Sublime

A man went looking for Rabbi Hillel and said to him, “I want to become a Jew. But only on the condition that you teach me the Torah, all of it, while I stand on one foot.” Hillel looked at this smart-aleck and said, “What is hateful to you, do not do to your fellow man. That is the entire Torah—all of it. The rest is commentary. Go and study.”

Judaism is not a religion for the individual seeker alone; it is a vision for how human beings ought to live together in pursuit of the right and the good.

It might be instructive to think of the power of rabbis to establish halakha as something like the power of merchants to set prices. It looks to all the world as if merchants are free to set prices as they wish. In fact, however, supply and demand determine a very narrow range of supportable prices.

“To speak as a Jew is to quote … [and] to quote is to see the present through the prism of tradition.”

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!

Moses received the Torah from Sinai and transmitted it to Joshua, and Joshua [transmitted it] to the elders, and the elders [transmitted it] to the prophets, and the prophets transmitted it to the members of the Great Assembly. They said three things, “Be deliberate in judgment, raise up many students, and make a fence around the Torah.” (Pirkei Av

we have the privilege/responsibility to ask not just how we can serve as human beings in general, but also how we can serve as human beings in particular.

Cultivate gratitude. Make a vow to live in relationship with all life. Ask for help in times of trouble and let yourself be guided.

The radiance of a generous heart that sees clearly