Choosing a Jewish Life, Revised and Updated: A Handbook for People Converting to Judaism and for Their Family and Friends

Covenantal living is intergenerational living—it is to know oneself as the descendant of ancestors and the ancestor of descendants, all sharing a dream of a world in which human dignity is real and the presence of God is manifest (more on this dream in chapter 12).

Happiness in Premodern Judaism, Hava Tirosh-Samuelson

Living according to the Torah means, in this view, aligning yourself with the forces that make for human flourishing, especially if you are a tiny people surrounded by enemies.

Sincere, thoughtful caring-about is crucial but its main contribution, Noddings writes, is in “suggest[ing] ways to extend caring-for to many more recipients.”15 In the same vein, I think, the laws of tzedakah enshrine the primacy of caring-for.16