“LilyFish, what did you do in Jerusalem this summer?”
I did the Pardes Institute's Jewish Educator Summer Workshop. Here are some photos and reflections.
WEEK ONE:
“ שבת שלום מישראל!!”Shabbat Shalom from Israel!! My first week of the @pardesinstitute summer program is done, and I thought I would share a tidbit of learning with you before Shabbat begins here.
This bit is from my morning Talmud class titled “Don’t Shoot the Messenger…Or Should We? Agency in Jewish Law” taught by @rabbanitrachel - it’s based on when Talmud allows or encourages us to use a “שליח” (shaliach) - a proxy - to complete a mitzvah. We have learned that while there are Mitzvot that it is totally allowed to use a proxy for, it’s sometimes still better to do it yourself - a “ מצווה בו יותר”. The examples the text gives are preparing for Shabbat and Betrothal.
This seems to have something to do with the Jewish value “הידור מצוה ” (Hiddur Mitzvah) - beautifying the mitzvah. In Jewish law there are many many mitzvot- it would be absurd to expect each person to complete every single mitzvah and all of its prep in the most holy way possible all the time. Instead, this idea of “הידור מצוה ” teaches that we should choose the Mitzvot we are most suited to put full effort in, and we can send a “שליח” / proxy to do some of the others.
To put this into context, let’s take the example of a Shabbat Dinner. I am simply not a good cook- I don’t enjoy it and my food doesn’t usually come out tasting good. So for a Shabbat Meal, I don’t usually volunteer to cook! Instead, I might offer to do something more in my skill set- perhaps setting the table nicely or giving a d’var torah.
I love that Judaism encourages us to play to our own strengths in this way.
What is a Mitzvah (it could be something you feel obligated to or it could be a good deed) that you would like to choose to beautify this week?
This bit is from my morning Talmud class titled “Don’t Shoot the Messenger…Or Should We? Agency in Jewish Law” taught by @rabbanitrachel - it’s based on when Talmud allows or encourages us to use a “שליח” (shaliach) - a proxy - to complete a mitzvah. We have learned that while there are Mitzvot that it is totally allowed to use a proxy for, it’s sometimes still better to do it yourself - a “ מצווה בו יותר”. The examples the text gives are preparing for Shabbat and Betrothal.
This seems to have something to do with the Jewish value “הידור מצוה ” (Hiddur Mitzvah) - beautifying the mitzvah. In Jewish law there are many many mitzvot- it would be absurd to expect each person to complete every single mitzvah and all of its prep in the most holy way possible all the time. Instead, this idea of “הידור מצוה ” teaches that we should choose the Mitzvot we are most suited to put full effort in, and we can send a “שליח” / proxy to do some of the others.
To put this into context, let’s take the example of a Shabbat Dinner. I am simply not a good cook- I don’t enjoy it and my food doesn’t usually come out tasting good. So for a Shabbat Meal, I don’t usually volunteer to cook! Instead, I might offer to do something more in my skill set- perhaps setting the table nicely or giving a d’var torah.
I love that Judaism encourages us to play to our own strengths in this way.
What is a Mitzvah (it could be something you feel obligated to or it could be a good deed) that you would like to choose to beautify this week?
Shabbat Shalom after another wonderful week at @pardesinstitute ! This week I’m spending Shabbat with my teacher @rabbanitrachel and her family.
Yesterday night I went to Shul with them, and during the Amidah I felt myself drawn to one section- Hoda’ah / Grattitude. Here is the translation I like of that section:
~~~
We give thanks to you that you are THE ALL-MERCIFUL, our G!d, G!d of our ancestors, today and always. A firm, enduring source of life, a shield to us in time of trial, you are ever there, from age to age. We acknowledge you, declare your praise, and thank you for our lives entrusted to your hand, our souls placed in your care, for your miracles that greet us every day, and for your wonders and the good things that are with us every hour, morning, noon, and night. Good One, whose kindness never stops, Kind One, whose loving acts have never failed—always have we placed our hope in you.
For all these things, may your name be blessed and raised in honor always, forever.
Let all of life acknowledge you! May all beings praise your name in truth, O G!d, our rescue and our aid. Blessed are you, THE GRACIOUS ONE, whose name is good, to whom all thanks are due.
~~~
For many progressive an secular Jews, it’s not necessarily comfortable to thank G!d in this way. Whether that’s because we don’t believe in G!d, or simply because it can be hard to think of the good things that are always part of our world when we also recognize so much suffering.
For me, this section reminds me to slow down and think about the good. I can’t tell you how to be grateful, you certainly don’t have to use these words if they aren’t meaningful to you, but I do think that it’s important to take a moment and reflect.
Big appreciation to everyone in my support networks! Being away from home and the people I love is hard, and I’m grateful to my learning community for all of the love and support.
Translation from Kol Haneshamah, the @reconstructingjudaism Shabbat VeHagim Siddur, 3rd edition.
Yesterday night I went to Shul with them, and during the Amidah I felt myself drawn to one section- Hoda’ah / Grattitude. Here is the translation I like of that section:
~~~
We give thanks to you that you are THE ALL-MERCIFUL, our G!d, G!d of our ancestors, today and always. A firm, enduring source of life, a shield to us in time of trial, you are ever there, from age to age. We acknowledge you, declare your praise, and thank you for our lives entrusted to your hand, our souls placed in your care, for your miracles that greet us every day, and for your wonders and the good things that are with us every hour, morning, noon, and night. Good One, whose kindness never stops, Kind One, whose loving acts have never failed—always have we placed our hope in you.
For all these things, may your name be blessed and raised in honor always, forever.
Let all of life acknowledge you! May all beings praise your name in truth, O G!d, our rescue and our aid. Blessed are you, THE GRACIOUS ONE, whose name is good, to whom all thanks are due.
~~~
For many progressive an secular Jews, it’s not necessarily comfortable to thank G!d in this way. Whether that’s because we don’t believe in G!d, or simply because it can be hard to think of the good things that are always part of our world when we also recognize so much suffering.
For me, this section reminds me to slow down and think about the good. I can’t tell you how to be grateful, you certainly don’t have to use these words if they aren’t meaningful to you, but I do think that it’s important to take a moment and reflect.
Big appreciation to everyone in my support networks! Being away from home and the people I love is hard, and I’m grateful to my learning community for all of the love and support.
Translation from Kol Haneshamah, the @reconstructingjudaism Shabbat VeHagim Siddur, 3rd edition.
WEEK 3:
END-OF-PROGRAM SPEECH MOMENT (unedited): Today was my last day at @pardesinstitute . One of my favorite moments from this summer was the Pardes Tisch. At the Tisch, Rabbi Mike offered a teaching about the Parsha cycle. I turns out that Israeli and Diaspora communities have been a week off from each other since Pesach. This is because the last day of Pesach outside of Israel was Shabbat so diaspora Jews read a Pesach-specific parsha, but in Israel it wasn't Pesach anymore so they read the next parsha chronologically. Next week however, Jews all over the world will reunite for parshat D'varim, the beginning of the book of Deuteronomy. Rabbi Mike said that while we were in BaMidbar, translated to "in the desert," it was okay for us to be a bit all over the place. We didn't know where we were going or when we would get there. To come into the Promised Land though, we all needed to get on the same page. The Israelites needed to unify in a way that we couldn't before. And I believe that we do that through learning and through song.
I've always loved singing. Singing brings people together. That is why countries have national anthems, why schools have cheers, and why Red Sox fans sing “Sweet Caroline” in the middle of the eighth inning of every game. For me, singing has always represented my connection to my Jewish community and this was never more clear to me than it was at the Tisch. Singing "Hinei Ma Tov with all 120 other Pardes students connects me with them; I am part of the community. But being in Jerusalem has helped me to realize that Pardes actually isn’t the overarching community. I am singing the same words as 550,100 Jews in Jerusalem, and 14.8 million other Jews in the world. I am singing the same words I imagine my grandmother sang when she was seventeen, and the same words her grandmother’s grandmother sang. This community is my home. No matter what, I know that I am connected to all of the other people who have sung these same words. The values, teachings, and community that this peoplehood connects me to - all these things help make me the person I am.
Hi. Okay, so I first heard about Pardes Institute of Jewish Studies so many years ago, and I actually signed up to come here for a summer program one time before. It was supposed to be the summer before my senior year of college. I was supposed to come with my best friend, who I've been referring to as “my best friend Leah who I'm obsessed with” this whole time. And I was really, really excited to come and learn. I was also going to do Ulpan before… and that was summer 2020. Did not happen. The world had other plans. And so then I was thinking about what I was going to do this summer. I'm here because of many, many people and with much financial help from many people, including the Springboard Fellowship and the Wethen Blume Families. And when I was thinking about what I could do that was going to further my Jewish life, this was this was the answer to what I wanted to do. I like to say about my Jewish journey that I grew up watching my lesbian rabbi play guitar on the Bima on Shabbat, and her wife was my Hebrew school teacher. And that's very true. And going from that to Brandeis University, which is a campus that really strives for pluralism. And in some ways succeeds and in other ways falls short. That was also a difficult transition for me. And then I moved again. And and the the campus that I'm on right now working at is called Vanderbilt. And most of my students are secular or reform. I have a few conservative students as well. And I forgot how much I liked being in community with Jews who don't practice similarly to me. And so I want to thank everyone for for being part of that community. We I've had lots of wonderful, wonderful discussions. And I think someone said you just said once a teacher, once a student. And I think that that is one of the biggest things that I'm taking from this experience, from working on working on the my project this summer. I one of my favorite lines from Torah is right at the beginning. And Genesis, I think it's Genesis two something. It's it is not good for human to be alone. It's not good for the earthling to be alone. And I just have not felt alone here. I've felt very much in community. And so thank you so, so much to everyone who was part of the community. My students, while they were doing Zoom services, didn't sing Hinei Ma Tov. That was a decision that they made that they were not going to sing about how good it is to be together while they were not together. And so I wanted to invite us to sing Hinei Ma Tov while we are all still here together and to feel that community.
