A revelation came to me last week as Shavuot, the holiday of Revelation, descended upon me last week. I’m entering new territory, and not sure where it will take me, but it sure is exciting! Take a listen.

Why does it sometimes feel like when you don’t want to be counted as part of the “in” group, it’s so easy? Other times, when you do want to be counted as “in,” you’re out. Questions of inclusivity and exclusivity are so pertinent to Judaism and to the world, for the survival of all. If we don’t “get it” soon, what is the future of humanity?

What does it mean when the Torah says God will walk amongst us? How do we know if we’re doing what God wants so God will walk with us? A couple of weeks ago another young gay person committed suicide. Because he felt that his brothers were not walking with him. And I’m getting so much pushback from other rabbis for co-officiating at these weddings! Walk with me and explore what it means to walk with God—as God will do with us!

What is holiness? What is holy? Should perfection be associated with holiness, and why is it so in the Torah? This week I met with an Evangelical Christian pastor with whom I will be co-officiating at a wedding. It brought up many questions I had to answer for myself—again!

Leviticus is full rules. The one I focus on here is The Golden Rule, perhaps the hardest thing. But being kind to others, even strangers, is more important and has more of an impact than we ever imagine.

We’re in the midst of a mental health crisis due to an epidemic of loneliness. But we’re not helpless. Listen to some great ideas of small ways to help yourself and others.

Passover can be about our personal freedom and leaving the narrow place of Egypt, but the focus is really on the collective. If living a holy life is what we seek, then how do we do it? This week’s parsha tells us a little bit about that.

The hardest time leading up to Passover is the week just before—or the days. The cleaning, shopping, cooking, all have to happen in a particular order. Once leavened products are out of your house, you still can’t eat matzoh. So much liminal time—the difficulty of waiting. This is what the priests go through before ordination: waiting for seven days in a doorway. As we struggle as a world, with all the bad news coming from Israel and our country, too, we are in a liminal space, not crossing over into better times yet, and we wonder how much longer we can wait: how much worse can it get? What does it mean to be priests in our time?

In this week’s episode, I explore the question of sacrifice, respect, and how we can approach a crumbling world that feels too overwhelming to have an impact.

Here I discuss the special pressure on women to look a certain way, how social media has blurred the lines between private and professional life, and how difficult it is to navigate this as I step fully into being an older, female rabbi. And what this has to do with this week’s Torah reading.