כל ההתחלות קשות

Hello friends.

We had more eventful activities last week.  On Friday, Sheryl and Zoe went to the Kotel to watch Max Kresch’s official swearing-in ceremony as a Golani recruit.

(Some will be surprised -- or even disappointed -- but this was their first visit to the Old City since we arrived).  They felt fortunate and honored to join Eddie, Susie, and Talya for this special day.  

On Sunday, the three of us (Hannah's still in Thailand) went with the four older Kresch's (David and Atara didn't make this trip) to Sushi Rehavia for a celebratory dinner.   I was sitting at one end of the table and didn’t get to speak with Talya that much, but Max sounds like he’s doing great.  He is doing medic training for a few months at his base in the Negev.  (For those of you who don’t know, the IDF is in the midst of moving a huge part of its operations to an area around Beersheva, which promises to have a huge impact on that city, on Tel Aviv, and the country as whole. If you are interested, here's an old news story on the move: idf marches south)  We hope to see more of Max and Talya (and lots of other Detroit expats!) when they want a little break from their normal lives.

I wasn’t at Max’s tekes because I was at a Shabbaton.  (Sheryl joined me for Shabbes, while Zoe went to the Kashuk’s).  This was a Pardes Shabbaton, at Kibbutz Almog near Jericho and the Dead Sea.  

When's the last time you faced due west to daven?

I love the dessert (Sheryl not so much) and had a couple of great hikes with the group Thursday night/Fri morning.  

Lifetime supply of s'mores to the first person to find me in both of these last 2 photos!

Pretty easy hikes, but any day hike in weather like that is tiring, so I was glad the guest houses had nice a/c.  Certainly not something I remember from my early Israel tiyyulim.

Since Pardes is a big part of the reason I’m here this year, and where I’m spending most of my time, it seems that I should finally spend some blog time talking about my experiences there.

Pardes, for those who don’t know much about it, is something like a traditional bet midrash, but with some major and obvious differences.   It was really the first co-ed institution (1972) where post-college students could sit and together learn Jewish texts. From its beginning Pardes has been non-denominational, although almost all the teachers are Orthodox.  (That’s a bit of an issue for Pardes in my opinion, but more on that perhaps some other time).

For its first fifteen years or so Pardes was funded by the Jewish Agency but has been an independent organization for about thirty years.  (Thank goodness for its active board and fundraisers, otherwise I wouldn’t be writing this right now!) Originally, Pardes only had a one-year program for recent college grads.  Now, there are a plethora of programs: Elul learning, summer programs, one year, two years, training for day school educators (thank you Avi Chai Foundation!), training for informal Jewish educators (youth groups, camps, etc.), executive learning, adults. Sheryl is already signed up for a couple of classes after the Chagim.

At this point I’ve had something like a hundred ice-breakers at Pardes. They’re really into that :)    One thing I can tell you other than the fact that most of them are young (I am definitely old enough to be a parent for most of them) is that this is a pretty diverse group of people.  Geographically, we are few Europeans, Australians, Canadians, Israelis, but mostly U.S.  A range of prior learning, too: it seems as if most of the students have little formal learning, but there are also people with day school education, some post-college yeshiva/seminary learning, or college learning of Jewish studies.  Personal practice is as diverses as educational background.  There are people who identify as Orthodox, non-observant, and everything in between.   At it’s best, it should make for some lively conversations.  I’ll have to keep you posted.  I’m not sure that my age and being here with a family might not keep me somewhat on the periphery of things, but you definitely get the sense that everyone here is committed to personal and communal Jewish growth.  

I am technically part of the day school educators program (PEP). Technically, meaning that I am officially grouped with them, but I don’t have any of their obligations for teacher training and pedagogy classes. The one major exception is that they’ve asked me to participate in the peer teaching exercises, which I am happily doing.  That’s another topic I hope to blog about someday.

Right now my schedule consists of a Talmud class, a Torah class, a Mishnah class class, a Biblical grammar class, and a Hasidut class.  I also have a couple of non-academic classes.  Again, motl.  (More on that later).  So far I’m really impressed with my teachers and fellow students. The learning has been great, always challenging and often difficult.  But as we say,  כל ההתחלות קשות: all beginnings are hard. I definitely leave a lot of my classes with the feeling that if they had gone on one more minute my brain would have exploded.

So this was just a beginning.  Other than those things already alluded to above, there is plenty to share with you about Pardes.   But these will have to wait a while. 'tl then, Shabbat Shalom!

What happens in Israel…

Seth