“Pick a time: choose a place: select a mood: conceive an idea: the chances are certain that Jewish history has encompassed it, that some form of Judaism embodied it. The rationalistic tradition has had its Philos, and its Maimonides: the mystical yearning has produced its Isaac Lurias: the simple religious yearnings of the downtrodden and the illiterates have their Baal Shem Tobs: the austere rigor of the law has had its Joseph Karos and its Vilna Gaons. Poetry, drama, art, historiography, and every variety of literature have found a welcome in some form of Judaism, in some period of Jewish history. Orthodoxy and heresy, compassion and cruelty, creativity and stagnation, innovation and tradition – indeed the total range of human experience and emotion has manifested itself in Judaism.” 33
Ellis Rivkin