In the latest edition of his Search for Meaning podcast, Stephen Wise Temple Senior Rabbi Yoshi Zweiback delivers his 2022 (5783) Rosh Hashanah sermon, entitled, "Circles of Concern." You can view the full video here.

The full transcript of Rabbi Yoshi's Rosh Hashanah sermon is below:

At the end of the movie, "Schindler’s List," Yitzhak Shtern, played by Ben Kingsley, presents Oskar Schindler with a ring. On it, he explains, are engraved words from the Talmud that say: "Whoever saves one life saves the world entire."

Schindler, played by Liam Neeson, is clearly moved. As he reaches out to shake Shtern's hand, he says, "I could have got more out … if I had just …"

"No, no, no," Shtern says: "... There are 1,100 people who are alive because of you—look at them … There will be generations because of what you did."

"I didn't do enough," Schindler says.

"You did so much," Shtern tells him.

The survivors whose lives Schindler saved really did give him a ring as a token of their appreciation. The gold was sourced from their fillings which they volunteered to the ring maker.

But the part about the inscription from the Talmud was the invention of the filmmakers and, if you know your Talmud, you might actually think that they got the quote wrong.

The original text that teaches that "whoever saves one life saves the world entire" comes from tractate Sanhedrin and the context is interesting and important.

It's part of the instructions a judge gives to witnesses in a capital case, warning them to be extra careful with their testimony since a person's life is literally at stake. To prove its point, the Talmud quotes a verse from the Bible, the one that describes the world's first murder—a fratricide—Cain killing his little brother Abel in jealousy and rage

In the story from the Torah, immediately after the murder, God says to Cain, "What have you done?!?! The blood of your brother cries out to me from the ground." (Gen. 4:10) The Rabbis notice though that the word "blood" in Hebrew is in the plural, literally, "the bloods of your brother - דְּמֵ֣י אָחִ֔יךָ." Why the plural? Because, the rabbis reason, Cain didn't just kill Abel. He killed all of Abel's potential descendants—generations that might have come to be had he lived.

And then the Talmud teaches: "Therefore the creation of all humanity began with just one individual soul—the first human—to teach you that whoever destroys one soul …, destroys an entire world. And whoever saves one soul … saves an entire world."

A person is an entire world because all humanity can descend from that one soul.

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In the latest edition of his Search for Meaning podcast, Stephen Wise Temple Senior Rabbi Yoshi Zweiback hosts writer, filmmaker, linguist, and self-described "nerdy Indiana Jones" Alan Niku, who may or may not moonlight as a vigilante superhero.

The Berkeley-educated Niku has a unique background, coming from an Iranian Jewish family. That background spurred his lifelong love of language and a deep and abiding sense of curiosity.

That curiosity led Niku—who grew up speaking Farsi—to delve into the language his Kurdish grandfather spoke. The more he learned, the more he realized that his grandfather wasn't speaking Kurdish, but a dialect of Aramaic—the language of the Talmud and parts of the Hebrew Bible.

Niku has used language as a window to history, as he has used linguistics to explore the development and nuance in the politics, culture, and faith, not to mention sociology, psychology, and human geography. Through Persian and Jewish languages, he has charted the unique blend of Jewish ritual and worship that developed in Persian Jewish communities.

You won't want to miss a minute of this fascinating look into Jewish history, including a manuscript dating from the 1700s.

In the latest edition of his Search for Meaning podcast, Stephen Wise Temple Senior Rabbi Yoshi Zweiback hosts Wise's Chief Engagement Officer, Rabbi Sari Laufer. The wide-ranging talk between two colleagues covers Israel, summer camps, sign language, their respective Torah portions, authenticity, and the recent Supreme Court decision to restrict reproductive freedoms in Dobbs v. Jackson.

The topic of Rabbi Sari's early Jewish learning brings up the subject of gender equity and representation.

A tangent about how New Yorkers use hands to talk—Rabbi Sari just finished reading "True Biz," a novel about the deaf community, which is all about non-verbal communication—leads to a fascinating discussion about liturgical sign language interpreters.

All of these are weaved into the story of how Rabbi Sari came to find her calling, and how she came to Wise.

The only child of a Conservadox mom and a classical Reform dad (both from Long Island), Rabbi Sari's story covers growing up in Manhattan, spending her summers at camp, her first trip to Israel, and her desire to work for the State Department and help solve the Middle East peace crisis.

A lover of languages (and now an avid viewer of Apple TV+'s "Tehran"), she was set to learn Hebrew and Arabic when she got to Northwestern University. When she arrived, though, she experienced something new: As a Jew, she was a minority. Growing up in New York, "There were no shortage of Jews," she says. "That was the overriding culture in New York City. All of these things are so baked in."

She sought out Jewish community in a way that she never had, and took a class that would change her life: Introduction to Judaism. For the first time, she encountered the academic side of Judaism—theology, theodicy, and philosophy—and fell in love.

In the latest edition of his Search for Meaning podcast, Stephen Wise Temple Senior Rabbi Yoshi Zweiback hosts Rabbi Susan Silverman, the founder of Second Nurture, a nonprofit dedicated to supporting a path from foster care to adoption.

"I grew up in a family that fostered kids, so I saw that up close," Rabbi Silverman says. "Also, I'm a rabbi, and I really believe strongly in the power of community, so I put the two together."

In 2016, after meeting hundreds of people in dozens of cities across North America while touring with her book, "Casting Lots: Creating a Family in a Beautiful, Broken World," Rabbi Silverman was convinced that many more people would foster and adopt, if only they had support and direction.

"Parenting in general is daunting," says Rabbi Silverman, who has adopted two children. "Foster parenting is extra daunting. The process itself is overwhelming."

Rabbi Yoshi, who now serves on the organization's board, was one of the first people Rabbi Silverman approached with her idea: An organization that would lower the barrier to entry for foster and adoptive parents by providing guidance, fellowship, and community to those who had the desire to foster and adopt, but lacked the expertise, experience, and wisdom such a community could provide. In 2017, she founded Second Nurture.

Fully acknowledging the disproportionate rate at which minority children are separated from families who may very well be able to care for them, Rabbi Silverman has been adamant that Second Nurture operate with racial justice in mind. Studyafter studyhas found that aging out of foster care (or merely being "in the system") carries a strong direct correlation with future incarceration. Beyond providing logistical support to families willing to foster and adopt, Second Nurture also works to address the racial disparities and injustices endemic to the foster care system.

"We are not policy people," Rabbi Silverman says. "We are not the judges who decide these cases. But, we can say, 'We want to know what the situation is.' We want to have a special kind of program where we're able to foster kids and support the bio family ... We can be a part of a solution, and to partner with people who do have the power, so that we can move this forward in a positive way."

In the latest edition of his Search for Meaning podcast, Stephen Wise Temple Senior Rabbi Yoshi Zweiback hosts Jean-Claude Nkulikiyimfura, Shiri Sandler, and Fabrice Mpozenzei, the leadership team for the Agahozo-Shalom Youth Village in Rwanda.

In 2005, while attending a talk about the genocide against the Tutsi, Anne Heyman (z"l) learned that Rwanda had no systemic solution to support the well-being and development of its 1.2 million orphans. Recognizing the parallels to the orphan crisis spawned by the Holocaust, Heyman looked to Israel for a solution: After the Shoah, Israel had built residential communities that ensured the orphans’ safety, security, and development. In 2008, applying Rwandan culture to the Israeli model, Heyman opened Agahozo-Shalom Youth Village with a class of 128 students, all survivors of the 1994 Rwandan genocide.

More than 1,600 children have come through Agahozo-Shalom Youth Village in the last 14 years. Though the children who come through today are no longer survivors of the genocide, they are a part of its legacy of poverty, abuse, drug addiction, and forced prostitution.

Nkulikiyimfura was born to parents forced to flee their country as teenagers. Had Agahozo-Shalom Youth Village existed then, they would have been welcomed. When he first heard about the village in 2010, he was already an adult. Invited by Heyman to visit with his wife, he was blown away.

"We did not understand the concept of a youth village," Nkulikiyimfura says. "We were like, 'OK, this must be an orphanage or a boarding school.' It was none of the above. It was a place, a home, for kids who had lost family members. It was a place where we think our kids are allowed to reclaim their adolescence. It's a place that we believe our parents would have wanted for their own kids, had they been alive."

In the latest edition of his Search for Meaning podcast, Stephen Wise Temple Senior Rabbi Yoshi Zweiback hosts Matthew Waksman, a brand strategy partner at Ogilvy in Great Britain, one of the top marketing agencies in the world.

Having experienced antisemitism as a young man growing up in London, Waksman wrote a stirring article about anti-Zionism and antisemitism in December of 2021: "When it comes to social justice and inclusive marketing, Jews don't count."

The piece was inspired by attacks on Jewish students and Jewish symbols in central London at Hanukkah time, which was only really reported in the Jewish press, a distressing trend that speaks to a much larger and much more concerning issue: Growing antisemitism, cloaked in anti-Zionism, spreading not only across Europe, but across the United States, as well.

Currently in Israel, Waksman delves into how antisemitism and anti-Zionism has complicated international efforts to aid the Ukrainian Jewish community, particularly members of that community who are seeking refuge in Israel. The rise in anti-Zionist sentiment (fueled by growing antisemitism) in Europe and the fear of a proxy war in the Middle East is particularly vexing as the human toll of Russia's invasion continues to rise.

In response to those like Gigi Hadid, who have made comparisons between the Russia-Ukraine dynamic and the Israel-Palestine relationship, Waksman calls such efforts "incredibly dangerous and reductive," because of the level of complexity that accompanies such conflicts.

"When people are comparing one conflict to another, it's never to shine a light on a particular conflict," Waksman says. "It's in order to further an agenda or an opinion, which is not about the specific conflict to begin with. I always find it cynical and ... deeply unhelpful."

Russian President Vladimir Putin initially called his invasion a "de-Nazification" effort, despite the fact that Ukraine's Jewish president Volodymyr Zelenskyy's great-grandparents were murdered in the Holocausts. Zelenskyy's response to that—"How could you possibly accuse me of being a Nazi?"—notably omitted the (likely implied) fact that he was Jewish.

"From what I see, at least at the start of the conflict, he was not the one who led with his Jewish identity," Waksman says. "People then commented, and he did that. He's not the one who put his Jewish identity [forward], nor should he have to. I'm just making the observation."

That leads to a deeper conversation about the state of inclusivity, and how Jews, despite being the quintessential Other for millennia, still don't rank high in the hierarchy of racism. In the words of British author David Baddiel, "Jews Don't Count" in identity politics.

Note: This episode was recorded in February, 2022.

In the latest edition of his Search for Meaning podcast, Stephen Wise Temple Senior Rabbi Yoshi Zweiback hosts cardiologist Dr. Afshine Emrani.

Just 12 years old when the Revolution swept Iran, Dr. Emrani and his family moved to England, where he had a doorstep bar mitzvah, courtesy of the local Chabad. After three years, the family moved to Los Angeles.

From humble beginnings dissecting chickens his mother would bring home for dinner, Dr. Emrani went into medicine to help improve patients' lives. That's how he landed on the field of cardiology, where he could not only improve the quality of the lives in his hands, but save them, as well. After graduating from UCLA, he earned his medical degree at U.C. San Diego. He is a Fellow of the American College of Cardiology.

Despite being a natural introvert, Dr. Emrani has become a social media star on Instagram, Facebook, and Twitter, where he posts on politics, religion, and medicine.

"I don't enjoy talking to a lot of people ... but there is a giant voice inside me, and ideas that I would like to share," Dr. Emrani says. "When I started putting those ideas in words on social media, initially on Facebook, I noticed that people are gravitating towards them."

He speaks in this podcast about his Jewish journey, his friendship with Rabbi David Wolpe, the difficulty of communicating nuance on social media, and COVID-19. Dr. Emrani and Rabbi Yoshi also discuss Jewish philosophy, their complicated thoughts on several past United States Presidents, and their shared love of music.

In the latest edition of Search for Meaning, Stephen Wise Temple Senior Rabbi Yoshi Zweiback hosts comedy writer Betsy Borns, best known for her work on hit television shows "Rosanne" and "Friends."

Author of "Comic Lives: Inside the World of Stand-Up Comedy," Borns is also the creator of the sitcom "All of Us," produced by Jada Pinkett Smith and Will Smith, which ran for four seasons.

From getting kicked out of Hebrew school for telling a dirty joke during as an 8-year-old in Indianapolis, to her rise as a writer and producer in Hollywood, Borns takes Rabbi Yoshi on a ride through the mind of a comedian. One keen insight: the comic sensibility is a defense mechanism, but it's also an impulse to protect other people, finding the funny side of life to prevent people from feeling sad.

"If most people look at life in three dimensions," Borns says, "comedians look at life in four dimensions, and see that there's just another side to it ... Comedians don't just see reality. They see reality, plus one."

Along with being a successful writer, producer, and author, Borns is married to Emmy and Peabody Award winner Jonathan Shapiro. Listen to his conversation with Rabbi Yoshi here.

In the latest edition of Search for Meaning, Stephen Wise Temple Senior Rabbi Yoshi Zweiback hosts Ken Lindner, a super-agent and author.

In this wide-ranging discussion, Lindner—author of the recently-released book "Aspire Higher"—delves into his childhood struggle with weight and self esteem. He and Rabbi Yoshi examine how that struggle shaped not only Lindner's amateur athletic career, but his ascendance as an agent to some of the top news personalities in the United States.

Lindner details how his father's long work weeks led him to develop feelings of insecurity and un-love-ability, which in turn led to toxic emotions, binge eating and bad decisions. At the age of 4, Lindner was so frustrated with his father for his perceived lack of attention and approval that he threw a brick at him. "My aim was as bad as my judgement," says Lindner, who thankfully missed.

The two reconciled and bonded over paddle tennis, which led to Lindner's emergence as a tennis phenom in Brooklyn, where he beat the famed Bobby Riggs. As his confidence grew, he developed discipline and cultivated an even-keeled disposition. He also fell in love with learning. He mastered his emotions, and as he read more broadly, began to examine how control of one's emotions or desires relates to what Judaism says about strength and power.

"I believe every day is a Rosh Hashanah or a Yom Kippur," he tells Rabbi Yoshi. "We should assimilate information every day—what we're doing right, what we're doing wrong, and how to be better."

As Lindner's emotional intelligence and curiosity grew, he began to understand his father more: A Polish immigrant with only the barest of educations, he had lost his father at an early age and worked as he did so that his son could have the education he never did. Lindner discusses his father's role in the establishment of department store T.J. Maxx, and how that led him to a serendipitous encounter with Sam "Cookie" Weisbord, who persuaded him to work at the William Morris Agency, instead of at a law firm that had the agency as a client.

From Bjorn Borg and Vitas Gerulaitis, Air Supply, and Kate Kapshaw, to Lester Holt, Mario Lopez, Colin Cowherd, and Megyn Kelly, to local talents Christine Devine, Dallas Raines, and Pat Harvey, Lindner and his team have worked with a laundry list of stars. He has espoused his positive life choice psychology both in "Aspire Higher" and "Career Choreography," which has its roots in his own experience.

While not officially a client, he's even counseled Rabbi Yoshi. Over a lunch early in their relationship, he suggested to the then Head of School at Wise School that he should apply to be the Senior Rabbi at Stephen Wise Temple. Rabbi Yoshi will be celebrating seven years in that position this year, and he will be honored for his 10 years of service to the Wise community at the Wise Gala on May 7.

In celebration of Nowruz, the Persian New Year, Rabbi Yoshi Zweiback welcomes the first female native Farsi speaker to become a rabbi, Rabbi Tarlan Rabizadeh.

A leader, a brilliant educator, and a trailblazer as a Persian female rabbi,  Rabbi Rabizadeh began both her educational and professional journey at Wise. The daughter of Iranian immigrants, she grew up at what was then Stephen S. Wise Temple Elementary School. When she matriculated across the freeway to Milken Community High School, she was unsure of what she wanted to do with her life. She was good at art, but didn't want to be an artist. Her parents wanted her to go to law school, but she didn't want to be a lawyer.

At the age of 15, though, she took a class with Rabbi Sharon Brous. Inspired by Rabbi Brous's patient, thoughtful approach to Jewish studies and Jewish education, she decided then and there that she wanted to join the rabbinate.

"I wanted to do something with my life that made my brain grow," Rabbi Rabizadeh said. "In that moment ... she made me realize there was so much more than I ever knew about Judaism. That's when I knew I wanted to become a rabbi. When I told my parents, they nearly fainted. It was just not an option."

She began by teaching religious school at Stephen Wise Temple on Sundays under Rabbi Melissa Buyer.

"She was the one who said, 'Tarlan, I see potential in you. You should do this full force, and apply to Hebrew Union College,'" Rabbi Rabizadeh said. "I told her, 'There's no way. My parents aren't on board.'"

There was, however, a full-tuition scholarship for students who wanted to become Jewish educators, Rabbi Buyer told her. It was at HUC, in 2010, that a young Tarlan Rabizadeh met Rabbi Yoshi Zweiback, and the two have remained friends ever since.

Rabbi Rabizadeh was ordained at HUC-JIR, worked as a Jewish Emergent Network Fellow at The Kitchen in San Francisco, taught at Milken, and now, serves as the Director of Student Life at UCLA Hillel.