The Orchard

“Everything is foreseen, yet free will is given.

What can he say to him? That the Children of Israel grew weary of the Temple? That the God of Israel despised it? That the prophets of Israel opposed it ferociously? That the sages of Israel established the beit midrash in its place and will never give up the sublime study of Torah in exchange for the blood of slaughtered animals? That every time t

In our day, loyalty is not given to kin and to friends, as it is when things are right with the world, but rather to that elusive entity called “national unity.”

It is human nature: people forced to uproot themselves painfully at a young age are able to retain flexible attitudes later in life, while those who remain in the same surroundings all their lives develop ossified attitudes and icy souls, and they hold the same opinions all their lives. Sometimes, they appear to have changed, but these are not real

the visions they foresaw remain valid forever – a city of God that becomes a city of wickedness cannot endure.

“You yourself are creating a new basis for loathing the nation of Israel. The gentiles will hate us.”

The tradition of the past is the foundation: without a foundation, it is impossible to build new stories.”

Pharisees, Sadducees, Essenes, Sicarii, Nazarenes – what did any of this have to do with him? From the little he had heard about them, he knew that he preferred the learned Pharisees who believed in the World to Come over the wealthy Sadducees who paid no mind to the simple folk, the aloof Essenes who frightened people with their prophesies of the

“Men cut up the world with sharp knives: ‘Art thou for us, or for our adversaries?’ We – the women – understand moderation and compromise.