Last year, I spent Seollal, or Korean New Year, with my family in Busan. The symbolism, the spirituality, and the elaborate order of charye remind me of Jewish holidays and rituals.

As part of the URJ Reflection Project, a new set of offerings and experiences for the High Holidays in a time of social distance, we’ve also developed three short essays that allow you to go deeper into the essence of Jewish wisdom that grounds these rituals. 

Even though the Emancipation Proclamation declared all enslaved people free on January 1, 1863, it was not fully enforced until two and a half years later.

The enormous question for me, then, has always been: Is God watching? When I began to understand computers, I realized that, yes, one thing could follow billions of people if those people were nothing more than data points on a revolving planet with polar icecaps.

Some Jews have extended their mystical journey into the world of tarot – like Heather Mendel, a Jewish mystic, author, artist, and speaker who has spent her life exploring this connection and has written extensively about it.

Gathering in grief gives us a window into the blessings of life. Jewish tradition does this so well – which makes it all the more difficult to cope with loss in the time of COVID-19.

As a Jewish autistic bisexual transgender woman, “I will be what I will be” is something I have had to tell many people throughout my life, as they have questioned, judged, mocked, and discriminated against me for who I am.

Not knowing if I would be shunned or accepted, I decided to give my religion another chance. I was not prepared for the warm and welcoming atmosphere I found at temple, where being gay was as acceptable as having brown hair.

I do not believe that God sent us COVID-19, and I do not believe God will cure it. That is for humans to do, using our God-given intellect and ambition to develop the vaccines and treatments that will help stop the spread of this natural virus.