Rivka Krause writes on poet Mary Oliver and her lesson to pause for gratitude: At times, the deepest understanding comes from appreciating the simple and often overlooked things around us. Our rituals aim to ingrain a thankfulness through awareness into the Jewish consciousness. The action of blessing food before eating should lead to thoughtfulness of where it comes from and why we eat it, but it so rarely does, because we do not pause and think.

Alex Ozar writes on Danielle S. Allen’s “Talking to Strangers”: Each of us can, and so must, contribute to our country’s fund of goodwill and mutuality. We do this not through professing the right views, and not through politeness around charged topics, but through talking to strangers, which for Allen means leaving our comfort zones to form actual relationships of cooperation and accountability with those we’d prefer stay at a distance.