Kol Hadash Humanistic Congregation Podcasts

Rejection and fear of "the other" is deeply rooted in human psychology and culture. Can we build group loyalty on positive attraction rather than suspicion of the outside? An open family that includes both "us" and "them" may be the most successful future for the Jewish people in the 21st Century.[iTunes] Subscribe to the Podcast directly in iTunes.[RSS MP3] Add the Kol Hadash Podcast feed (in MP3 format)Listen (MP3)

The eternal battle between individual and community defines the human and the Jewish condition. What to give to others and what to guard for myself? Happiness, freedom, dignity, justice depend on the balance of me and we.[iTunes] Subscribe to the Podcast directly in iTunes.[RSS MP3] Add the Kol Hadash Podcast feed (in MP3 format)Listen (MP3)

Competition has its place, but also its risks. We become blind to our own faults and exaggerate the danger and deficiencies of “the other.” We magnify our needs and minimize theirs. We need to seek self-esteem while avoiding chauvinism – as individuals, ethnicities and nations. Pride, honesty and humility dance a challenging but necessary waltz towards an ethical life.[iTunes] Subscribe to the Podcast directly in iTunes.[RSS MP3] Add the Kol Hadash Podcast feed (in MP3 format)Listen (MP3)

We can be crueler to our own family than we are to strangers. It is all too easy to judge others by our own arbitrary standards. Do they agree with us? Do they value what we value as much as we value it? Do they live t veir lives the way we live ours? If we can worry more about ourselves than what others do, we might just learn there’s more than one way to bake a bagel.[iTunes] Subscribe to the Podcast directly in iTunes.[RSS MP3] Add the Kol Hadash Podcast feed (in MP3 format)Listen (MP3)

Can a tradition of 3,000 years speak with one voice? Too often, we want our identity to fully endorse our personal beliefs and behavior. Just as we cannot claim that all Jews were always secular, others cannot claim Jews were always religious and always united by religion. How can we achieve unity without demanding uniformity?[iTunes] Subscribe to the Podcast directly in iTunes.[RSS MP3] Add the Kol Hadash Podcast feed (in MP3 format)Listen (MP3)

We must find a balance between individual perspective and objective reality. There are times it is appropriate to say, “I don’t know” or “I think,” and there are also times to say, “I DO know.” Human reason is limited — and partial, and collaborative — and it is also a powerful tool for discovering human truth.[iTunes] Subscribe to the Podcast directly in iTunes.[RSS MP3] Add the Kol Hadash Podcast feed (in MP3 format)Listen (MP3)

We would love it if the righteous were rewarded, the wicked punished, and everything worked out for our benefit. But wishing does not make it so. In the absence of cosmic providence, the work of justice, compassion, forgiveness and self-improvement is up to us.[iTunes] Subscribe to the Podcast directly in iTunes.[RSS MP3] Add the Kol Hadash Podcast feed (in MP3 format)Listen (MP3)

The Jewish "Days of Awe" were traditionally a time of judgment – who would live, who would die, and who would earn a portion in the World to Come. We believe in life before death, making the most of our time in this life, the only one we know. Living the best we can while we are here is the best we can do.[iTunes] Subscribe to the Podcast directly in iTunes.[RSS MP3] Add the Kol Hadash Podcast feed (in MP3 format)Listen (MP3)

Our Humanism is a positive emphasis on this world – what we experience, what we need, what we can know. Our Rosh Hashana does not represent divine creation of the world; rather, it encourages us to discover what the universe truly is, and then to create the world we want.[iTunes] Subscribe to the Podcast directly in iTunes.[RSS MP3] Add the Kol Hadash Podcast feed (in MP3 format)Listen (MP3)

We celebrate what we share rather than argue the unprovable. Our individual beliefs do not always have to agree in order to find community and common ground. Ours is a Jewish tradition of change, diversity and integrity. And, as Humanistic Rabbi Sherwin Wine once wrote, "Believing is better than non-believing."[iTunes] Subscribe to the Podcast directly in iTunes.[RSS MP3] Add the Kol Hadash Podcast feed (in MP3 format)Listen (MP3)

Human beings are the most powerful species on the planet, but this was not always so. In a fascinating exploration of our earliest origins through the evolution of modern society, Hebrew University professor Yuval Noah Harari's bestseller delves into the origins of society, religion, economics and much more. Rabbi Chalom's review also marked the relatively new Humanist holiday of Darwin Day, and the interfaith initiative of Evolution Weekend.[iTunes] Subscribe to the Podcast directly in iTunes.[RSS MP3] Add the Kol Hadash Podcast feed (in MP3 format)Listen (MP3)

Taking responsibility is not easy, particularly when others prefer seeking excuses or spreading blame. Dignity and self-respect are children of responsibility, but so too are risk and failure. The confidence we find from taking charge of our lives flows through our actions to the world around us, transforming desire into will, and will into reality.[iTunes] Subscribe to the Podcast directly in iTunes.[RSS MP3] Add the Kol Hadash Podcast feed (in MP3 format)Listen (MP3)

Forgiveness can repair relationships, and it can also be healing for both parties in the conflict. But can we learn to forgive ourselves? Guilt is a powerful emotion, and forgiving others can sometimes be easier than facing our guilt. If Yom Kippur is an opportunity for new beginnings, we need to start fresh with ourselves as well.[iTunes] Subscribe to the Podcast directly in iTunes.[RSS MP3] Add the Kol Hadash Podcast feed (in MP3 format)Listen (MP3)

We want so much to control our lives, and our deaths. Yet experience teaches again and again that we may steer the boat, but we cannot control the current. Learning when and how to say goodbye — and when and how to accept death with dignity — is key to the art of living.[iTunes] Subscribe to the Podcast directly in iTunes.[RSS MP3] Add the Kol Hadash Podcast feed (in MP3 format)Listen (MP3)

As awful as human suffering can be, it can be even harder to suffer alone without understanding or empathy. The most basic step in overcoming conflict and isolation is an ability we evolved countless generations ago: to speak, and to truly listen.[iTunes] Subscribe to the Podcast directly in iTunes.[RSS MP3] Add the Kol Hadash Podcast feed (in MP3 format)Listen (MP3)

No one is an island. We grow up in families and societies, and we learn the balance between mutual responsibility and self-actualization. In the space between obligation and freedom lies “help” – a hand we all need from time to time that gives us the strength to do for ourselves what we no longer need others to do unto us.[iTunes] Subscribe to the Podcast directly in iTunes.[RSS MP3] Add the Kol Hadash Podcast feed (in MP3 format)Listen (MP3)

The Theory of Evolution transformed our understanding of the world and our place in it. And Charles Darwin knew it would; he held back publishing his ideas for many years because of it. Today we understand not only biology, but also culture and economics and many other human endeavors through gradual change over time and "survival of the fittest."[iTunes] Subscribe to the Podcast directly in iTunes.[RSS MP3] Add the Kol Hadash Podcast feed (in MP3 format)Listen (MP3)

Without cosmic judgment, Yom Kippur becomes an internal experience – self-judgment and self-forgiveness. In moderation, both are healthy and important, but only if they lead to changed behavior in the future. In the negotiation between individual self-fulfillment and communal responsibility lies the dignity of proving ourselves to be good people, if we can live up to our own standards.[iTunes] Subscribe to the Podcast directly in iTunes.[RSS MP3] Add the Kol Hadash Podcast feed (in MP3 format)Listen (MP3)

The religious approach to life has been around for a long time. Believing that people, and only people, have conscious power to improve the world is a much more recent innovation, even if its evolutionary ancestors first appeared centuries ago. But people do terrible things, and some fight modernity and progress with all their might. Is a Humanistic approach to life, and to Judaism, a path to despair or to hope?[iTunes] Subscribe to the Podcast directly in iTunes.[RSS MP3] Add the Kol Hadash Podcast feed (in MP3 format)Listen (MP3)

With rising anti-Semitism in Europe and the Middle East, never-ending and heart-rending conflict between Israel and the Palestinians, militant Orthodoxy fighting modernity on one side and ongoing Jewish integration into Western Culture on the other, who would be crazy enough to want to be Jewish? And yet we do, and we are. The truth is that, with all of its challenges, being Jewish adds deep meaning to our lives.[iTunes] Subscribe to the Podcast directly in iTunes.[RSS MP3] Add the Kol Hadash Podcast feed (in MP3 format)Listen (MP3)