Political tensions, anxiety, and loneliness are on the rise.

But problems like these aren't new, and the solutions don't have to be either.

For thousands of years, societies have asked questions about how to live, thrive, and love.

And it was spiritual traditions that offered wisdom and tools to help people find their way.

Tools that science is now discovering offer real benefits. Join me, Dave

Dosteno, to explore how we can all use this wisdom, whatever our beliefs. Listen to

How God Works from PRX, wherever you listen to podcasts. Shalom. Shalom Rabbi! Shalom, Joshua! You seem so excited!

I am excited. We're going to celebrate today, correct?

That is correct. Very excited. This week marks the 100th anniversary of the Bat Mitzvah, and we want to mark it because it has been a time of great transition and growth for the Jewish people in America.

And we're really lucky to get to live here during this moment.

That's right.

And even during dark times, and it's always dark times, we celebrate.

And we are going to talk about Ukraine before the end of this episode, because even as we're

marking the 100th anniversary of the bat mitzvah here in Washington or you in L.A. or in New York

city, there are still terrible things happening overseas.

And what we're going to need to do is, in addition to or parallel to our fear and our anger and our sadness, we're also going to acknowledge the ongoing evolution of the Jewish people.

So correct me if I'm wrong, Rabbi, but I think what I hear you saying is celebrate good times. Come on.

Rabbi, were you about Mitzvah? Before we jump into the answer to your question, I first want to talk for a

second about what a bat mitzvah is, even though we're going to talk about it in much greater

detail over the course of the podcast, which is it is a coming of age moment for Jewish girls

as a bar mitzvah as a coming of age moment for Jewish boys.

The ancient Jewish tradition, of course, is divided into a gender binary of girls and boys.

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