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Sep 5, 2026, 9:49 AM

We Are Closer Than You Think

Upper School student in Maimonides School, Brookline, MA

Ever since I watched Rabbi Dov Huff teach a new song to our eighth graders at our weekly kumsitz several years ago, there is a phrase in Parshat Netzavim, and on our lips this time of year, that I have...

Sarah Tuttle-Singer

Sep 4, 2026, 3:16 PM

God is in the field — but I live in the city

We are elbows-deep into Elul, and they tell us that God is in the fields. This is an old teaching: During the month before the High Holy Days, the King leaves the palace and comes out to meet us where...

Sep 2, 2026, 5:10 AM

Who Should do Teshuva? Parshat Nitzavim Vayelech

FOREWORD This week I was fortunate to be with my immediate family to celebrate the bar mitzvah of my grandnephew. In addition to being honored with the third aliyah, I was invited to give a talk in the afternoon. As I...

Joel M. Greenberg

Sep 1, 2026, 12:27 AM

The Spiritual Side of Financial Planning

Teshuvah, Tefillah and Tzedakah: The Spiritual Side of Financial Planning On Rosh Hashanah and Yom Kippur, we say that teshuvah, tefillah and tzedakah—return, prayer and charitable giving—can transform the severity of the decree. These words can also provide a meaningful framework for...

Hande Gençünal

Aug 30, 2026, 5:03 PM

What Ten Days Conceal, on Aseret Yemei Teshuvah

We call these days the Ten Days, we always have. But when I counted, I found only seven days between the end of Rosh Hashanah and the start of Yom Kippur. To reach ten, you have to fold in...

Shmuly Yanklowitz

Aug 27, 2026, 9:07 PM

A Shofar Blast: The Universalism our Jewish Community is Forgetting

We think of Rosh Hashanah as one of the most Jewish days of the year. We blow the shofar to jolt us awake and eat special fruits to sweeten the mark of the “Jewish New Year.” But what we’re...

Aug 27, 2026, 3:25 PM

At the Table, Not Under the Canopy

Signature: 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

The Bride, the Friends, and Those Left in the Outer Darkness There is a primary, undeniable romance running like a golden thread through the Hebrew Scriptures: Hashem is the Husband, and Israel is His Bride. Every covenantal mechanism, every boundary stone,...

Aug 26, 2026, 5:17 AM

Who Gets to Write Our History?

Why the Jewish story matters in the age of Wikipedia, TikTok and AI Elul asks us to return. But return requires memory. A people cannot return to a story it no longer knows. In my first Elul reflection, inspired by Rav...

Aug 24, 2026, 5:32 AM

The Trouble With Guilt

In the 1970s, psychologist Baruch Fischhoff conducted an experiment that revealed something unsettling about the way we judge the past. Once people were told how an uncertain event had actually turned out, the outcome suddenly seemed more predictable than it...

Jonathan Muskat

Aug 19, 2026, 6:32 PM

What Is Elul Actually Asking of Me?

Can I tell you about a confession that didn't work? Picture doing everything right. You feel it, really feel it, not the performed version. You say the words. You mean them. "This happened because I drifted from God." Honest. Unflinching....

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