In Elul, they say the King is in the Field. Kind of like Audrey Hepburn in Roman Holiday.

We offer our teshuvah not out of obligation but because we love. It is because I love you that I want to be clean with you. It is because I love this world and the people in it that I want to make good on all the ways I have failed it and them. 

It seems I had to come to Ireland to be reintroduced to the prophet Elijah. For more than a week this summer, I have been on retreat at a Catholic hermitage in County Sligo run by a tiny community of Carmelite sisters and brothers. The Carmelites see the prophet Elijah as their spiritual inspiration and as the founder of their order. They call him Saint Elijah, and I happened to be there on Saint Elijah’s day. What is the kind of prophet we need now? Can we find that prophet? Can we be that prophet?

An essay for My Jewish Learning’s Recharge Blog. 

In 2025, in this tug-of-war between loyalty and morality, perhaps resistance is the true shape of patriotism. A reflection on Fourth of July themes.