Sublime

Rabbi Irving “Yitz” Greenberg, all human beings are endowed with three “intrinsic dignities”: infinite worth, equality, and uniqueness.10

A robust sense of Judaism as a living organism requires a way for its component parts to connect in dynamic integration; the whole is greater than the sum of its parts. That integrated whole is precisely what halakhah offers us. Without a systemic commitment to contextualize mitzvot in the evolving conversation of the Rabbis across the generations,

“Ben Azzai said, hasten to commit good acts and flee from misdeed since every good act encourages another in its wake, while every misdeed eases the way to the next.”3

From earliest rabbinic times there were such institutions as the tamchui, or mobile kitchen, which distributed food daily to whoever applied,

There are countless examples of rabbinic activism in which the Sages of Israel harness the tools of legal analysis and interpretation in the service of the ethical values that infuse the Torah to this day.

Bias: To believe in G-d’s ultimate goodness, to know that blessings await us beneath the surface of our experience, no matter how bleak, to actively seek those blessings out, and to spread their light to the world beyond.