The Akedah is a horrific, hard-to-relate-to story. Why do we read it every Rosh Hashanah? A sermon that refuses to treat Abraham as a fanatic — or God as cruel.

From the first Chavurah gathering in Winter Garden to a new year, how something begins is important — and a conversation with God can change the pattern.

This Purim lands differently. The two nations with the largest Jewish populations in the world are at war in Persia. Not the Persia of ancient memory, the one on today's map. Against an enemy that has vowed, openly and repeatedly, to destroy us. An enemy that has funded, armed, and directed others to fulfill that vow for decades. We can count the dead. We can count the wounded. We can count the hostages. This is not ancient history. This is Megillah reading come to life. And