On Mourning and Lag b’Omer

A lone figure escorts the scapegoat into the desert, carrying not just the sins of a people, but the unbearable weight of human truth. What unfolds is a raw confrontation with guilt, memory, and the fragile hope that love can outlast both. An ancient ritual becomes a deeply personal journey toward compassion, repair, and return.

This is a recording of Rabbi Morris Panitz’s session of For the Love of Learning class. Every Tuesday morning, a new story from the Talmud. Taught by your rabbis in a monthly rotation, we’ll dig into the strange and compelling world of the Talmud, exploring the ways ancient dilemmas speak to modern questions. Join us in-person at the Event Space (coffee and nosh provided) or over Zoom (B.Y.O. nosh) for as many sessions as possible… your Tuesday will thank you.

Dr. Dalia Dassa Kaye is a senior fellow at the UCLA Burkle Center for International Relations and director of its Initiative on Regional Security Architectures. A life member of the Council on Foreign Relations, Dalia is an internationally recognized expert on geopolitics and Middle East policy. During her fifteen years at the RAND Corporation, Dalia served as a senior political scientist and the director of the Center of Middle East Public Policy. She has received numerous awards and held previous positions at an array of research and public policy institutions, including as a Fulbright Schuman visiting scholar at Lund University, a fellow at the Wilson Center, an advisor at the Foreign Ministry of The Netherlands, an assistant professor of political science and international affairs at the George Washington University, a research fellow at the Brookings Institution, and a legislative assistant on Capitol Hill. She is a frequent public speaker and contributor to leading media outlets, including BBC, CNN, NPR, PBS, and Foreign Affairs. She is the author of dozens of articles and policy reports, as well as three books, including most recently Enduring Hostility: The Making of America’s Iran Policy (Stanford University Press, 2026). Dalia holds her BA, MA, and PhD in political science from the University of California, Berkeley.

Are we ready to give sound to the silent beginning at Sinai?