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โPick a time:ย 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.ย ย ย The rationalistic tradition has had its Philos, and its Maimonides: the mystical yearning has proยญduced its Isaac Lurias: the simple religious yearnings of the downยญtrodden 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.ย ย ย Orthodoxy and heresy, compassion and cruelty, creativity and stagnation, innovation and tradition โ indeed the total range of human experience and emotion has manifested itself in Judaism.โ 33
Ellis Rivkin
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