Pardes

Pardes is a wonderful, wonderful place. The people are welcoming, intelligent, and open minded. There is an element of comfort I have found there that I have yet to find in a more "Israeli" environment. It may be the language barrier, but I think it is more closely tied to the culture. Within minutes or walking into the building, people were introducing themselves to me, striking conversation, and taking an interest in what I am doing with my life.
My first class was Social Justice. We discussed the Maimonidean ladder of Tzedaka and the concept of humility and dignity within the process of giving tzedaka. The governing principles of the Maimonidean ladder are anonymity, empowerment, and maintaining dignity. Feeling good about doing a mitzva is merely the "cherry on the mitzvah sundae," and is not the essence or even the goal of mitzvot. We talked about these ideas in terms of public policy (eg the "Wisconsin Plan," "hand up, not hand out," etc.)
After this discussion, the founder of an organization called "Yedid" came in to talk to us (http://www.yedid.org.il/default.en.asp). It is an amazing organization that advocates for the poor in Israel. They are lobbyists, indivual assistants, and community organizers. Their original goal was to help the massive numbers of new immigrants from the FSU, but they have vastly expanded. They sought to "teach values of democracy and pluralism to low income people but found that these people end up teaching much more." The organization "makes people beleive that they can change something in their lives." They have had really incredible successes. The woman who spoke to us made Aliya a while ago and started this organization. It was really very inspiring.

Today, I had chumash and modern Jewish thought. I will elaborate more later.