I have found that most of the serious approaches to happiness can be mapped onto two ancient traditions, promoted by the Greek philosophers Epicurus and Epictetus. In a nutshell, they focus on enjoyment and virtue, respectively. Individuals typically gravitate toward one style or the other, and many major philosophies have followed one path or the other for about two millennia.

What will life on other planets look like, when—not if—it’s found? Arik Kershenbaum, a researcher at the University of Cambridge, takes up this question in “The Zoologist’s Guide to the Galaxy: What Animals on Earth Reveal About Aliens—and Ourselves” (Penguin Press). “It’s a popular belief that alien life is too alien to imagine,” he writes. “I don’t agree.”

Perhaps it takes a non-genius to analyse how exceptional human accomplishment happens. During my years at Harvard and at Yale, I met a lot of smart people, including a half-dozen Nobel Prize winners. If you’re a prodigy with a great gift for something, you can simply do it – yet might not be aware of why and how.

A new era of exile lays in wait. It is both near and far — the end result of a process which we think of as slow but which is, in truth, dizzyingly fast. Despite decades of hand-wringing about existential threats, this exile will have nothing to do with a nuclear Iran or conflict with the Palestinians. Contrary to what the politicians told us, the Jews will not be driven out of the land by those they called our enemies. Rather, we will leave humbled, as refugees, with those enemies alongside us.

When the chief of staff of the IDF speaks about the Iran nuclear deal, knowing full well that a new American administration is looking to renegotiate it — that’s a big deal. When the chief of staff of the IDF, Aviv Kochavi, said that had the 2015 deal materialized, Iran would have obtained a nuclear bomb — that’s a clear message concerning future expectations.

…the reason many Jews talk so “much” about the Holocaust is the same reason most of us have annually re-told the story of our liberation from slavery in Egypt every Passover for the past 3000 plus years. Because we recognize the importance of remembrance, education and liberation. Because we recognize the truth in the expression that those who don’t know history are doomed to repeat it.

Check out this Torah Talk from last year on Parashat Beshalach:

“God is afraid that the people are not ready yet… God sees a group of people coming out from hundreds of years of slavery and fears that they’re not ready to become a nation. It takes time to become a nation.”

The neatly ordered epic of Exodus, with its moral clarity and carefully plotted drama, is gone. In its place is a void where nothing has proportion. Great miracles seem small and small troubles loom large. The mighty wonders with which God delivered the Israelites no longer seem so impressive, while each instance of the peoples’ grumbling against Moses grates on the ears as he imagines enduring this stiff-necked people day after day after day.

It came to pass when Pharaoh let the people go, that God did not lead them [by] way of the land of the Philistines for it was near, because God said, Lest the people reconsider when they see war and return to Egypt. -Ex. 13:17

Rabbi Elchanan Shoff: Because of God’s close relationship with Israel, He made an active and involved choice to direct their destiny in a way that it would not have unfolded otherwise without His involvement.

In honor of International Holocaust Remembrance Day, a conversation with Stanlee Stahl of the Jewish Foundation for the Righteous.

“I’ve always been fascinated by the non-Jews- the righteous gentiles – who refused to be passive in the face of the evil they witnessed.”

Shmuel Rosner and Nadav Eyal discuss Nadav’s book, “Revolt: The Worldwide Uprising Against Globalization”, out now in English.

“The world is witnessing a revolt… People feel that their power structures are hollow, corrupt, or unrepresentative. This might manifest as the extreme right wing or the extreme left wing.”

After some initial reflections on the Inauguration—in an episode recorded before Bernie Sanders became a coat-swaddled meme—the Bagels talk about Jewish rituals that mark moments of change.