Sublime

But we are not prophets, and in some ways, that makes our task even harder: unlike Moses, we first have to discern our mission, and then decide whether to heed the call.

To an unusual degree Judaism is a conversation scored for many voices.

That requires covenantal, not just contractual, politics.

Jewish history is a living testimony to the power of ideas,

must be able to depend on others, and they on me. But if this is not to be brought about by one of us having power over the other, then it depends on trust. And trust depends on my giving my word and keeping it.

was reluctant to give up my love of art and literature, music and poetry, most of which had been created by non-Jews and had nothing to do with Judaism.

So biblical Judaism has a carefully elaborated theory of the state. Oddly enough, though, this is only its secondary concern. Far more fundamental is its theory of society and its insistence that the state exists to serve society and not vice versa.

The Judaic vision aims at a society in which there is equal access to dignity and hope.

God is not about power but relationship; that religion is not about control but about freedom; that God is found less in nature than in human society, in the structures we make to honor His presence by honoring His image in other human beings. Biblical faith is about the dignity of the personal, and it can never be obsolete.