Sublime

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.

To a degree unrivaled by any other nation, Jews became a people whose very survival was predicated on the school, the house of study, and life as a never-ending process of learning. “When does the obligation to study begin?” asks Maimonides. “As soon as a child can talk. When does it end? On the day of death.”

Living according to the Torah means, in this view, aligning yourself with the forces that make for human flourishing, especially if you are a tiny people surrounded by enemies.

Au XVIIe siècle, un philosophe juif, Spinoza,

As Rabbi Telushkin wrote, “The purpose of Jewish existence is not to eat Jewish foods, or tell Jewish jokes, or use Yiddish*10 words. It is to fight evil and to reduce suffering in the world.”

It is one of the most counterintuitive acts in the history of leadership. Moses does not speak about today or tomorrow. He speaks about the distant future and the duty of parents to educate their children. He even hints – and this is engrained in Jewish tradition – that we should encourage our children to ask questions, so that the handing on of

The father of Jacob Wein, who played Benjamin, gave me a book of Jewish legends in which I found the story of the “unknown just.” In every generation, so the legend goes, there are born among the Jews thirty-six men who God has chosen to bear the burden of the world’s suffering, and to whom he has granted the privilege of martyrdom. These men are