Rabbi Leon Morris is President of Pardes and the first Pardes alumnus to lead the institution, having studied in both the Year (‘94-’95) and Summer (‘93, ‘94) Programs. Ordained by Hebrew Union College in 1997, Leon previously served as rabbi of Temple Adas Israel in Sag Harbor, founding director of the Temple Emanu-El Streicker Center in Manhattan, and Vice President for Israel Programs at the Shalom Hartman Institute.
Leon has taught at Orthodox, Conservative and Reform institutions and has worked extensively with the Jewish community of India since serving there as a Jewish Service Corps volunteer in 1990. A regular contributor to the Jewish, Israeli and American press, he is also an editor of the Reform High Holy Day machzor Mishkan HaNefesh.
During a holiday where there is both darkness and light, where we retreat indoors and shine brightly from the windowsill, go on a journey with Pardes North America to find meaning in the discord within our tradition. Night 3 –…
Jewish Calendar, Chanukah
Parashat Beshalach 5782: A Taste of Something Rare Description: The story of the manna in the wilderness occupies a significant place in the larger desert narrative. A great many verses are devoted to the role of manna in the survival…
Tanakh, Torah, Shemot (Exodus), Beshalach
Greatest Hits: The High Holidays Episode 1: Resurrection and Rosh Hashana: Multivalent Perspectives on the Binding of Isaac Description: There is no story as rich and complex, as troubling and inspiring, as Akedat Yitzchak, the binding of Isaac which is…
Jewish Calendar, Rosh Hashana
Pinchas and Eliyahu are biblical figures who are rewarded for their zealousness. For many of the later Rabbis, such zealousness is problematic, and they read a degree of rebuke into the biblical text. What results is a shift in the…
Tanakh, Torah, Bamidbar (Numbers), Pinchas
This podcast was originally published in 2017 and even more relevant today. Devarim 5781: The Words of Moses — The Torah’s First “Translation” In many ways, the book of Deuteronomy — a series of long discourses by Moses — is…
Tanakh, Torah, Devarim (Deuteronomy), Devarim
The essence of Judaism seems to be encapsulated by a broad reading of the first two of the Ten Commandments: There is one God, and God has no body. With that as a basis of faith, we may be unnerved…
Tanakh, Torah, Shemot (Exodus), Mishpatim
Sometimes we need to shed our disguises in order to discover who we really are. At other times we need to dress up in disguises to remind us of who we want to be. The story of Jacob and Esau…
Tanakh, Torah, Bereishit (Genesis), Toldot
Jews have been praying for the governments of the countries they lived in since the time of the Babylonian exile. Yet the founding of a Jewish and democratic state presents a radically different relationship between the State and its citizens,…
Jewish Calendar, Yom Ha’atzmaut, Yom Hazikaron
This piyut was featured as part of the introduction of Rabbi Leon Morris’s Pardes from Jerusalem podcast for Rosh Hashana 5780. You can hear that podcast here. You can find this piyut and others at the National Library of Israel,…
Jewish Calendar, Rosh Hashana