Sublime

Our division in the church in America is rooted in disconnection from one another.

AS JEWS IN THE YISHUV were slowly learning to defend themselves, Jews in Europe were becoming ever more vulnerable. As horrific as World War I had been, an even more devastating war for the Jews was about to erupt. The violence that had erupted in Kishinev and Hebron would soon pale relative to what was about to transpire in Europe. The darkest,

Thus, the individual overcomes the isolation of the “I” and bonds with all living Jews. In the community, each generation overcomes the isolation of the “now” and links to the generations that have gone before and to those that will come after it. Because the goal of perfection cannot be achieved in one generation, the covenant is, of necessity, a

In an age of death and destruction, Rabbi Yohanan taught that a fundamental religious response was to increase loving-kindness and multiply life itself.

In the conflicts, as casualties mounted, Israelis took note of an additional change in their society. If in the 1960s it had been the kibbutzim that had produced officers—and suffered casualties—at rates disproportionate to their percentage of the population, it was now the national religious community that had taken on that role.

Was there a significant role for humans as active agents in the covenantal redemption process? If there was, then the Maccabee revolt had been pioneering, visionary, and necessary.

What made Jewish continuity possible? The joy of Jewish living.

By 1956, the sociologist William H. Whyte saw a “decline of the Protestant ethic” and the rise of “the organization man,” for whom conformity was prized over initiative.