A Pardes Student Journal is compiled each year by our Student Editor Fellow, with contributions from the student body. The journal is a celebration of a year’s learning, weaved with creativity and inspiration drawn from text study.
The journal’s name, Pardes Ḥayyim, was selected as a play on Pardes, which means “orchard,” and the well-known notion that Torah itself is an Etz Ḥayyim, a living tree.
Our student body is diverse and each student brings their unique voice as a learner and reader of the Torah. Using art, poetry, street performance, midrash, creative writing, and scholarship, they show how they hold fast to Torah and how it is alive and growing in their lives today. Each student is a living tree and together these trees of Torah create the orchard that is Pardes. Their roots gain substance and sustenance from the same soil, but each tree develops in its own distinct fashion.
We hope you will enjoy reading and learning from our students’ work.
The Student Journal Editor Fellow works closely with faculty member Rahel Berkovits for the development of the journal.