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Silas Anastacio

Sep 26, 2026, 12:11 AM

Isabel Cohn: Belonging is Resisting – The Strength of the Jewish Community

A Yom Kippur reflection on community, tradition, and belonging. Isabel Cohn, President of the Congregação Israelita Paulista – Templo Beth-El in São Paulo, Brazil, shares a profound and inspiring reflection on the challenges and strengths of contemporary Jewish life. In...

Zahava Feldstein

Sep 24, 2026, 8:59 AM

On Yom Kippur, Man Plans and God Laughs

You can watch the transcribed audio-podcast version of this article here: Man Plans and God Laughs. Click to watch the video. This year, I prayed not to be inscribed in the Book of Life. There is no careful way to say...

Sep 24, 2026, 5:42 AM

The AI Dialectic – Can Ancient Faith Give Artificial Intelligence a Conscience?

A Sermon for the Tech Age This past Yom Kippur, Rabbi Naftali Citron of the Carlebach synagogue in New York delivered a sermon that stayed with me long after the final blast of the Shofar. His message was urgent: our...

Sep 23, 2026, 3:22 AM

The Maggid of Flatbush Pleased Heaven with ‘Nigun Shamil’ on Yom Kippur

When Rabbi Zalman Liberow sang a nigun cherished by the Lubavitcher Rebbe, an old melody of captivity and freedom became a prayer of return. There are moments in prayer when words are no longer enough. On Yom Kippur at Chabad Lubavitch...

Sep 20, 2026, 8:39 AM

Mental Health In The Parsha – Yom Kippur: The Hardest Person to Forgive

There's one name that never seems to make it onto my list of people to forgive. My own. I can forgive almost anyone else. I can believe, most days, that Hashem forgives me. But somewhere in the middle there's a...

Allen S. Maller

Sep 18, 2026, 6:15 PM

If God had so willed, he would have made you One Community

“They (some Jews) have set up their religious leaders and scholars as lords instead of God. Others (most Christians) deified the Messiah, son of Mary. They were all commanded to worship only one God. There is no God except...

Sep 18, 2026, 2:25 PM

How to fail Yom Kippur

From an illuminated 'Ashamnu,' by Nathan [ben Samson] of Mezhyrich, 1723, in the repentance liturgy. (Wikipedia)

I take my lesson from 'Severance' and its portrait of failure; to safeguard against it, I'll be preparing a personal confession and naming my hopes for the future

Sep 17, 2026, 8:45 PM

Cycles of Time, Holiday Challah and the Milky Way

Spiritual growth can be perplexing and that's why it's helpful to ground ourselves in our spiritual traditions and cycles of time. I am following up on some insights of Rabbi Abraham Joshua Heschel that Jews hallow time. Taking a look...

Allen S. Maller

Sep 17, 2026, 6:48 AM

Of 2000 Prophets 1000 Were Ongoing Israelites

Brannon Wheeler in his article: ”Arab Prophets of the Quran and Bible." Journal of Quranic Studies 8.2 (2006): 24-57: a study that focuses on the question of the ‘Arab’ prophets Hūd, Sālih, and Shucayb. Of all the prophets mentioned...

Daniel R. Weiss

Sep 17, 2026, 4:22 AM

What does Ben Franklin have to do with Yom Kippur?

An AI-generated portrait imagining the three figures of this story together, Benjamin Franklin holding the Constitution, Menachem Mendel Lefin his Cheshbon Hanefesh, and Israel Salanter a volume of mussar. In life they never shared a room; the discipline of moral accounting is the thread that binds them.

His method for pursuing moral perfection found its way into Jewish practice. His call to 'doubt a little of his own infallibility' sounds made for Yom Kippur

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