Join us for a Hoshanah Rabbah actifest, celebrating Reb Arthur’s 91st birthday, and marking the world at a crossroads.

Two ideas for Yom Kippur. They are not brand-new, but connecting both of them with Yom Kippur is.

Peter Beinart writes, "There’s a solution that allows [a presidential candidate] to go beyond merely calling for a cease-fire and saying that 'far too many' civilians in Gaza have died — without supporting an arms embargo."

From R’ Arthur and R’ Phyllis, a Torah reading for Yom Kippur recalling how Isaac and Ishmael came together to bury their father, and what the story teaches about teshuvah – about turning in a new direction, of love not death.

Excerpts from a major article in the UK Guardian by respected Israeli American Holocaust scholar, Omer Bartov, in which he describes what he finds very alarming in Israeli culture and politics on his recent return there. We recommend reading the whole essay for its fine-grained and subtle report of emotional and cultural feelings among Israelis.

A madras from R’ Phyllis Berman going back to Sarah and Hagar.

From Rabbi Arthur and Rabbi Phyllis, a tale for Tisha B’Av

Rabbi Arthur writes that we are in the season when the sacred Jewish calendar ends the year with ten haftarot. “All ten share a basic understanding of the world. It is a zero-sum understanding. . . .I think this zero-sum assumption is a basic mistake.”

In reflection on the 75th anniversary of the atomic bombings of Hiroshima and Nagasaki, inspired by a poem by Rabbi Arthur, the National Council of Elders asks how will we enable ourselves “to make from fire… a light in which to see each other fully?”

Palestinian-American Ahmed Fouad Alkhatib reflects on the pas 300 days.

A story, perhaps a parable, about "universal" teachings.

Here is the list of wished-for presidential candidates suggested by some of our readers.

Coalition of advocacy groups, including Jewish organizations, asks lawmakers to skip Congressional address

The newly transformed election has its roots — danger and possibility — deep in US history.

There is an old proverb: [Take a deep breath and don't jump to conclusions of what I mean before you read the next three paragraphs. The proverb goes:] “If you shoot at a king, kill him!”

Major Win in Extreme Heat Protections for Workers — Dept. of Labor proposes historic heat safety rules

What if we looked at the Biden agony as a real-life allegory about the failure of Hierarchy as a way of understanding the world?

An imagined, but now possible scenario

An ancient echo of the Declaration of Independence, a sacred summary of the moral and political qualities and policies of a devoted king or president or prime minister, in a moment when it may be unusually valuable.

Nicholas Kristof (New York Times) on the crisis building in the West Bank