The Talmud has a famous story from Menachot 29B that invites us to confront three hard truths that we would rather not think about. Our mortality. The limited reach of our legacy. And the unredeemed nature of our world—we will live, and we will pass, with the world’s big problems unsolved.

Why this story now? It is Erev Shavuot, the eve of our receiving the Torah. This story is about the nature of Torah; our life and legacy; and the relationship between our Torah, our life, our legacy and the world.

If this story is true, how do we make peace with it? Is it possible to make peace with it?

We will examine this unsettling story through the lens of two great thinkers, Harold Kushner and Jim Collins.

How does the Torah we will receive on this Shavuot affect how we think about our life, legacy, and relationship to an unredeemed world?