When the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) released its five-year report, “Climate Change 2022: Impacts, Adaptation and Vulnerability” two weeks later, response was instant.

I have had a number of conversations recently with people who have said that they are living in “existential angst” because of climate change. I have found those words striking. 

Underneath that capable exterior is a woman who was a drug addict by her late teens. By the time she was 21, she was facing prison — and pregnant. Pressured on all sides to end the pregnancy and told that drug-addicted women couldn’t have healthy babies, she aborted the child.

"The Whale" serves as a heartbreaking depiction of what religious trauma and spiritual abuse do to not only the people afflicted by them, but also what it does to their loved ones.

The Rabbi notes that feminists sometimes elevate Vashti at the expense of Esther, whom they see as too docile. Perhaps the Midrash interpretive tradition the Rabbi draws on felt the need to demean Vashti to elevate Esther.

Ramadan begins today for those of us in America, and we will observe our first sawm (fast). Muslims around the world will be seeking spiritual merit or reward by fasting, praying, doing good deeds and asking for repentance.