Jewish Geography

In this episode of the Jewish Geography Podcast I discuss the root meaning of the word, "Jew," and the connection it has to thankfulness. Then we study the opening lines of Moshe Chaim Luzzato's famous work of Jewish ethics, 'Mesillat Yesharim' (The Straight Path, or Path of the Just), and discuss how keeping our own highest ideals in site can have very important and very practical consequences, and we relate this to the ongoing revelations of sexual offences by various powerful men in the US. The following is text from the introduction to "Mesillat Yesharim,' from sefaria.org, which I go over in this episode. You can see the entire text HERE. "1. The writer says: I have composed this work not to teach people what they do not know but to remind them of what they already know and which is very familiar to them. For you will find in most of my words only things which most people already know and do not have any doubt about. 2. But according to their familiarity and to the extent that their truth is evide