Sublime

monotheistic religious pluralism,

Torah study opens us up to the possibility of meaningful mystery in the world.

Hence the principles of visiting the sick, comforting mourners, including the lonely (“the stranger, the orphan, and the widow”) in festive celebrations, and offering hospitality – an act said to be “greater than receiving the Shekhina” (Shabbat 127a). Precisely

necessary to measure generously, [giving the purchaser slightly] more than the measure, as it is written:36 “You shall have a perfect and just measure.” What is meant by a “just measure?” That you should justify [the measure] from your own and give it [to the customer].

From earliest rabbinic times there were such institutions as the tamchui, or mobile kitchen, which distributed food daily to whoever applied,

Tiferet shows us the beauty and brokenness of the world and says, Open to all of it, this is where you live.

in an ideal world, halakha is meant to be uncodified, like the rules of grammar, precisely so that its practice remain fluid much the way a native language is spoken. In the real world, codification is often necessary to prevent too much drift during times when collective intuition is compromised;

the centuriesold mission statement of the Jewish people, expressed by Shimon Ha-Tzaddik (Pirke Avot 1:2): “The world stands on three things: Torah study, worship/service, and acts of lovingkindness.”

Elijah’s ethical paradigm—mishnat ḥasidim—is incumbent upon anyone truly devoted.