A song for Shavuot, and 8 stories to savor over Shabbat and Sunday

Shavuot is not typically a gift-giving holiday, but I have something special for you. Don't worry, it's contactless -- and eminently re-gift-able. It's a song by Justin Roberts, who I used to describe as my favorite children's songwriter, but really he's my actual favorite songwriter, full stop. In a profile I wrote for The New York Times a decade ago, I called him the "Judy Blume of kiddie rock."
I first fell forJustin and his "Not Ready for Naptime Players" when I was living in Chicago, where he is based, and was the "cool aunt" (read: childless) taking my sister's kids to his shows. But it was only when my twins arrived that I discovered "Why Not Sea Monsters," his gorgeous album of "songs from the Hebrew Scriptures." (He also has a New Testament version). This quickly became my go-to Jewish-baby gift, and it is where we find the song I have selected to share for Shavuot: "Ruth 1:16-17."
Though Justin is a brilliant lyricist, "Ruth 1:16-17" is. at its title implies, taken entirely from the text. "Where you goest I will go, where you lodge, I will lodge," etc. It is the convert's anthem, but also a mantra for marriage, family, even leadership generally. "I thought it was so lovely that I just started singing the text rather than writing new lyrics, and I thought, well, I can't really say it any better than that," Justin told me when I asked about "Ruth" this week. "I like that translation where it says, 'if even death' instead of 'anything but death,' as that seems like a poetic and impossible goal -- which makes it all the more beautiful to me."
So, on this holiday commemorating God's gift of the Ten Commandments to our ancestors, I offer you this song.
And stories! Always stories. "A prophet in his own city" is a riveting profile of Jason Kornbluh, a Hasidic reporter who has faced threats from his Borough Park neighbors over social distancing; "I would not eat babka and ham" is Molly Boigon's brilliant takedown of NYT Cooking's penchant for messing with Jewish (and other ethnic) classics; and "Why I'm marching for George Floyd" is a powerful letter from Minneapolis about how one activist was influenced by Hebrew school. If you'd rather read them later, click on this blue button to download or print.