Sublime

monotheistic religious pluralism,

Freeing the people from the mass of contemporary experiences, Shabbat restores the root and the goal—the Exodus and the messianic vision—to the center of life. Through

Mediated by the models of their culture, the Torah’s prohibitions become inscrutable decrees. Human dignity and human partnership are far more central in the rabbinic tradition.

the foundational Jewish act: recognizing the one divine source of all of creation.

Mordechai Berkowitz, a blacksmith, established a workshop

The unbelievably inspiring School for Peace in Lesbos, the Yazidi woman who goes back to Iraq with tools to heal, and the hundreds of thousands of men, women, and children who go back to Syria after being treated in Israeli hospitals may carry a key to regional transformation. After decades of violence and propaganda, I see a glimmer of possibility

hegemonic

last politics was promising to deliver what centuries of prayer had not: civil rights, social equality, a place in the mainstream of European culture.

But could I really embrace this life, which seemed so narrow after the broad expanses of Western culture? Where in this world was there a place for Mozart and Milton, Beethoven and Shakespeare?