Author/Educator Rabbi Mike Uram to Speak at Annual Cardin Leadership Symposium
Posted on August 22, 2022
Rabbi Mike Uram tends to be a big-picture kind of guy. A Cleveland native who now lives in the Philadelphia area, he tells a story about his first visit to Baltimore as a teenager with his older brother. While walking around Fells Point and noticing its wide variety of taverns and alehouses, they were more Continue Reading »
Jewish Education: Why We Should Care
Posted on August 2, 2022
The field of Jewish education in North America boasts a wealth of talented and dedicated professionals. These are educators, administrators, scholars, board members, and funders who commit their days, and often their careers, to this work. We brought three of them together for a conversation about the current state of Jewish education and about where Continue Reading »
Combining Torah and the Arts at Pardes
Posted on June 22, 2022
This article was originally published in the December 2021 edition of Pardes’s Havruta magazine. To learn more about the Pardes Arts and Culture Fellowship, visit www.pardes.org.il/pardes-arts-culture-fellowship or email Ilana HaCohen at ilana@pardes.org.il.
Jerusalem Post: The Belzer Rebbetzin’s Blessings on Conceiving Children
Posted on May 23, 2022
Written by Rabbi Dr. Levi Cooper – In 1965, Surah’le Hager (b. 1946) married Yissachar Dov Rokach (b. 1948). Surah’le was the granddaughter of the Vizhnitzer rebbe, Rabbi Hayim Meir Hager (1887-1972). Yissachar Dov was the leader-in-waiting of the Belz Hassidim, a position he would officially assume in 1966. The Belzer Rebbe and Rebbetzin did Continue Reading »
Jerusalem Post – The License to Reinterpret
Posted on April 25, 2022
Written by Rabbi Dr. Levi Cooper – Is there a license to reinterpret the Torah through pronunciation? The license to reinterpret the biblical text by transposing the vowels is a potent, perhaps even dangerous tool. The sages explained that both Moses and David did apprenticeships as shepherds. Since they looked after their sheep with care Continue Reading »
JewishPress – Thou Shalt Not Slap Thy Neighbor
Posted on April 3, 2022
Written by Rabbi Alex Israel (Pardes Faculty) – An incident during the Academy Awards ceremony on Sunday has lit up social media recently like few other events. Actor Will Smith slapped comedian Chris Rock after he made a hurtful joke at Smith’s wife’s expense. Since everyone is weighing in about “the slap,” I’ll share three Continue Reading »
The National Library of Isael: The Last Will and Testament of Rabbi David Friesenhausen
Posted on March 22, 2022
Written by Rabbi Dr. Levi Cooper – In Vienna 1820, Rabbi David HaKohen Friesenhausen (ca. 1756-1828) published a work in Hebrew entitled Mosdot Tevel (Foundations of the Universe). Friesenhausen procured rabbinic letters of recommendation which he printed in Mosdot Tevel, including such a letter from the illustrious Rabbi Moshe Sofer (known as the “Ḥatam Sofer”, 1762-1839), Continue Reading »
A Purim Message from Rabbi Leon Morris, President
Posted on March 16, 2022
Living with uncertainty has been a leitmotif of the past two years as we have navigated our way through the Covid-19 pandemic. For many of us, uncertainty plays a central role in our religious lives. It keeps us humble. It recognizes our limits. It reminds us of what we cannot know. We reflect upon God’s Continue Reading »
Jerusalem Post – How Did Chabad Go From Hassidic Subgroup to Global Jewish Phenomenon?
Posted on March 13, 2022
Written by Rabbi Dr. Levi Cooper, also known as the Maggid of Melbourne (Pardes Faculty) – How did Chabad go from hassidic subgroup to global Jewish phenomenon? Ramash was truly following in the footsteps of his predecessors. Almost anywhere you go in the world, you find Lubavitch. How did a hassidic subgroup that did not Continue Reading »
Jerusalem Post – Parashat Pekudei: Partnering with the Divine
Posted on March 6, 2022
Written by Rabbanit Nechama Goldman Barash (Pardes Faculty) – I have always found much of the end of Exodus tedious, centered as it is on the endless details of instruction for building the Tabernacle and weaving the priests’ garments. This Shabbat we finish reading the Book of Exodus. It tells the story of a people Continue Reading »