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by Marc Rosenstein
(Originally published in Galilee Diary and Ten Minutes of Torah)

If, as the Talmud tells us, the blasts of the shofar are meant to remind us of crying, (Babylonian Talmud, Rosh Hashanah 33A – specifically of Sisera’s mother – but that is another subject!), then I would offer the following.

Yom Kippur, 1965, I was a Navy medical officer stationed aboard a destroyer off the coast of Vietnam. 

A deep spiritual life is hard to find. While opportunities abound for spiritual connections (yoga, meditation, retreats and the like), for most of us it doesn’t come easy.

After 10 weeks of swimming, biking, walking at the ocean's edge, and rationalizing that it's too hot for tennis, Saturday night Selichot services appear on my calendar as the call back from the freedom of su

Although we’re barely into the dog days of August, the High Holidays are fast approaching. The first of Elul, the Hebrew month that precedes Tishrei and the start of Rosh HaShanah, begins at sundown this Tuesday, which means that Wednesday, August 7^th is the first of Elul.

Our Muslim brothers and sisters are just ending the month of Ramadan, which commands both fasting and penitence, and today, my Jewish sisters and brothers begin the long, 40-day period of penitence and introspection that commences with the month of