Earlier this month, I attended a deeply moving talk. Speaking to an audience of 600 at a Conservative synagogue in Palos Verdes, California, Eli Sharabi, a hostage who endured 491 days in Hamas captivity, recounted his abduction, separation from his wife and daughters, and his subsequent life in the Gaza tunnels. He was chained, starved, and deprived of news from the outside, yet he tried to find something to live for every day. The Power of Resilience What was there to live for? How does one...

High Holidays are an emotionally-charged, spiritually intense experience. Their customs and services are meant to engage us in a cosmic...

The Selichot service, which opens the High Holidays period, contains two striking references to the human body: “His is the soul of every...