Welcome to the Times of Israel's What Matters now, a weekly podcast diving into what matters in Israel and the Jewish world right now.

I'm your host, Deputy Editor Amanda Borschal Dan here with thought leader, author, public intellectual, Mika Goodman, who is also my friend and neighbor.

Hi, Miha. Thanks for letting me be outside

your house. So listeners, if you hear any kind of noises, it's all Mika's fault. We're hearing

his birds. Yes, finally, the voices of life. Exactly. And so it was my choice to be outside and

hear the construction and the birds and the neighbors, pesky neighbors. But I just want to feel as much

life as possible in this week. Wouldn't, wouldn't you agree, Mika? A hundred percent. If there is a

vibe in Israel now that something very big has ended and it seems like something new is the beginning.

Okay, so on that theme, we here in Israel, celebrated yesterday, Simchat Torah. And I think

abroad Jews are celebrating it today. Is that right, Mecha? Yeah, I think this is Yom Tov Shani I go to

exactly. So another reason to make Aliyah. But I would have to say that I keep thinking over and over,

how smart are sages were to have this holiday in which you

end reading the five books of the Torah and immediately begin. It's the ending in simultaneous,

instantaneous renewal and rebeginning. And I can't help think about that this week.

Yeah, this is, you know how when the French organize their own history, they speak about

the first republic, the second republic, the third republic, right?

It's like every time they go through critical mass of change, they say, okay, now it's a whole

different France.

And that goes to time, we're not the fourth republic anymore from now on, we're the fifth

republic.

Now I know there's also a constitutional element that happens in order to move to a new republic,

but I like, I don't want to, I don't learn a lot from the French.

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