Jewish Holidays

On Yom Kippur of 2023, Jews were pitted against Jews across the country. Thirteen days later, October 7 would remind Israelis that beneath their deepest divisions, there was still a collective “we.”

Few images capture Yom Kippur more powerfully than a person bent over a machzor (prayer book), quietly reciting its catalogue of sins.

How is it that precisely on the eve of the day when a person stands before his Creator, and his judgment for the coming year is sealed, we are commanded to eat and rejoice?

When confronted by our own absurdity and inadequacy, Judaism turns the tables and asks us to eat festive meals, sing optimistic songs, and make Rosh Hashanah into a holy celebration.

At its core, the shofar is the sound of self-sacrifice. It echoes Abraham’s willingness to sublimate his own wishes to those of God, prompting all of us to submit to a greater good.

Rosh Hashanah invites us to remove, even if only for a moment, the coverings that conceal us throughout the year, and to look inward, toward the place where our soul resides. 

The year leaves us with a divided picture: God’s presence has felt startlingly close, even as it has grown more obscured in the moral and cultural chaos around us.

Uman, a city in central Ukraine, is the burial site of Rabbi Nachman of Breslov (1772–1810), the founder of the Breslov Hasidic movement.

Safed has spent 500 years turning brokenness into renewal. Today, its ancient stone alleys hold a living landscape of healing, spirituality, art, food, and community.

A shofar that would not sound and Shahar Pe'er's refusal to quit offer an Elul lesson in perseverance, inner strength and preparing for the Jewish New Year one day at a time.