Sublime

Words create moral obligations, and moral obligations, undertaken responsibly and honoured faithfully, create the possibility of a free society. So – always do what you say you are going to do. If we fail to keep our word, eventually we will lose our freedom.

Paul creates a transcendental hierarchy. Akiva and rabbinic Judaism create an egalitarian spirituality.

The ethic of responsibility is the best answer I know to the meaning and meaningfulness of a life.

Greatness, even for God, certainly for us, is not to be above people but to be with them,

despite the Torah’s insistence on justice as the foundation of society, there is something prior to justice and to society itself, namely the gossamer strands of kindness that link self to self in bonds of love.

In Judaism, faith is not acceptance but protest, against the world that is, in the name of the world that is not yet but ought to be.

There must be justice not only in how the law is applied, but also in how the means of existence – wealth as God’s blessing – are distributed. That is tzedakah.