Even though I will be at Pardes tomorrow for the farewell lunch, today was really the last day because it was my last day of classes. It was a pleasantly normal day; most classes were business as usual until the very end. I think I like that.
In Daniel Roth’s humash class, Damien gave the last presentation of the year (on Melkitzedek) and then Jordan, Yael, and I spoke about how we had changed and grown through the class and Pardes. Daniel’s final words fittingly took the form of one last lesson, he even gave out source sheets.
David Levin-Kruss’s final Rambam class focused on the resurrection of the dead and the world to come. Not a favorite topic, but DLK always finds a way to make something interesting and personally relevant. We all then mentioned something that we had personally gained from the class, I said that I had learned that there has never been a single authoritative Jewish conception of God, or even on many aspects of our theology, and that I’m glad to have learned it.
My last class of the year was Tzvi Hirschfeld’s Seminar on Jewish Thought. We were finishing up presentations on our fourth and final topic, Feminism and Judaism. I presented last. My presentation was in essay form and I had a lot of fun writing it and reading it, and I was happy with how it turned out – the content and the style. After all the students had finished, Tzvi presented his personal views on all the topics we had studied throughout the term, which was a nice way to end the class.
It’s kinda unreal that this year of study is over already; sometimes I feel as though it has hardly begun. Still, I leave with some measure of satisfaction, aware that I have gained immensely from this year’s studies. It’s been a wonderful and amazing year, and I’ve been truly privileged to have been able to study with this singular group of teachers and students.
Somehow those words don’t feel quite adequate to express what I’m feeling – but it’s late, so they’ll have to do.
