Sublime

Our sages say that a person's livelihood is a greater miracle than the splitting of the Red Sea (Pesachim 118a).

halacha is what the name literally means: the walking, or the way. Add together a set of memories and values with commandments and goals, and you have the halacha, a total life-style that sustained the Jews even as it guided them toward the final goal.

Jewish theology insists that genuine self-worth is never competitive or comparative, never purchased at the expense of others. The source of my value, and theirs, is ultimately one and the same: we are all created in the image of God.24

the future of Jewish life is dependent on Jews—not just rabbis—taking hold of the rich, challenging, surprising, and inspiring heritage that makes up our texts and traditions.

Rabbi Soloveitchik speaks with a passion of the modern “man of faith” who feels a dialectical tension between the pull of the covenantal community and the socioethical responsibilities of modern life. Interaction, and not withdrawal, is the creative response.

The third year of our studies was more interesting. Prof. Moshe Weizmann taught us organic chemistry. He resembled his brother, Chaim Weizmann, and constantly told us, “This world is full of miracles, kinderlach [“children” in Yiddish]. My brother is a good chemist [he invented a method to produce acetone from starch, a process that helped the

The Jewish philosopher Will Herberg once spoke of “cut-flower ethics.” He argued that Jewish ethical norms will last for a brief while, even apart from Jewish teachings, just as flowers uprooted from the soil stay in bloom for a short time after cutting. But soon the flowers fade. Behaviors, too, disintegrate if cut from the soil in which they were

But we are not prophets, and in some ways, that makes our task even harder: unlike Moses, we first have to discern our mission, and then decide whether to heed the call.