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Let's talk about love: Torah talks about three kinds of love - and in fact, the phrase “love the stranger” appears in the Torah 36 times. Why is it written so often? Who is "the stranger," anyway? And who might be the strangers in our own lives? In this episode, which originally aired in April 2017, Rabbi Rick Jacobs talks about what it means to move from strangeness to equality to, finally, closeness and love.

Have you ever had a great idea that wasn’t useful until you applied it? This week, join Rabbi Phyllis Sommer of Am Shalom in Glencoe, IL, as she tells the story of a rabbi and a soap maker who explore this idea and realize their professions have more in common than they might have thought.

On this special Passover episode of Stories We Tell, Rabbi Mark Kaiserman, Rabbi of the Reform Temple of Forest Hills, tells the story of a little girl who’s excited for a very different Passover seder her family is planning and how a little imagination might be what we all need right now.

Have you ever seen yourself as the “most” important? Have you felt your contributions mattered more than others, only to find out it actually took a group effort to accomplish your goal? This week, we’re treated to an original story by Alice Myers, actress and daughter of Rabbi Lisa Grushcow, who talks about this idea from the perspective of a havdallah set.

What is the real meaning of Passover? Is it ritualizing the seder and reading the Haggadah, or is there something more? This week, Rabbi Esther Lederman, the Union for Reform Judaism’s Director of Congregational Innovation, tells a story about a rabbi, a water carrier, and the prophet Elijah, and asks what it means to truly celebrate this sacred festival.

Many of us have had to change our daily routines recently as a precaution against coronavirus. With work and school now centered at home, our family dwellings might feel a little smaller. This week, join Saul Kaiserman, Director of Lifelong Learning at Congregation Emanu-El of the City of New York, as he tells the story of a man living in his own small apartment with his family, and how their new living routine brought them closer together.

When things go a direction we might not expect, is it thanks to fate or simply coincidence? This week, Rabbi Phyllis Sommer of Am Shalom in Glencoe, IL tells the story of a woman, her bag of flour, and the unexpected journey it took her on.

There was a young man who wanted to learn the secret of happiness. He sought out the advice of a wise man, who was too busy to talk with him at that moment but gave him a task: walk around and carry a spoon with two drops of oil and be careful to not let them spill. Listen to find out how this seemingly strange assignment taught the boy an important lesson.

Has there ever been a problem in your life that needed to be solved, and you knew you might be able to fix it? This week, join Rabbi Leora Kaye as she tells the story about a farmer who encounters a large boulder stuck in the middle of the road and does what she knows is the only right thing to do.