Pardes Live and Mini-Series

This class is an in depth consideration of the Zohar, both its origins and the role which it plays in Jewish consciousness. Along the way Rav Mike revisits the PaRDeS structure on which his class is framed, highlighting the depth of the questions which the Zohar raises.

Two paths of mystical tradition emerged from the culture of 13th century Christian Spain, and they are both still with us today. This class explores the difference between myth and allegory in the context of Jewish mysticism and opens the question of - whence the Zohar?

Dr. Yehuda Kurtzer of the Shalom Hartman Institute, presents different lenses or paradigms through which Israel can be viewed and understood. Each paradigm has different assumptions for how we understand the meaning of Jewish statehood - and each also has in-built judgement that we reach should Israel not fulfill the meaning that we assigned to it. Zvi Hirschfield challenges Yehuda regarding some of the conclusions that he presents.

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From Shushan to Tel Aviv: Esther Through the Generations*

*Esther: A New Israeli Commentary by Rabbi Mishael Zion; ed. by Prof. Avigdor Shinan, an intiative of the AVI CHAI Foundation

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The second of a three part series about Megillat Esther and Purim will be taught by Rabbi Mishael Zion. For more information and registration, visit www.pardes.org.il/Purim2019, or contact 02 673 5210 / [email protected]. All lectures took place at Pardes, 29 Pierre Koenig, Jerusalem.

February 27: And Esther was Taken

March 4: From Shushan to Tel Aviv

March 13: The Vanishing Jew

The Purim 5779 Lecture series is Sponsored in Memory of Brondell Pomrenze by Huti and Jay Pomrenze.

“And Esther was Taken” (Esther 2:8): Sexuality, Consent Culture and Trafficking

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The first of a three part series about Megillat Esther and Purim will be taught by Rabbi Dr. Meesh Hammer-Kossoy. For more information and registration, visit www.pardes.org.il/Purim2019, or contact 02 673 5210 / [email protected]. All lectures took place at Pardes, 29 Pierre Koenig, Jerusalem.

February 27: And Esther was Taken

March 4: From Shushan to Tel Aviv

March 13: The Vanishing Jew

The Purim 5779 Lecture series is Sponsored in Memory of Brondell Pomrenze by Huti and Jay Pomrenze

Please note: We apologize for the level of the recording. It is not ideal, but due to the importance of this topic, we have decided to post it.

 

This class revisits the struggle between reason and revelation within the soul of Am Yisrael, and then introduces mysticism as a third approach to the Divine. Along the way we discuss how the Church discovered that the Talmud was now the field of dispute with the Jews.

This special event was taught by Rabbi Dr. Meesh Hammer-Kossoy. The second lecture will be part of Pardes’s Purim 3-Part series, on February 27 with “And Esther was Taken” (Esther 2:8): Sexuality, Consent Culture and Trafficking For more information and registration.

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The 13th century is a rich time for Jewish history. This class opens with a description of the resurgent Catholic Church and then introduces the Sages of Provence through the context of the Albigensian Crusade. It ends with the struggle within Am Yisrael between reason and revelation and how this erupted into a controversy around the works of the Rambam.

This podcast has been sponsored in loving memory of Charles Feuer, B'tzalel Avraham.

The Tosafot approached the gemara as an ever expanding expression of Gd's law, the Haside Ashkenaz saw the world as an infinite expression of Divine will. The pietist movement of the 13th century is lesser known than that founded in the 18th, but its influence on the culture of Ashkenaz is far more fundamental.

The European Jew is a product of history and inner development, as are all groups. This episode revisits the cultural, economic and political context for the making of the Jew in Europe and then describes the heroes of the great age of Torah exploration - the Tosafists.