This demand for universal access to the Divine teachings seems to be a polemic against other ancient cultures in which only a small circle of priests had access to sacred knowledge.

when done reasonably, I see the value of being pushed to make deliberate decisions not just about what kind of body or professional achievements I wish to attain, but about what kind of person I want to be.

As a rabbi once told me, “Judaism isn’t just taught, it’s caught.” You have to be willing to be surprised by Judaism. You have to give yourself a chance to catch it.

God is not a supernatural being, but rather a kind of force.

I learned that just about all of Judaism is rooted in its words, that did not exactly fill me with confidence. I found parts of it to be moving and relatable, but with its bizarre rituals, fallible characters, supernatural occurrences, and not so warm and fuzzy God, the Torah did not strike me as an ideal text upon which to base a major world

Instead of reading this prayer as describing a being in the sky, why not understand it as a nondualist affirmation that God is everything and everything is one?

The second rationale for treating animals humanely has to do with us. How we treat animals—whether we exercise restraint in how we kill and use them—affects our character. The

God is not a being, but rather the process of being. Connecting with this kind of God is less about addressing an entity and more about simply being present with what is. As Rabbi Alexander Schindler described it, “The closer I feel to life at each lived moment, the closer I feel to God.”

There is no such thing as original sin in Judaism. We are not born sinners. The Hebrew word for sin is “ḥet,” which refers to something that misses the mark or goes astray—it is something we do, not something we are.