Are you ready? can we ever be? This week's double parsha Nitzavim-Vayalech begins with the power of everyone standing there, present and somehow ready to cross over, to return, to commit.

How do we have moments of celebration and joy even when the world feels so dark and scary? The Book of Deuteronomy mentions joy and joyful service 12 times and Rabbi Jonathan Sacks makes an important distinction between happiness and joy. Ki tavo, entering the Land of Milk and Honey, begins with the instruction to celebrate, with joy, the first fruits. What is that land for us and how can we serve in joy?

Where do we focus our attention when there are so many demands pulling us in different directions? The month of Elul that leads us into the High Holidays is a time of teshuvah, return, but what are we returning to? Working on our own qualities, our relationships, the suffering in the world outside calling us? It can be overwhelming. Perhaps we need permission to pick one thing...

Recorded at No Time for Neutrality: a T'ruah Rabbinic Convening in Berkeley, California with special guests Rabbis Jill Jacobs and Aryeh Cohen. Jill Jacobs is the Executive Director of T'ruah: The Rabbinic Call for Human RIghts and Aryeh Cohen is professor of rabbinic literature at the Ziegler School of Rabbinic Studies, rabbi in residence at Bend the Arc and a former board member of T'ruah. In the week when the Torah demands us to pursue justice and we begin the month of Elul, join the conversation on Judaism and justice

The perspective and feeling at over 14,000 ft above sea level is exhilarating and gave some perspective on the world and on the Torah, which this week invites us to see the blessing and the curse and perhaps the delicate relationship between them.

"How good it will be when you really listen!" This is how my teacher Reb Zalman translated the first words of the Torah verses that became the second paragraph of the Shema. Listening is so much more than hearing words.

Moses has to climb a mountain to look out on the Promised Land and let go of any possibility of entering it, which has been his life's mission. Unfulfilled dreams can seem like a punishment, but letting go and embracing what is can be a great gift.

This week we start the 5th book of the Torah, Devarim, Deuteronomy, and we are in the days that lead us to Tisha b'Av, when we commemorate the destruction of both temples in Jerusalem. The Book of Lamentations, read on that day, is called Eicha in Hebrew, which means "how can it be?" So, how can it be?

The force of hatred and intolerance between us is so powerful that it is the force that led to the destruction of the Temple in Jerusalem according to the rabbis. This negative energy is known as sinat chinam, baseless hate. So, what is the antidote? Baseless love is the answer given by Rav Kook.

Can a violent act lead to peace? Is zealotry ever a good thing or is it just another name for religious fanaticism? The character of Pinchas in our continuing narratives in the Book of Numbers invite all these questions. Rabbi Marc is joined by his old friend Rabbi Gavriel Goldfeder, Senior Jewish Educator at MIT Hillel to discuss these questions and more.