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Season three of Transparent premieres September 23, and it couldn’t come at a more appropriate time: in the middle of Elul, the day before we begin reciting Selichot.

Anyone can open the door to Judaism for another, but will those standing at the door be intimidating shomrim (guards) or welcoming mezuzot (encased Torah texts on doorframes)?
 

Here are 10 volumes, from the humorous to the humbling, that you’ll want on your reading list to help heighten the High Holidays.

Elul is our time to connect to Israel – for ourselves, for our people, and for our land.

Each day in this country, we are faced with harrowing truths about how our criminal justice system operates.

I'm uncomfortable entering unfamiliar synagogues - solely because I am mixed race, and people assume that I am not Jewish.

I often use the imagery of a bullseye when teaching young children the complicated concepts related to the High Holidays and Yom Kippur. Each day when we try to do our best, it’s like we’re aiming for the center of the bullseye. But sometimes we say something that hurts someone a friend’s feelings, or we do something unkind to a loved one. That’s when we land on an outer ring and miss the mark.

If on Yom Kippur we rehearse our own death, then on Tishah B’Av (observed last month), we begin the annual process of preparing for death. The seven-week period from Tishah B’Av to Rosh HaShanah provides an opportunity to cultivate our souls, to reestablish our relationship with God, and to reconcile with ourselves and others. We transform the potentially passive experience of judgment into an active process of self-awareness, acceptance, engagement, and transformation.

I am a huge fan of everything Disney – movies, Mickey, and now even Marvel. Our family has vacationed at Walt Disney World (WDW) and Disneyland more times than we can count. Our daughter was married at WDW, and we have a room in our home devoted to Disney “stuff.” Believe it or not, some recent Disney movie releases have a distinct connection to the Days of Awe.