In the powerful Unetaneh Tokef prayer, the High Holiday liturgy proclaims, "Repentance, prayer and tzedakah make the decree easier to bear." It seems clear that acknowledging error and connecting to God would bring spiritual strength that eases difficult situations. But why tzedakah? Perhaps it represents a commitment to making the world a better place. But how much tzedakah should we...

By now, the whole world knows the name and face of Joshua Fattal, the 29-year-old Elkins Park native who spent 26 months in an Iranian prison before being reunited with his family last week in Oman and arriving back on U.S. soil on Sunday. But one aspect of the story that has largely gone unreported is the fact that Fattal...