Sublime

the shift in the authority of Torah from corrosive coercion imposed to an offer of a wisdom that bubbles up, the Torah attracts attention and elicits observance because it is wise and beautiful and because it augments life.

Wisdom is the ability to distinguish between what matters and what is trivial.

Rabbi Louis Rieser.

Judaism encompasses the communal act of transforming Torah, the Five Books of Moses, from literature into lives well-lived.

Oral Torah, originating in the same source and with the same level of authority as the Written Torah, makes possible the freshness of God’s lure toward engagement, relationship, justice, and compassion.

Without a push toward playful interpretation in each age, the Word would calcify into something brittle, foolish, and harsh.

even for the leaders of this form of Judaism, life is not linear, and serious progress is often the result of messy journeys.

What an amazing heritage that recounts the tale of a tzaddik, one of the righteous, who thinks that rocking a baby to sleep is more important than leading services!