Judaism Is About Love: Recovering the Heart of Jewish Life

being honest with God, even when life hurts, is not a rebellion against faith but a manifestation of it.

The Jewish tradition is not optimistic about human nature but it is stubbornly, insistently possibilistic.4 Its deeply held conviction is not that we will choose the good but that we can do

It is easy to misunderstand this dynamic by thinking of it in purely legalistic terms, as a divine-human barter of sorts, on the order of, “I, God, give you life, now you give me worship.” This makes God’s granting us life look less like a gift and more like a bloodless business transaction. But this is not Judaism’s approach (though there are text

Better a suffering religion than a sanitized one.

There are thus two questions we ought to ask about our lives: First, what can I give? And second, what can I give?

while it may not be possible to feel grateful at every second, it is still possible to be oriented toward gratitude.

Rabbi Joseph Soloveitchik (1903–1993) boldly insists that in this amazing encounter, Moses serves as a paradigm for what is true of every human being: to be created in the image of God is to be assigned a specific task by God.

Moses’s actions on behalf of the Midianites are described with the same word as God’s actions on behalf of the Israelites. The point is subtle but unmistakable: in siding with the oppressed and resisting injustice, we emulate God.

The best response to people using the word “love” poorly is not to use it less but to use it better.

If we believe that we are entitled to be treated with respect—and anyone who believes that they are created in the image of God must believe this—then when we are disrespected, we ought to get angry.