A Notion of Judaism I Could Get Behind

“Judaism, throughout its long history has one purpose; to elevate humanity … We find that Judaism is focused without interruption on two things that are the foundations of the dominion of the spirit … (1) ethical sensibility (regesh ha-musari), that is “do what is good and right [in the eyes of God],” justice and righteousness (tzedek u-mishpat); (2) religious sensibility, that is, the yearnings of the human soul for the “infinite” (eyn sof), by various means, and to establish faith toward those ends.

— Rabbi Aaron Samuel Tamares, 1913. Quoted in Magid, Shaul. The Necessity of Exile: Essays from a Distance (p. 289).