This is NOT a political podcast in the sense of promoting a political agenda. It's about a very serious threat to our democracy in general and to us Jews in particular. To those who say "It can't happen here," the fact is that it has already begun to happen here and the midterms may be our best chance of stopping it before it is too late. 

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There is nothing antiquated or embarrassing about Sukkot or its rituals. In fact, in a world beset by repeating environmental disasters caused by global warming, it may well be the most significant Jewish observance with regard to the natural world we live in.

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This week's episode completes the series on many of the matters we must be concerned  with--and that we must atone for if we failed to act on these concerns in 5782--in approaching the High Holy Days and Yom Kippur especially. Women's rights...workers' rights...issues involving the migrant wave coming across the Southern U.S. border...how business affairs must be conducted...and so much more are covered here. I refer to the episode as "The Roadmap to Repentance on steroids" because it covers so much territory. PLEASE NOTE that my next podcast will air on October 7 because I need to concentrate on preparing services for Rosh Hashanah and Yom Kippur.

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The Repentance Clock is ticking. The High Holy Days are now just over four weeks away! This is the second of three episodes designed to help us prepare for making the "accounting of our souls" that the 10 days from Rosh Hashanah through Yom Kippur are all about. This episode focuses on the heavy emphasis the Torah places on our responsibilities towards the poor and the disadvantaged, especially our need to see to it that they have life's basic necessities in adequate supply—and especially wholesome, nutritious food. When you consider that 1 in 10 Americans are considered "food insecure"—12 million children among them—it's easy to understand why the Torah makes this something we need to place on our Repentance To Do Lists. 

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The High Holy Days are just over six weeks away! The next three episodes will help us prepare for making the "accounting of our souls" that is the task of the 10 days from Rosh Hashanah through Yom Kippur. This is part 1. Part 2 is in two weeks.

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The absolutely saddest day on the Jewish calendar is just over a week away, and will be ignored by most Jews. Sad day though it is, it actually has a very uplifting message--and it's that message that makes it a day we should never ignore.

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This Saturday evening, we begin a 21-day period of increasingly mournful restrictions. In all, there are 72 mournful days on the Jewish calendar.  That averages out each year to one out of every five days on the secular calendar. Five of these days are fast days (such as the one this coming Sunday). But should these days even be there? And do they really represent the tragedies of the past that are claimed for them? There's a lot of food for thought in this episode.

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Be forewarned: Three decisions by the Supreme Court in the last 10 days--including knocking down Roe v Wade--signal that the current conservative majority is in lockstep with the extreme evangelical right's efforts to do away with the Establishment Clause of the First Amendment and turn America into a right-wing Christian nation. They're getting close to accomplishing that and here's what we need to do to stop it in its tracks.

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Climate change catastrophes abound. Wildfires, droughts, floods, and warnings about another above-average hurricane season are all attributed to climate change. The climate IS changing, and not for the better. What isn’t changing is what we’re doing about it. (Then again, Marjorie Taylor Greene says all this carbon in the atmosphere is really good for us.) Scientists have been warning us about all this for the last 50 years. Judaism has been warning us about it from the day Moses came down from that mountain.

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When the Supreme Court's approval rating drops from 58 percent a year ago to 40 percent today--the lowest it's ever been---you know there's a problem. That problem is that the court has become politicized to a point where people no longer trust it to safeguard our rights. It goes about making decisions based on a specious philosophy when it should be approaching cases the way Judaism approaches Torah law.

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