Moral Grandeur and Spiritual Audacity: Essays

The establishment or destruction of the kingly dignity of God occurs now and in the present, through and in us.

In contrast to the Muslim view of the Koran as the eternal uncreated Word, Maimonides insisted that all Jews agree “that the Torah is a created entity,” brought into being in the same manner as all other created beings.

Who is a Jew? A person whose integrity decays when unmoved by the knowledge of wrong done to other people.

Jewish existence is not only the adherence to particular doctrines and observances but primarily the living in the spiritual order of the Jewish people, the living in the Jews of the past and with the Jews of the present. It is not only a certain quality in the souls of the individuals; it is primarily involvement and participation in the covenant

Let us beware lest we reduce the Bible to literature, Jewish observance to good manners, the Talmud to Emily Post.

We have no answer to ultimate problems. We really don’t know. In this not knowing, in this sense of embarrassment, lies the key to opening the wells of creativity.

Repentance is an absolute, spiritual decision made in truthfulness. Its motivations are remorse for the past and responsibility for the future.

the power of repentance causes time to be created backward and allows re-creation of the past to take place.

Jewish existence is not only the adherence to particular doctrines and observances but primarily the living in the spiritual order of the Jewish people, the living in the Jews of the past and with the Jews of the present.