The industry of Holocaust remembrance is huge, and for good reason. The mere thought of people forgetting this singular atrocity is inconceivable. That’s why we have countless memorials, museums and community events devoted primarily to remembering this lowest point in Jewish history.

I’d like to suggest we add one element to this Jewish imperative to remember: to do a mitzvah, or good deed.

From the beginning, “Russian Doll” has been very Jewish. Nadia’s birthday party in episode one is set in a former yeshiva; one of the first lines of the show is “it’s laced with cocaine like the Israelis do it”; and quite a bit of time is spent in a rabbi’s office trying to make sense of the drama of repeatedly dying. The second season keeps Judaism front and center.

It’s pretty easy to choose to see the good as gifts from God. It’s much harder to see difficulties in the same light. Recently, my husband was in a minor car accident where he was at fault. Temporarily rattled, he quickly decided to see it as a gift, despite the hassles of dealing with insurance and repairs: no one was hurt, and he considered it a wake-up call to avoid distractions while driving, particularly from phone calls.

Did Dana Schutz, a white artist, have the right to paint Emmett Till? Was it fair that a white historian, David Blight, won a Pulitzer for his biography of Frederick Douglass? Should Steven Spielberg and Tony Kushner be the ones to update “West Side Story,” a musical conceived by four Jewish men but fundamentally about Puerto Rican lives?

Let’s make it personal: Am I, as a new columnist for The Times, allowed to weigh in on anything other than a narrow sliver of Gen X white woman concerns?

Picture a philosopher, and you’ll probably come up with someone old and wise, like Socrates, or avant-garde, like Simone de Beauvoir. Or maybe you’ll imagine an academic, toiling in a tweed jacket. Whatever image you’ve got, you’ve likely pictured an adult. But the truth is that philosophers are more common on preschool playgrounds than college campuses.

I understand that everyone is hungry for boundaries around tech usage, which are sorely needed and have proven very difficult to formulate and enforce. But efforts to invent a Shabbat outside the religious paradigm are largely doomed to fail, for a host of small practical reasons and one really giant, philosophical one.

And Aaron shall place lots upon the two he goats: one lot “For the Lord,” and the other lot, “For Azazel.”

–Lev. 16:8

Rabbi Michael Barclay: The moment of death is as powerful as the moment of birth, and this verse reminds us of this power as it prepares us for Yom Kippur.

Aaron’s sons have just died, and the text reminds us of this fact, inviting us to ask – why does God command Moses to speak of the ritual of the temple now?

First, it reminds Aaron that despite his loss, life continues.

Torah celebrates the diversity of the human spirit. It encourages creativity, originality and ingenuity. But it is crucial to remember that these commendable concepts must always be anchored into our obligations in life and that they do not destroy our identity. There are guidelines as to how we must use our creativity in life. It cannot be impetuous and hot-headed creativity.

Shmuel Rosner and guest Ohad Leslau discuss his new hebrew book about Operation Defensive Shield.

Get out your Yiddish-English dictionary and join Mark and Lowell as they talk with Elon Gold, the hilarious and talented stand-up comedian, impressionist and actor about life, love and the dangers of working while Jewish.

Deborah Newbrun, co-founder of SVARA’s Queer Talmud Camp, and the beloved former-director of Camp Tawonga, is launching a new initiative, entitled Divorce and Discovery: A Jewish Healing Retreat. She joins Dan Libenson and Lex Rofeberg to discuss her vision for the first-ever Jewish retreat that will be crafted, specifically, to provide participants the chance to heal from divorce.