Sublime

Despite this the Talmud understands the Torah to be commanding us to remonstrate even with our teacher or leader, should we see him doing something wrong.

What am I meant to learn, to discover? What truths do I need to integrate?

Some things which were afterwards characteristic of Jewish religion were developed, though in part from previously existing sources, during the captivity. Owing to the destruction of the Temple, where alone sacrifices could be offered, the Jewish ritual perforce became non-sacrificial. Synagogues began at this time, with readings from such portions

From synagogue pulpits of every denomination, the message is repeated so often that it has become a truism: “We are all Jews by choice.”

Judaism never left its ideals at the level of lofty aspirations, but instead translated them into deeds that we call mitzvot, and a way, which we call the halakhah, and thus

In other words, what the Torah demands is that we affirm these stories’ significance, not their putative truth.

Hence the significance of one remarkable feature of Judaism: its principled insistence – like no other civilisation before – on the dignity and integrity of the individual. We believe that every human being is in the image and likeness of God. The sages said that every life is like an entire universe (Mishna Sanhedrin 4:4). The Rambam says that

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