Sublime

Jewish religious life has brought forth people who do not fear arraigning even God when there is injustice.

To be a Jew is to travel. Judaism is a journey, not a destination. Even a place of rest, an encampment, is still called a journey. The patriarchs lived, not in houses but in tents.2 The first time we are told that a patriarch built a house, proves the point:

That is what we as Jews are meant to do: to have the courage to be different, to challenge the idols of the age, to be true to our faith while seeking to be a blessing to others regardless of their faith.

Saadia Gaon was correct in asserting that Israel is a people only by virtue of its Torah,74 that the only assurance for Israel’s peoplehood is the Torah. On the other hand, Rabbi Halevi reminds us, “If there were no Jews, there would be no Torah.”75

If goodness will not be imposed by power, then the human must be educated toward perfection. The rabbis conceive of God as teacher and pedagogue—teaching Torah to Israel and to the world. This also explains why, in the words of Ethics of the Fathers (chapter 6, Mishnah 2), “the only truly free person is one who studies Torah.”

Jewish history begins in miracles, but culminates in human responsibility. What changes us is not what is done for us by God, but what we do in response to his call.

Rabbi Greenberg explained that we lost 30 percent of the Jewish people during the war, but more than 80 percent of the scholars, mystics, and teachers who could pass on ancient traditions.

In Judaism, faith is a revolutionary gesture