By Yonina Silverman
Every Tuesday afternoon we load buses and head to the Pardes Beit Midrash. Here, we divide into classes and learn for a couple of hours about different topics including Jewish Identity, Woman in Judaism, Talmud study and modern Jewish thought. These couple of hours are a combination of classroom learning and chevrutah time where were learn the material together with a partner. After these class session are over, we all gather back together again for a delicious dinner. This a time to reflect and discuss the classes we just had with our friends. For those who do not want to discuss, however, it is also a time for casual conversation with those around us. After dinner, we all gather together in the Beit Midrash for a sicha klalit where we hear from a different speaker every week. Both the classroom learning and the communal learning are a great way to interact with our friends in a different way than we are used to interacting with them during the rest of the week. It is a time to pause our academic school life and just focus on Torah study. No matter your Torah background, every member of the Nachshon project is able to study texts at their own level and at their own pace. I look forward to this learning every week and hope that I continue to learn as much, if not more, than I have already consumed.
