Sublime

A medieval sage, Rabbi Asher ben Yehiel (Rosh, 1250?–1327), insists that this mitzvah of receiving people warmly applies not just to one-on-one encounters but also to the way we carry ourselves in public. “Let not your face be angry toward passersby,” he says, “but receive them with a friendly countenance.”48 How we comport ourselves in the world

The homiletical genius of the Rebbe, a quality familiar in diverse masters, consisted of his ability to meet the moment always, to offer a genuine replication, an utterance both derivative and innovative. The reverberation, therefore, cannot simply be passed over.

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.

In the Written Torah God had given Israel his word, but in the Oral Torah he had given Israel the authority to interpret his word.

through which he is best known to tradition: Moshe Rabbenu, the leader as teacher. Leadership is not a gift with which we are endowed at birth. It is something we acquire in the course of time, often after many setbacks, failures, and disappointments.

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.

At the end of the day, the prayer leader is a functionary, whose role is to facilitate an experience that wouldn’t happen without her: making a group entreaty to the Divine Presence.

Le Deutéronome (Devarim, « Les mots »)

R. Akiva is attributed with systematizing halakhah (Jewish law) by developing hermeneutics (methods of biblical interpretation) to interpret the Bible in the realms of both halakhah and midrash.