Sublime

the “halakhah,” meaning “the way” or “the path”—the overall body of Jewish law—or as Rabbi Bradley Shavit Artson describes it, “the systematic effort of the rabbis to translate the Torah into action.”

All the fine properties of halakha considered above – robustness, adaptability, intuitiveness, and so forth – are possible precisely because halakha is a communal, rather than a governmental, process.

The main goal of a Jew is to serve God with simplicity and without any sophistication (Likutey Moharan II, 19).

Jewish thought requires the implementation of mitzvot to actualize Judaism’s potential to inspire lives of goodness and holiness.

The prophet asserts that when we observe boundaries, when we settle in to one place and refrain from overreach on Shabbos, we are granted genuine expansiveness and a buoyant freedom:

1. A person who trusts in Hashem for income will more readily adhere to the Torah's laws of upright conduct in commerce and all other transactions. 2. A person who trusts in Hashem won't resort to high-pressure methods in his or her dealings and therefore will be more affable. 3. A person whose sincere orientation is Torah-learning and Divine service

Serving God with hitlahavut is the beginning of Hasidism. Hasidism without hitlahavut is impossible, because Hasidism proceeds in the path of the prophets, and to receive such an influence from above, our soul must be revealed.

Among the contemporary applications of this concept is that if one receives counterfeit money, he is forbidden to pass it on to someone else. If he does so, the recipient can require him to take it back and repay him with authentic money (Imrei Yaakov).

That’s the paradigm. That’s how the Torah wants us to deal with the leper. Help him. And bring him back in.