayed.
WHAT WAS YOUR FAVORITE CLASS AT PARDES?
My favorite class was a hevruta I did with my friend Michael Fagenblatt on Midrash and Maimonides. It was delightful, powerful, and exhilarating to put these two very different texts into dialogue with each other.
WHAT’S YOUR FAVORITE SPOT IN JERUSALEM?
The Jerusalem Forest is a beautiful and underutilized small forest atop hills gazing down into a valley. It is beautiful and peaceful, and the perfect place to do hitbodedut, which we did many times in the Self, Soul and Text class I taught at Pardes.
IF YOU COULD HAVE ANY SHABBAT GUEST, WHO WOULD IT BE?
The Piaseczner Rebbe, R. Kalonymus Kalmish Shapira, who was a Polish Hasidic rebbe in the first half of the 20th century. A great spiritual teacher and innovator, particularly in the realm of meditation and spiritual practice and a spiritual leader in the Warsaw Ghetto during the war, he was killed in the Holocaust. His written works have been an incredible teacher in my life and I would ask him a series of questions about his meditation practices, outlook, understanding of who we are, understanding of divinity, how he was able to be so spiritually resilient during the Holocaust, and more.
WHAT IS YOUR FAVORITE PASUK, PASSAGE OR TEXT?
“Healer of broken hearts, binder of their wounds. Counter of the stars, giving each one a name.” (Tehillim 147:3-4) It is a powerful image of the soft caring presence of a healer and the majestic unfathomable One beyond even the countless stars. The One who is so expansive, so vast, that even the seemingly uncountable stars are comprehensible. Yet that Presence, which is beyond everything, is also so intimate and close to us that it knows the name of every star, that it stoops down to bind our wounds, that it washes us like a mother cleansing a child, as Rabbi Moshe Cordovero describes it. This shared sense of intimacy and wonder, of compassion and vastness, of relationship and ultimate liberation, of the warmth of a hug and the exhilarating freedom of a cool mountain lake helps me sense the fullness of Divinity.
WHAT ARE YOU MOST PROUD OF IN YOUR WORK?
Transforming people’s lives by giving them access to Jewish practices and wisdom that are deeply healing and profoundly freeing in their everyday lives. People leave our retreats and courses with the skills and understanding to live their lives in a new, more loving, joyous, anxiety-free, flexible and passionate way.
WHAT DOES THE JEWISH WORLD NEED MOST RIGHT NOW?
People working for love, compassion and freedom.
HOW DOES PARDES CONTINUE TO AFFECT YOU TODAY?
The learning I did at Pardes, and in particular being ordained by Rav Landes, continues to be vital to every aspect of my professional life. The Jewish life I nurtured and grew at Pardes continues to be central to my life and my family’s life in our home in Kibbutz Hannaton in northern Israel.
WHAT ELSE WOULD YOU LIKE TO SHARE?
Deep sustained learning is irreplaceable as a way to genuinely enter the wisdom of our tradition and the sea of Torah.