Yehuda Amichai, “Gods Change But Prayers Remain Forever, from Open Closed Open
אני אומר באמונה שלמה שהתפילות קדמו לאלוהים. התפילות יצרו את האלוהים, האלוהים יצר את האדם והאדם יוצר תפילות שיוצרות את האלוהים שיוצר את האדם. --מתוך פתוח סגור פתוח (1998 ,(עמ׳ 7-6
I declare with perfect faith That the prayers preceded God.
The prayers created God, and God created human beings,
and human beings creates the prayers That created God that creates human beings.
“Once I Wrote Now and in Other Days,” Yehudah Amichai
...And to this day I still sometimes believe the way I used to. When we sang “This is the last battle,” I believed. And when they told me, “This is the last supper,” I believed. Since then my life has filled with last battles and last suppers (like the last wish of a death row inmate.) And when they say, ”Rosh Hashana,” which means the head of the year, I remember only the head sometimes, not the hand or the swift foot of Time passing. And the measure of justice and the measure of mercy were like getting measured for shoes--to this day I buy a size too big so they won’t pinch my feet. I have learned why this night differs from all other nights and how it came to be different. And I have learned who ate my porridge and who has been sleeping in my bed. They told me “I’ll be back” and I’m still waiting, and they told me, “I’ll never come back,” and I’m still waiting. When they told me “Don’t ask I began to ask and have not stopped asking since...
(יב) וִידֵ֤י מֹשֶׁה֙ כְּבֵדִ֔ים וַיִּקְחוּ־אֶ֛בֶן וַיָּשִׂ֥ימוּ תַחְתָּ֖יו וַיֵּ֣שֶׁב עָלֶ֑יהָ וְאַהֲרֹ֨ן וְח֜וּר תָּֽמְכ֣וּ בְיָדָ֗יו מִזֶּ֤ה אֶחָד֙ וּמִזֶּ֣ה אֶחָ֔ד וַיְהִ֥י יָדָ֛יו אֱמוּנָ֖ה עַד־בֹּ֥א הַשָּֽׁמֶשׁ׃
“We now have to speak of ‘moment faiths’…The difference between the skeptic and the believer is frequency of faith and not certitude of position.” Rabbi Yitz Greenberg,
וְאֵ֙לֶּה֙ תּוֹלְדֹ֣ת תֶּ֔רַח תֶּ֚רַח הוֹלִ֣יד אֶת־אַבְרָ֔ם אֶת־נָח֖וֹר וְאֶת־הָרָ֑ן וְהָרָ֖ן הוֹלִ֥יד אֶת־לֽוֹט׃ וַיָּ֣מָת הָרָ֔ן עַל־פְּנֵ֖י תֶּ֣רַח אָבִ֑יו בְּאֶ֥רֶץ מוֹלַדְתּ֖וֹ בְּא֥וּר כַּשְׂדִּֽים׃ וַיִּקַּ֨ח אַבְרָ֧ם וְנָח֛וֹר לָהֶ֖ם נָשִׁ֑ים שֵׁ֤ם אֵֽשֶׁת־אַבְרָם֙ שָׂרָ֔י וְשֵׁ֤ם אֵֽשֶׁת־נָחוֹר֙ מִלְכָּ֔ה בַּת־הָרָ֥ן אֲבִֽי־מִלְכָּ֖ה וַֽאֲבִ֥י יִסְכָּֽה׃ וַתְּהִ֥י שָׂרַ֖י עֲקָרָ֑ה אֵ֥ין לָ֖הּ וָלָֽד׃
Now this is the line of Terah: Terah begot Abram, Nahor, and Haran; and Haran begot Lot. Haran died in the lifetime of his father Terah, in his native land, Ur of the Chaldeans. Abram and Nahor took to themselves wives, the name of Abram’s wife being Sarai and that of Nahor’s wife Milcah, the daughter of Haran, the father of Milcah and Iscah. Now Sarai was barren, she had no child.
Rambam, Mishnah Torah, Avodah Zarah 1:3
"When this giant was weaned, he began to roam around in his mind....His mind roamed in search of understanding until he achieved the true way and understood out of his own natural intelligence...He began to teach others not to worship idols so that future generations will recognize that it is right to smash all the images of G-d...
וַיֹּ֤אמֶר יְהוָה֙ אֶל־אַבְרָ֔ם לֶךְ־לְךָ֛ מֵאַרְצְךָ֥ וּמִמּֽוֹלַדְתְּךָ֖ וּמִבֵּ֣ית אָבִ֑יךָ אֶל־הָאָ֖רֶץ אֲשֶׁ֥ר אַרְאֶֽךָּ׃ וְאֶֽעֶשְׂךָ֙ לְג֣וֹי גָּד֔וֹל וַאֲבָ֣רֶכְךָ֔ וַאֲגַדְּלָ֖ה שְׁמֶ֑ךָ וֶהְיֵ֖ה בְּרָכָֽה׃ וַאֲבָֽרֲכָה֙ מְבָ֣רְכֶ֔יךָ וּמְקַלֶּלְךָ֖ אָאֹ֑ר
The LORD said to Abram, “Go forth from your native land and from your father’s house to the land that I will show you. I will make of you a great nation, And I will bless you; I will make your name great, And you shall be a blessing. I will bless those who bless you And curse him that curses you;
Lech Lecha: Go Towards Yourself:
‘Lech Lecha,’ meaning, ‘Go towards your real self’. Because spiritual travel is towards the destination of the true self."
Rabbi Mordechai Yosef Leiner of Izbica (Poland, 1850-1854) , Mei Hashiloach
A Land Where I Will Show YOU:
“Go to the Land that I will show you-where I will make the real YOU visible, where your potential being will be realized in multiform and unpredictable ways." Rabbi Yehudah Leib Alter of Ger, Sefer Sefat Emet
Maharal, Gur Aryeh Bamidbar, 13
"Lecha means "You decide, you put language on this experience, it will be what you decide it is..."
Tanna de-vei Eliyahu ch. 2 תנא דבי אליהו זוטא ריש פרק ב כך נתן הקב"ה תורה לישראל
לא נתנה אלא כחטים להוציא מהן סולת ופשתן להוציא ממנו בגד.When the Holy Blessed One gave the Torah to Israel, He gave it to them as wheat from which to bring forth flour, and as flax from which to bring forth cloth
Rabbi Shai Held points out,
This name, Yehuda, becomes the name of the Jewish people.
“Who is a Jew? Held states: “One who discovers the possibility of gratitude even amid heartbreak.”
One who discovers the possibility of gratitude even amid heartbreak.
Shagar, "Justice and Ethics in Postmodern World," 117-118
Rabbi Shimon Gershon Rosenberg (Shagar) (1949–2007) was a leading religious Zionist scholar and teacher, and founder and Rosh Yeshiva of Yeshivat Siah-Yitzhak, a hesder yeshiva and kollel located in Efrat, Israel. Rabbi Shagar delved deeply into Kabbala and Hasidism, as he sought to combine all aspects of Torah in an authentic, interdisciplinary approach. See "Faith Shattered and Restored."
I must take the ethical game as a given and play it, as I do the religious game: acting ethically and religiously out of a conviction that what I believe is true, but without going so far as to assert that my faith in my own way renders other ways worthless. To turn my faith into something absolute, objective, and contextless is to fashion it into an ideology, an idol.
The doubting of faith's universal absoluteness--postmodernism excels at this--has a balancing, productive role: It does not stifle our capacity to experience and believe in ourselves, but it does generate boundaries. The postmodern believer's awareness of the contradictions between various faiths, and of the paradoxes inherent in his own world, can stabilize him, rendering him more sensitive , ethical, and humble...
However, the pluralistic aspect must be augmented by a universal dimension, meaning the knowledge that, beyond our various cultural differences, there is a universal truth shared by all humans, that "the earth is all of one piece" [Bava Batra 67a]... The world is not merely a collection of assorted cultures whose distinct contexts preclude intercultural communication; there is a common kernel of humanity...
By combining this universal point of view with doubt in the universality and absoluteness of any individual stance, every culture can accept other cultures as true alternatives that carry a kernel of truth. If more of us humbly acknowledge the limited capacity of the individual to utter absolute statements, perhaps we can establish justice and ethics alongside a renewed human solidarity.