For most of us, the beginner stage is something to be got through as quickly as possible, like a socially awkward skin condition. But even if we’re only passing through, we should pay particular attention to this moment. For once it goes, it’s hard to get back. Think of a time when you first visited a new, distant place, one with which you were barely familiar. Upon arrival, you were alive to every novelty… After a few days, as you became more expert in the place, what seemed strange began to become familiar. You began noticing less. You became safer in your knowledge. Your behaviour became more automatic.

As the economy changes, and quarantine has revealed that many jobs can be performed remotely, you might find yourself with more geographic flexibility than you have had in a long time. If you’re uncomfortable with the status quo, this time when life has been paused might be just the impetus you need to make you consider a change of place. This year could be the chance for you to move to the place where your heart resides.

Whatever the ultimate relationship of Great Britain and Europe may be, the current breakup underscores how deeply national identity runs through human psychology. A review of both the psychology literature and anthropological research on societies ranging from the ethnolinguistic groups of hunter-gatherers to tribes, chiefdoms, and states (less formally, “nations”),3 reveal that a universal society is unattainable. Populations across the globe today may devour Starbucks, KFC, and Coca-Cola. They may enjoy Italian opera, French couture, and Persian carpets. But no matter how many exotic influences each absorbs or what foreign connections they make, nations don’t just fade away.

I reread “Man’s Search for Meaning,” Victor Frankl’s account of navigating life in Auschwitz and how he continually chose to interpret his experience as something that he could survive and even grow from, through building his inner strength and refusing to lose his humanity. Pain is relative, loneliness is real, but a year of coronavirus restrictions are negligible when we consider the bigger picture.

Words are simply not adequate to define or contain the emotions following the assault on January 6 on the U.S. Capitol and American democracy. We Jews have a profound stake in this nation… Over the course of our nation’s history, we have helped to frame a political contract that defines our relationship to the American story, celebrating its liberties and experiencing its freedoms while being present to serve and defend our fellow citizens.

Judaism teaches that life’s struggles strengthen us and give us the ability to fly. A theological maxim dictates God only gives us tests we can pass. Ideally, we accept our trials as proof of God’s love for us; proof God wants us to maximize our potential. Tests aren’t an interruption of your life — they are your life. Take the word Yisrael (Israel), which means “struggling with God.” Jacob receives this news when he wrestles with an angel. He establishes the essence of Jewish meritocracy: to grapple with God and faith and emerge stronger for the effort.

“Moses didn’t grow up with these people but he identified with them. He killed for them, and that’s why he had to run away. Still, one wonders why G-d chooses who He chooses to be his prophet.”

So Pharaoh’s heart stiffened and he would not let the Israelites go, just as the LORD had foretold through Moses. -Ex. 9:35

Miriam Yerushalmi: The Torah warns us not to blindly follow our heart’s desires… Pharaoh, the Egyptian ruler, allowed himself to become captive to the wicked desires of his heart, which overrode his intellectual capacity.

Moses is charged by God with bringing Israel an astonishing bit of news after centuries of oppression. The news of liberation comes to the slaves of Israel – but they are unable to hear it. We are told that because of kotzer ruach – literally shortness of spirit, and because of hard bondage, the beleaguered people are impervious to Moses’s message of hope…

Shaarei Zedek President Jonathan Halevy discusses the COVID-19 vaccine miracle.

“How did Israel accomplish this miracle with the vaccine? Keep your ears open during this interview, because I’ve been trying to understand how the vaccine works, and I finally figured it out because of this conversation. It has to do with creating safe spikes. Remember those words: safe spikes.”

If only Erin and Esther had a wishing stone so they could wish “Wonder Woman 1984” was a better movie… But the Bagels had fun breaking it all down: from what Gal Gadot means as a symbol of Judaism and Israel… And while unpacking the theology and lessons of Pixar’s “Soul,” Erin and Esther discover the truth within: we’re all just little soul blobs looking for our purpose.

Kotkin recently published an essay in Quillette, “God and the Pandemic,” and he joins our Mosaic editor Jonathan Silver to talk about that essay, and to assess what’s happening in American religious culture today as the pandemic continues to take its toll. Kotkin, looking at religious life empirically, examines the role of technology and human adaptability in the present religious environment, and he tries to think about the long-term effects COVID-19 will have on synagogues, churches, mosques and other religious communities across the country.