םייח סדרפ

Faculty Editor / Rav Raḥel Berkovits

Student Editor / Sarah Biskowitz

Design and Layout / Valerie Brown and Sarah Biskowitz

Cover Art / Mindy Hirsch

Rahel Berkovits has been teaching mishnah, talmud and halakha at Pardes for over twenty-five years. Rahel lectures widely in both Israel and abroad especially on topics concerning women and Jewish law and a Jewish sexual ethic. She is the Halakhic Editor and a writer for Hilkhot Nashim, the Jewish Orthodox Feminist Alliance’s Halakhic Source-Guide Series published by Maggid Books. Rahel is a founding member of Congregation Shirah Hadasha, a halakhic partnership synagogue, and serves on their halakha committee. In June 2015, Rahel received Rabbinic Ordination from Rabbis Herzl Hefter and Daniel Sperber. Rahel loves playing basketball, especially with Pardes students.

Sarah Biskowitz is a student in the Year Program and the journal editor fellow at Pardes. She also leads the popular Pardes Yiddish Club. Sarah worked at the Yiddish Book Center as the 2021-2022 Richard S. Herman fellow in bibliography and exhibitions. A graduate of Smith College, her work has been published in Jewish Currents, Hey Alma, Pakn Treger, and In geveb: A Journal of Yiddish Studies. She has spoken about Yiddish culture at the Maine Conference for Jewish Life, the Association of Jewish Studies conference, and various synagogue and Moishe House events. For more information, visit www.sarahbiskowitz.com

The Torah is called Living, as it says (Proverbs 3:18), “It is a Tree of Life [etz ḥayyim] for those who hold fast to it, and all its supporters are happy [mushar].”

Avot D'Rabbi Natan Chapter 34:11

Beginning with despair and ending in triumph, the Exodus narrative continues to shape the identity of the Jewish people, and remains one of the most famous and influential stories ever told.

flected on the emotions it imbues, and writers penned stories and analysis from perspectives like feminism, neo-Hasidism, and revolutionism.

The midrash's comparison of Torah to a living, growing organism emphasizes that its body is always expanding—creating new roots, branches and leaves as more people study it. Just as the tree provides people with oxygen that sustains us, so too is Torah the breath and life of the Jewish people. We chose to name our Student Torah Journal Pardes Ḥayyim as a play on the notion of Torah being an Etz Ḥayyim. Our student body is made up of a diverse group of individuals, and each one brings their own unique voice as a learner and reader of Torah. Using art, poetry, music, and creative writing, they have each shown how they hold fast to Torah and how it is alive and growing in their lives today. Together, these living trees of Torah create the orchard that is Pardes. Their roots gain substance and sustenance from the same soil, but each tree develops in its own distinct fashion. This year, Sarah and I selected that the Journal should focus on the Pardes theme of the year "Exodus: Our Story of Libera- tion and Peoplehood." All the entries to the journal focus on this same theme and what unfolds is multiple ways in which the same concept can be read, understood, and discussed. Each contributor interacted with the concept in a different manner and from a different perspective, and the Torah texts that inspired their works are presented at the end of each piece. Our orchard of living Torah is vibrant and growing and all should feel free to come and enjoy it.

We hope you will find osher as you wander through our orchard and encounter the living Torah of our Pardes learning community.

Politically, it has been evoked by Jewish movements such as Zionism and the campaign for Soviet Jewry as well as more universal causes like abolitionism and Civil Rights in the United States and Catholic resistance to authoritarian regimes in South America.

In Jewish practice, the story of the Exodus is recounted each year at the Passover seder. As Exodus 10:2 instructs us, we tell this story to each new generation. This ritual has proved enduring and popular. For example, according to the 2013 Pew Research survey of Jewish Americans, the Passover seder is the most widely-practiced Jewish ritual by American Jews. Over the past two years, Jews who have fled or remained in Ukraine have continued to hold seders while experiencing great hardship.

Ben Bag Bag would say about Torah, “Turn it and turn it again for all is in it” (M. Avot 5:22). No narrative illustrates this better than the Exodus. Each year at Passover, we return to its message of perseverance and liberation, and it provides us hope for a better world.

We end the seder by declaring, “Next year in Jerusalem.” But as this journal showcases, it is we Pardes students who have had the privilege of spending this year studying Torah in Jerusalem. In this journal, we’ve told our own stories based on the ancient narrative of the Exodus, contributing our voices to the chain of tradition. For me, it has been the opportunity of a lifetime to learn with and from this community. Thank you to my fellow students for sharing your talents, Torah and wisdom in this journal, and in the Beit Midrash every day this year.

Raḥel Berkovits Faculty Editor

Across time and place, the Exodus narrative has resonated with countless generations of Jews and others resisting oppression and struggling for liberation.

And the verses in the book of Shemot telling of the experiences leaving Egypt provided ample inspiration for the Pardes community to create thought-provoking and diverse submissions to this journal. Artists rendered this tale in visual or musical form, poets re-

B’virkat Torah V’Chesed, Sarah Biskowitz Student Editor