Celebrating Eric Solomon

Jenny: My favorite memories at Pardes include the infectious and heart-opening vibration of a loud beit midrash, tender moments when I asked my Pardes teachers for wisdom and advice, and meeting my beloved Eric as a result of his year at Pardes! This summer we celebrate 25 years of marriage and the Holy One brought us together through Pardes!

Eric: While learning Talmud from Rav Aryeh Stirkowsky z’’l, he started telling me stories about Rav Soloveitchik z’’l and how the Rav encouraged him to wrestle on YU’s wrestling team because “there is Torah in everything”.

I’ll also always remember how Rav Meir Schweiger taught me so much about davening through his own kavanah, but even more so how he answered very specific halakhic questions that I didn’t feel comfortable asking anyone else.

Jenny: I studied Talmud seriously for the first time at Pardes. Leah Rosenthal opened my eyes to the wonder of our multi-vocal and endlessly rich inheritance through her deep love of the rabbis and their wisdom.

Eric: I lead all kinds of tefillot in a traditional manner, serving as the Shatz. My first Kiddush Levanah was gevaltik!

Jenny: There are so many favorites, but if I had to choose one, it would be Judy Klitsner’s Parshanut. She helped me cultivate the skills I would need to interpret Torah for the rest of my life. Her deep insight, vast knowledge, reverence for the sacred work of Torah study, and respect for the voice of every student continues to inform and inspire my love of learning and teaching Torah.

Eric: Parshanut with Judy Klitsner. She was perhaps the best teacher I ever had, then and since.

Jenny: I would bring together all of my Pardes teachers and ask them to reflect on their lives teaching Torah for so many decades. What have they learned? How has their teaching helped them to grow? What has changed over the years and what hasn’t? What is their favorite piece of torah at this moment?

Eric: Barack Obama. Most American Jews live a life of multiple identities including, at a minimum, being both Jewish and American. Barack Obama as well is an extraordinary American with multiple identities. What are the lessons he has learned from straddling so many different worlds and what advice would he offer to Jewish-Americans with multi-faceted identities?

Jenny: I am proud that I have found a way to lead my community with a leadership style, approach to Torah, and voice that is authentically my own. Thanks to my mentors, including teachers at Pardes, and my beloved rabbinic and life partner, Eric, I have found my own unique path. I am also proud that I founded and direct a community mikveh which honors Jewish tradition and change, so that all who enter our waters feel a sense of welcome and belonging.

Eric: Service. I have the privilege of doing Avodat Kodesh for a cause larger than myself, one that I stake my life on.

Jenny: Pardes impacts the way I teach Torah — always bringing people in conversation with the text, with one another, and in loving connection with me as their guide.

Eric: In every way. I could not learn a sugya of gemarra, or a piece of commentary from one of the classic mefarshim without my time in the beit midrash studying with my havrutot at Pardes. And I would have never had the time or dugma’ot to learn first-hand how to create a Jewishly-rich, spiritually-full set of personal Jewish practices without my Pardes mentors, teachers and friends.