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As the sun sets on Friday afternoon, we take some time out to feel gratitude and joy. Shabbat is about rest and rejuvenation, as well as appreciating all of the gifts—both sacred and mundane—that we enjoy each day. Take a few deep breaths. Close your eyes. Use this service to bring some joy, beauty, and peace into your weekend.

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Nearly all Jewish holiday begin with lighting candles, and so this one will, too. After we light the candles we wave our hands in three big horizontal circles to symbolically bring the light closer to us, and then cover our eyes while we say the blessing. When the blessing is over take a moment of silent reflection with your eyes covered, and then open your eyes and enjoy the beauty of candlelight, bringing you into the new year. בָּרוּךְ אַתָּה יְיָ...

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The Rosh Hashanah Seder finds its earliest written source in a peculiar menu whose symbolic significance is not revealed...and your dinner menu can include many of these items that can draw on our earliest history and connect us to our hopes and dreams for our present and our future. "For a good omen on Rosh HaShanah one should make it a habit to eat squash [like pumpkin], legumes [like string beans], kartei (leeks), spinach and dates.” Talmud BT Keritot 6a Tunisian...

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It’s time to say thank you. To your host or to your guests. To the people who have supported you through the last year, and the people who inspire you going forward. Say a real thank you--be as specific as you can, because thank yous are like fuel--they power us for the year to come. And don’t forget to thank God (or the creator/the Universe/the mystical source of connection) one more time for the year you just had, and the one...

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We’ve done lots of looking backward, but now is the time to think forward. What are we hoping to accomplish in the coming year? What are we afraid of, and what are we excited about? What is one thing we hope to have accomplished by next Rosh Hashanah? Go around the table and lay out some goals for the year to come.

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William Cronon The time has come to rethink wilderness.This will seem a heretical claim to many environmentalists, since the idea of wilderness has for decadesbeen a fundamental tenet—indeed, a passion—of the environmental movement. For many Americanswilderness stands as the last remaining place where civilization, that all too human disease, has not fully infected the earth. Seen in this way, wilderness presents itself as the best antidote to our human selves, a refuge we must somehow recover if we hope to save...