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Hosted by Jewish performance and ritual artist Shira Kline (she/her), a.k.a. ShirLaLa, this season features interviews with LGBTQIA+ Jews from the Union for Reform Judaism's JewV'Nation Fellowship.

Does being a person of faith mean you believe in blessings and curses? Why should we always "do the right thing?" Are we rewarded or punished for what we do in the world?

Like our ancestors, we focus on our own modern day tribes: The tribes of the Reform, Conservative, Orthodox, Reconstructionist, and secular. Amidst our real differences, can we sew ourselves together into a larger identity of being Am Yisrael – one people? 

Do we do things because they bring us meaning, or do things have meaning because we do them?  Can your morning yoga class or walk through the park serve as a source of spiritual inspiration?

Even with good intentions, when we talk about people who are not present, we run the risk of disparaging them, without giving them the opportunity to respond.

This parashah introduces many laws and rituals that might seem irrelevant to our modern lives, but what do these laws teach us? How do we bring them into our lives? A.J.

Parashat Vayechi is the last portion in the book of Genesis, so Rabbi Rick Jacobs takes this opportunity to discuss some of the larger themes from this first book of the Torah that resonate with us today: the defining story of “audacious hospitality”; the challenges of engaging the next