Sublime

the interpretive process they developed, the Rabbis rescued Judaism in one of its darkest moments and ensured its continuation for the next two millennia. Thanks to the Rabbis, Rosen notes, “Jews became the people of the book and not the people of the Temple or the land,” all now bound together by the same foundational interpretive text and process

Leaders, if they are wise, think about the impact of their decisions many years from now.

Reuben knew what would be the right thing to do, but somehow lacked the confidence or courage to carry it through to completion.

People need encouragement if they are to lead.

They are an account, at the beginning of the Torah’s narrative history of humankind, of a failure, first personal and then moral, to take responsibility – and it is this for which leadership is the answer.

Law—a law that treats everyone equally, rich and poor, nativeborn and stranger—is the institutional embodiment of collective as opposed to individual freedom.

Imagine a society and culture that promotes excellence of character as the key to happiness. Judaism always has.

The other way to achieve it is to speak to people’s needs and aspirations and teach them how to achieve these things together as a group. That is done through the power of a vision, force of personality, the ability to articulate shared ideals in a language with which people can identify, and the capacity to “raise up many disciples” who will conti

Within the limits of human intelligence, we can climb at least part of the way to heaven, but the purpose of the climb is the return to earth, knowing that here is where God wants us to be and where he has given us work to do. Judaism contains mysteries, but its ultimate purpose is not mysterious at all. It is to honour the image of God in other pe