PARDES JERUSALEM HOW TO

The model of Judaism that he cherished didnвЂ™t work for his children, and all four of them became secular. In other profound ways, though, he failed. In some ways, he succeeded very well: he raised a family, moved to a Jewish neighborhood in Far Rockaway, volunteered at his synagogue and studied a lot of Torah.

PARDES JERUSALEM HOW TO

Lately, as I prepare to leave Pardes and return to the United States, IвЂ™ve been thinking more about my great granfather, who left behind the Jewish community that had nourished him in Riga, and had to figure out how to build a Jewish life in America. These are the people whose image has been in my mind most often as I have sat and learned in the Beit Midrash. Much more often, though, IвЂ™ve thought about other family and friends, most of whom are not religious, many of them not Jewish, for whom it isnвЂ™t a dream to come and study in Jerusalem, who donвЂ™t relate to my enthusiasm for Judaism, and who regard my newfound observance with mistrust, fearing, perhaps rightfully, that it will create a rift between us. Over the last two years, as IвЂ™ve learned at Pardes and deepened my own relationship with Judais, I have occasionally thought of my great grandfather and what he would have thought of my complicated journey towards greater observance. Though IвЂ™d never met him, I immediately knew that for me, that ancestor was my great grandfather, Israel Marin ( zвЂќl), who brought his family to New York from Riga, and who was the last traditionally observant Jew in our family until me.

He said that each of us certainly had at least one relative or ancestor, whether we knew who they were or not, for whom it was a lifelons dream to sit and learn Torah in Jerusalem, just as we were doing. Two years ago, when I first arrived at Pardes, I was struck by something our dean, David Bernstein said during one of the various orientation/convocation events.

Last week, I spoke briefly at PardesвЂ™ closing lunch, and I have adapted what I remember of the remarks here:

Pardes jerusalem