Whether you were worried about COVID-19 or a persistent hangnail, you probably made up your mind months ago that 2020 has been the worst year in recent memory — a completely irredeemable year, in fact… So yes, it’s been one hell of a year. But as far as things getting worse in 2020 are concerned, we’re just one week away from the definitive moment of damnation or redemption: the U.S. presidential election.

In the Netherlands, people have been seeking out windy exercise for more than a hundred years. Today, the practice is so common that it’s known as “uitwaaien.” It “literally translates to ‘outblowing,’” explains Caitlin Meyer, a lecturer at the University of Amsterdam’s Department of Dutch Linguistics. “It’s basically the activity of spending time in the wind, usually by going for a walk or a bike ride.”

We take history to be an essentially worldly, secular, materialist, empirical discipline. We presume that the factors, human acts, and dynamic forces that we invoke to explain why the world is as it is are of this Earth and objectively discernible. And yet the discipline emerged from a search for meaning that adopted the eschatological structure of religious belief. It was built to endow morally questionable events with purpose and meaning revealed in the narrative end of history.

Rabbis and local leaders need to create multiple opportunities for people to meet safely and to stay connected to the very idea of human connection. As we continue riding our digital runaway train, we are getting further and further away from the real stuff of life that no Zoom event can ever replace.

Jewish students, whether liberal, moderate, or conservative, must demand and defend viewpoint diversity, not work toward shutting down speech. Censorship is an illiberal tendency, not a liberal one. As John Stuart Mill knew, “We can never be sure that the opinion we are endeavoring to stifle is a false opinion; and if we were sure, stifling it would be an evil still.”

Daniels is part of the next wave of Jewish fat liberationists. They reject diet culture, embrace size, and advocate for the civil rights of all bodies. And they feel the Jewish community, in all its diversity, needs to make space for them. There are cues to take from these activists, who argue that compassion, intersectional liberation, and self-love are infinitely more important than attempting to starve, shrink, or change a body.

“I think Abraham in the modern world would be a kind of workaholic. An individual who is very passionate about his mission and his field but who has kind of lost a sense of self.”

I will not take so much as a thread or a sandal strap from what is yours, so that you shall not say, ‘I made Abram wealthy.’ – Gen. 14:23

Rabbanit Alissa Thomas-Newborn: It is clear to Avram that benefitting from someone who has acted immorally (as the king of Sodom had) makes him complicit in that same wickedness. What’s all the more fascinating is that our tradition teaches that Avram’s decision is rewarded with the mitzvot of tzitzit and tefillin– both mitzvot that emphasize an awareness of God at all times.

I’d like to trade all my possessions

for the Hebrew letter hey.

Pick up extra work as a star in the sky

promised to an ancient ancestor.

That deal you made, Father Abraham.

The ink’s still drying.

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A poignant story that captures our pandemic times, by Karin Katz.

“The confluence of Coronavirus and chronic illness. Today we have a first person story from the mother of someone with the chronic condition of cystic fibrosis. When I heard it, I understood that I need to share this with my listeners.”

Shmuel Rosner and Chuck Freilich discuss what moves the future president should make regarding America’s relationship with Israel and more…

“The number one foreign policy issue in terms of importance and immediacy for the next president is Iran. Following President Trump’s (what I believe) totally mistaken withdrawal from the Iran Nuclear Deal, Iran is only four months away from having enough material for their first two bombs.”

Rabbi Reuven Wolf of Maayon Yisroel Chassidic Center, takes us deep into Jewish mysticism as Sal and his rabbi explore some tough questions: Why does God hide? What does Messiah mean within Judaism? What do all Jews have in common? What is the role of non-Jews in the World to Come?

“The Hassidic movement is a messianic movement. Many people don’t know that. It’s rooted in a drive to drive the Jewish people into the last phase of our history into our ultimate redemption.”