Sublime

Psalm 16 feels more accessible after we’ve walked closely with David.

God doesn’t stand for a leader who is doing things his own way, disregarding the good of the people, betraying the God of the universe, and seeking selfish gain.

The message of the Bible for the politics of the contemporary West is that it is not enough to have a state. You also need a society – meaning, that common belonging that comes from a sense that we are neighbours as well as strangers; that we have duties to one another, to the heritage of the past and to the hopes of generations not yet born; that

I don’t quite know what to say, so I mostly listen. I’ve found during the past forty-eight hours with Gail and Colin that my role as their rabbi is less to dispense wisdom—I wouldn’t dare—and more to engage in the very holy work of not running away.

The strength to yield The willingness to hold our judgments lightly

for Jewish ethics, the path to universal love is through partiality rather than around it.

Only if my desires have been educated beyond selfishness to the common good do I experience law as freedom itself—as the Psalm put it: “I will walk in freedom for I have sought out Your law.”