Jane Eisner: The Blessing of Aging Gracefully

Assuming that his health holds, my father-in-law will join us for Rosh Hashanah, as he has for many years. My brother-in-law drives him from his home in Northern Virginia, and though his eyesight is failing and his gait increasingly unsteady, he will sit through the davening at Minyan M’at and slip upstairs on the second… Read more »

Jeremy Kalmanofsky: Elul Consciousness

“The past is never dead,” wrote William Faulkner. “It’s not even past.” As long as things we said and did long ago still shape our conduct and character – well, then, prior events are still very present. Thinking this way might leave you neurotic, imprisoned by things you cannot change. Maybe it would be better… Read more »

Oren Rudavsky: Davka

I recently completed producing a documentary film which filled my daily life with great meaning. The film Elie Wiesel: Soul on Fire is infused with the words of Elie in his own voice, and those words have lived inside me these past several years. I’ve tried to embrace their philosophy, which I think is very appropriate for… Read more »

Thoughts on Tisha B’Av and Gaza

When Shabbat ends, Jews will begin the 9th of Av, our annual day of grief for the many destructions that befell our people. And surely our history warrants a day of fasting and dirges for all the suffering Jews have endured. But this year, let us add a healthy dose of grief over the suffering… Read more »

Lauren Wein: The Time to Edit

“May you be inscribed in the Book of Life.” In Tishrei, this is our collective goal and wish. There is no guarantee our wish will be granted, as we are reminded again and again that some of us will die by fire, by water, by the hand of God, by the hand of man. As… Read more »