I am a huge fan of everything Disney – movies, Mickey, and now even Marvel. Our family has vacationed at Walt Disney World (WDW) and Disneyland more times than we can count. Our daughter was married at WDW, and we have a room in our home devoted to Disney “stuff.” Believe it or not, some recent Disney movie releases have a distinct connection to the Days of Awe.

Together, my travel group and I visited Greenwood, MS, where the community at Ahavath Rayim, formerly an Orthodox synagogue, hosted us for Shabbat services. Just as we came from different places yet are united in our Judaism, so, too, did the congregants of Ahavath Rayim show just how diverse – and yet how linked – American Jews can be.

Jewish humor loves poking fun at God. Although often gentle, jokes about God attempt to break the tension around the very human desire for a perfect God – one who hears our wishes and responds by making them come true. Such a “fairy Godmother” God has been problematic throughout time (and throughout Jewish history) because more often than not, our wishes don’t come true – at least not in the way we hoped they would. As the Yiddish proverb reminds us, “Man plans. God laughs.”

Reproductive choice advocates across the United States are cheering today after the Supreme Court ruled 5-3 in Whole Woman’s Health v. Hellerstedt, deeming unconstitutional a Texas law in Texas aimed at closing abortion providers.

I had always thought of Jewish cemeteries as solemn places – but that was before going to a hilloula (festivity) 30 years ago in the Moroccan town of Ouazzane on Lag BaOmer, the Jewish holiday that falls on the 33^rd day between Pesach and Shavuot.

When I feel the judgmental emotions or FOMO (fear of missing out) rising inside of me, I remind myself of a lesson I first learned as a counselor at URJ Camp Harlam, a Reform Jewish summer camp in Kunkletown, PA: “Don’t yuck someone else’s yum.” In other words, if someone else likes doing something and it makes them happy, then let them enjoy it – no matter whether or not you like it.

Yom Hashoah arrives this year on the eve of two historic anniversaries: the 80th anniversary of the coming into effect of the Nuremberg Race Laws, which served as prologue and precursor to the Holocaust, and the 70th anniversary of the Nuremberg Trials, which served as the foundation for the development of contemporary international human rights and humanitarian law. We must ask ourselves two questions: What have we learned? What must we do?

You may think it strange for a rabbi to mourn a celebrity's death, but no one said emotions are rational - yet I indulge myself a moment of sadness at the news that Prince Rodgers Nelson has died.

The act of bikur cholim, visiting the sick, is considered a mitzvah (good deed) – and yet, because of distance I couldn’t visit my friend. I wondered: What could I do, each and every day, to send caring wishes?