Sublime

There are countless examples of rabbinic activism in which the Sages of Israel harness the tools of legal analysis and interpretation in the service of the ethical values that infuse the Torah to this day.

Judaism encompasses the communal act of transforming Torah, the Five Books of Moses, from literature into lives well-lived.

Jewish history is a living testimony to the power of ideas,

A robust sense of Judaism as a living organism requires a way for its component parts to connect in dynamic integration; the whole is greater than the sum of its parts. That integrated whole is precisely what halakhah offers us. Without a systemic commitment to contextualize mitzvot in the evolving conversation of the Rabbis across the generations,

Rabbi Saadia Gaon teaches that “the Jews are a people by virtue of Torah.”

Everywhere we go, we still bring our Torah with us. We live our mitzvot and whirl the ancient dance of halakhah—observance, study, commentary, life. Our

we Jews are always on the way, always in process. There is no place to live in stasis, no way to be complete while we’re alive. Galut is now a universal condition for everyone.

Through Jewish law, itself dynamic and evolving, Jews come together to integrate the raw and nonverbal aspects of universal revelation with the emerging words and positions of special revelation that can, in turn, radiate holiness and purpose back into our lives, our communities, our world.