Repenting includes examining and admitting our mistakes. Seeking forgiveness. Determining to do better. Being better. Every single day.

What is it that we want to renew within ourselves, strengthen, embolden, and what characteristics and traits should ultimately be discarded?

Wounds reopen; repair is sometimes never really over.

The philosopher Maimonides explains that if someone asks you for forgiveness, you should be open to their heartfelt apology. But this isn’t always realistic.

When taken with someone special, appreciate the commute.

In a world that often tells us to care less in order to hurt less, Judaism offers another path: never care less.

The 9th of Av is an annual reminder to look inward and ask if any hatred has taken root within our hearts.

Our constant battle is teetering from low to high, high to low, and back to high again.

Our tradition not only teaches to have confidence in the children we are raising but to also trust ourselves, our ever-evolving characters.

No matter if we assign ourselves the title of leader, we each lead in some respect, whether it’s leading as a parent, a supervisor, a friend, or a member of our neighborhoods.