Celebrating the publication of his book Genesis: From Creation to Covenant, Rabbi Dr. Zvi Grumet hosted two lectures at Pardes. In this lecture, he discusses The Covenant of the Pieces: When God Meets Man. Click here for the first lecture The Legacy of Cain: Meaningfulness and Mortality. 

In this class that was given live at Pardes, Dr. David Bernstein runs through 900 years of Polish Jewish history.

Shula Mola is the Chairman of the Board of the Israel Associstion for Ethiopian Jews, an educator, activist and researcher. Pardes was thrilled to welcome her to speak about her story and her upcoming book which focuses on racism towards Ethiopian high school students and their struggle for normalcy and integration. Shula was born in Ethiopia and made Aliyah as a child.

In this class that was recorded live at Pardes, Dr. Rachel Korazim looks into Israeli poetry and the discourse that surrounds it, with reference to Biblical events.

In this lecture that was recorded live at Pardes Jerusalem, Judy Klitsner discusses The Turbulent Waters of Noah and Jonah: How Similar Stories Say Opposite Things About the Human Soul.

Why kill a goat, or swing a chicken round your head, or throw crumbs into a river to expiate your sins? Is this mere symbolism, or is there something more fundamental going on? In this episode, we attempt to shed new light upon some very ancient rituals of atonement, and respond to four questions that were left hanging at the end of episode 2.

When we repent, there is a sense in which we’re seeking to undo damage done. It’s almost as if we’re trying to undo the past. How seriously should we take this metaphor? Is the past something that can be undone? In Teshuva and Time Travel, Samuel Lebens – a philosopher at the University of Haifa, and adjunct faculty member at Pardes – will lead a tour through classical Jewish texts on the nature of repentance, and explore them though the lens of contemporary philosophical reflection on the nature of time.

Click here for more episodes in the series.

Are we supposed to remember our sins forever, even after we’ve repented? Or, should we forget them? The Talmud seems to say one thing, and Rav Tzadok Hacohen of Lublin, seems to say another. In this episode of Teshuva and Time Travel, we address this question, and reconcile this conflict, generating the surprising conclusion that, according to Rav Tzadok, repentance has the power to rewrite your past in radical ways.

When we repent, there is a sense in which we’re seeking to undo damage done. It’s almost as if we’re trying to undo the past. How seriously should we take this metaphor? Is the past something that can be undone? In Teshuva and Time Travel, Samuel Lebens – a philosopher at the University of Haifa, and adjunct faculty member at Pardes – will lead a tour through classical Jewish texts on the nature of repentance, and explore them though the lens of contemporary philosophical reflection on the nature of time.

Click here for more episodes in the series.

Pardes was honored to welcome Rabbi Shai Held to speak at Pardes before Rosh Hashana on the topic of Why Don’t People Ever Seem to Change? (And How We Could). Rabbi Shai Held – theologian, scholar, and educator – is president, dean and chair in Jewish Thought at Mechon Hadar. He has published two books: Abraham Joshua Heschel: the Call of Transcendence (2013) and The Heart of Torah (2017).

When we repent, there is a sense in which we’re seeking to undo damage done. It’s almost as if we’re trying to undo the past. How seriously should we take this metaphor? Is the past something that can be undone? In this series of podcasts, Samuel Lebens – a philosopher at the University of Haifa, and adjunct faculty member at Pardes – will lead a tour through classical Jewish texts on the nature of repentance, and explore them though the lens of contemporary philosophical reflection on the nature of time.

Episode 1: Reish Lakish and Ockham

The Talmudic sage, Reish Lakish, was well versed in the principles of teshuva (repentance). He had lived as a wayward bandit, before reforming his ways and becoming a leader of Rabbinic Judaism. He was one of the first thinkers to claim, explicitly, that your teshuva has the power to change the past. In this episode, we try to understand this claim of Reish Lakish, in terms of a philosophical distinction first drawn by William of Ockham.

In this lecture that was recorded live at Pardes Jerusalem as part of the Summer Evening Lecture Series, Nechama Goldman Barash speaks about Human Dignity and Halakhik Compromise: Where Does the Boundary Lie?

The Summer Evening Lecture Series was sponsored in memory of Brondell Pomrenze by Huti and Jay Pomrenze.